Naner Love..........Maple peanut butter chocolate chip breakfast cookies

 

Those of you that know me know that other than chocolate milk, pancakes, and ice cream, PEANUT BUTTER and naners are the other two foods I could eat all day everyday. I have recently moved and at the time I made these I had not used my oven yet! I know shocker....especially when you see a picture of my new kitchen....it is true love at its finest :). Anyways I had been having a problem with my ac system but decided I needed to bake anyways. I decided because the ac was having such a problem I needed to make something that didn't take too long and was not to intricate or required a lot of prep work either. I had been craving some chocolate chip cookies so was planning on those but then realized that the heat and humidity in my apartment was not so slowing causing my naners to ripen and brown. Therefore, regular chocolate chip cookies went on the back burner and I was trying something new. I had a cookie very similar from Pots n' Kettles food truck on Block Island ( they had coconut and more in it) and really liked it. I have never made chocolate chip cookies with naners but figured it was pretty simple and did not require much heat,prep, or baking time. I knew in my head that all you really need for these breakfast naner cookies are naners, oats, a nut butter, and chocolate chips (you can also add in nuts or dried fruit if you want). BUT I wanted to make these a little different. I had just made a little trip to the Nuts 'n more peanut butter store and picked up some maple peanut butter powder :) YUM. Instead of adding in the toffee crunch peanut butter I decided to use the maple powder.....great life choice (lets be honest anything using their products is a great life choice). Well now that I have totally gone on a tangent back to the breakfast cookies. I decided on a maple peanut butter chocolate chip cookie. These are more of a oat cookie that you can have anytime (much different consistency than a true cookie...although you could add flour in to make them more similar). You can even enjoy these for breakfast :) or just all day long like I did! Make sure to store the extra in a sealed container in the fridge. 

Maple peanut butter chocolate chip breakfast cookies:

 

Ingredients: 
   2 medium/larger over ripe naners  
  1 cup of  old fashioned oats 
   2 TBSP of nuts 'n more maple peanut butter powder 
  3/4  of a dark chocolate bar chopped into small pieces and some shavings (or a handful or 3 of chocolate chips)

optional items to add: nuts of your choice, dried fruit, a different chocolate, honey, maple syrup, coconut

Directions:
 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Chop and shave chocolate, set aside.
2. Place naners in a large mixing bowl and beat until mashed. 

3. Add in oats and peanut butter powder and mix until combined. 

 

4. Add in the chocolate (or what you choose to add) and mix in with a spatula until combined. 

                                               (obviously I added in more after this picture)

5. Spoon out the size you would like and place on lined baking sheet. Dough will not be as dry as normal cookie dough so I would use a spoon (if you think your dough is still too wet add in more oats)! 

6. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Cookies should cook through but not dry out completely. 

7. Take out of oven and let cool. OR enjoy right away (think about it....they are like baked oatmeal!) Top with some ice cream, peanut butter, or even some honey! If you have enough left store in a sealed container in the fridge. Let's be honest though....how could you have any left over? They are quite addicting and they are healthy!

It had been too long.....super chunky honey almond biscotti or cookies...depending on which directions you follow :)

Now that school is out (although it has only been about a week) I have found myself experimenting more with cooking rather than baking. This is partly because I am starting to enjoy that more as well. Also, because when I bake a lot my family  in the house doesn't like it too much! Who wouldn't like it?! But I suppose everyone is entitled to their own opinion. In the cooking word, I experimented with some new marinades, salad dressing, and a few different versions of sweet potato fries on the grill. I have been doing more as well but this is what I can remember. OH and if you really know me I am not a huge sandwich person ( when you get free food as a lifeguard and work a full time job and take night classes sandwiches become old pretty quickly) or a huge egg person BUT today I did make an egg sandwich as well topped with fresh parsley from the garden!

 Now to the baking! I just wanted to bake! I know biscotti are always enjoyed around here and saw a recipe that I wanted to try out so I figured why not! I also wanted to thank a couple of special people for helping me out :) The original recipe can be found here   http://www.runonveg.com/recipes/lotties-biscotti-gluten-oil-free-and-no-added-sugar/    but I did change it around quite a bit. Also, make sure you read through all the steps before you start.....because you could miss the last part that directs you to place back in for 20 more minutes.....or you could just end up with some honey almond cookies which were quite tasty as well!

Super Chunky Honey Almond Biscotti (2 ways-half has chopped chocolate in it!)

Ingredients:

    3 cups almonds (roughly chopped in a food processor)
    1 cup Bob’s whole wheat pastry flour (or another flour of your choice)
    2 tablespoons baking powder
    3 eggs
    3 tablespoons of honey
    1 tablespoon vanilla
    2 bars of dark chocolate chopped (or a cup or so of chocolate chips)
 
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 275 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Place 3 cups of almonds in a food processor and process until chopped be careful although I LOVE almond butter you do not want almond butter for this!)

3. Chop chocolate bars if using bars and not chips. I like to use bars because it lets the chocolate spread out in the mix more....resulting in you getting more in every bite :) 

4. In a mixer whisk together eggs and vanilla.

5. Once whisked add in flour and baking powder. Add in chopped almonds on top.

6. Mix egg/vanilla mixture and almond/flour mixture until combined. Add in honey and mix until combined.

7. Add in the chopped chocolate (or chips) mix until combined (or for a few seconds and then fold in with hands). Be careful not to mix too much to overwork the dough. ***I separated the dough in half before this point because I know there are some chocolate haters so I made half without chocolate. 

8. On the lined baking sheet form two logs-you may need to wet your hands so it does not stick to your hands or be like me and just eat the dough off your hands and out of the mixer when you are done :) Make sure they are even size logs ( mine are a little off because I wanted more with chocolate!)

9. Drizzle the tops with more honey…..I went honey happy :) I also topped half with more chopped chocolate too!

10. Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 275
11. ****(see bottom of page for note) Let cool for at least an hour ( mine was longer because clearly I did not read all the steps in the original recipe) then slice into biscotti shapes. Be sure not to cut them too thin or they will break (but then you can eat all the crumbs!)

12. Place back in the oven to toast at 300 for 20 minutes.
13. Drizzle tops with more honey and let cool.... or not and enjoy!

*** I enjoyed a lot of the cookies after step 10 because I did not read the last step in the original recipe. I got mixing and read the let cool part and figured it was something like enjoy with coffee or ice cream. I am still alive…meaning nothing was too undercooked the biscotti just becomes more of a honey cookie instead. I enjoyed them both ways!

This is what they looked like before putting them back in the oven.....