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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Whole Wheat Chocolate Brown Sugar Cookies

 After eating these, and these, I figured I'd make something as sort of a post-Valentine's day peace offering to myself. A healthier version of sugar cookies. 
 Do I love whole wheat? No. Taste tested by a baby, and they passed the test. 
She loved them. I however, wasn't whole heartedly a fan of these 
cute whole wheat cookies. 
My husband said they taste like teddy grahams. I don't know if I agree. It certainly made me feel much better munching on one of these than munching on some of my Illegal Garlic Cheese Bread, however, the cheese bread was quite amazing.
These days, kids are healthy, they eat good things, all the time. 
All whole wheat, no sugar, and no corn syrup. Not that it's a bad thing.
But, I'm not from that generation. 
I'm from the generation of if it looks yummy, you can eat it. 
Sugar is good, butter is good. A little bit of unhealthy is okay. 
I loved the way I grew up. I was never glutenous, and I never shoved my face with food, but I was allowed to eat things other than bran flakes, and cherios.

On the other hand, I've learned to appreciate whole wheat. And these cookies are this generation mother-approved.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Brown Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg

Directions
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder.  Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, beat together butter and sugars.  Beat until well incorporated.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.  Add the egg.  Beat on medium speed until mixture is glossy and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Stop mixer and add the dry ingredients all at once.  Mix on low speed until all of the flour is incorporated  Stop mixer and finish incorporating ingredients with a spatula.  Spoon batter out onto a sheet of waxed paper, and form loosely into a log.  Roll and seal cookie dough and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Once chilled, divide dough in half and place one half on a lightly floured counter surface.  Lightly flour a rolling pin and roll out dough to a 1/4-inch thickness.  Use a heart shaped (or whatever) cookie cutter to cut out cookies and place dough on prepared baking sheet.  Very lightly brush cookies with water and sprinkle with granulated or turbinado sugar.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Remove from the oven, allow to rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
Roll and cut cookies, re-rolling the dough once or twice, until all cookies are cut and baked.
Cookies will last, in an airtight container at room temperature, for up to five days.

1 comment:

  1. i'll have to try these, as i have a bunch of whole wheat flour left over from those pop-tarts :) dave's been asking me to make the pop-tarts again too, so he'll probably like the whole wheat cookies too, ha.

    one other random suggestion for the blog since you were looking for thoughts :) - it might be helpful to separate your list of recipes that is on the left column into broad categories (ie. cookies, cakes, main courses, etc?) to make it easier to find something quickly?

    all looks yummy! ~ kate

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