Apricot Strawberry Blackberry Jam Cookies

Sugar. Butter. Flour.

Just three basic ingredients and umpteen variations to make yummy goodies.

This time, I went with Flax Oil Omega Butter Light, with a combination of Splenda and demerera and granulated white sugar, regular all purpose flour, plus egg yolks, of course. The texture came out more or less like shortbread cookies.

Jam filling is the fun part. Jars of homemade home-canned jams made from fresh u-pick berries were sitting in the pantry.

I don't have a consistent standardized recipe for these jam cookies, but it's hard to go wrong with these basic ingredients as long as we keep an eye on the consistency and proportions. I prefer to chill the dough before shaping and baking.

Ingredients
3/4 cup Smart Balance ™ Omega Butter Light
¼ cup sugar
2 Tbsp demerera sugar
2 Tbsp Splenda
1½ cups all purpose flour, plus or minus to make the dough not too sticky
2 egg yolks

Cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks; then fold in the flour till it comes together and forms a dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour. Bake in a 375°F oven for about 10 minutes till the edges turn brown.

Oatmeal Chocolate Rounds and Lemon Bars

I am not much of a desserts fan, as is probably obvious from the small number of desserts/sweets posts shared here. Cookies don't interest me at all, neither does cakes or pies.

Anyway, kids wanted to make something special for Santa so we can set it out the night before Christmas when Santa was scheduled to stop by.


Oatmeal chocolate rounds is really easy and there are many variations and names for it among the bakers of the world. This recipe here is tailored to make it easy for the resident 9 year old to make. I use a mini muffin pan to place the rounds to freeze - easier to handle this way. But, can place in a cookie sheet and freeze if preferred.

Ingredients
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup small marshmallows
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
¼ tsp cinnamon powder
⅛ tsp nutmeg powder
¼ tsp ginger powder

1 cup whole grain quick-cooking oats
¼ cup dry grated coconut

Preparation

1. In a double boiler, melt the chocolate, butter, and marshmallows
2. Add the flavoring ingredients, stir well, then add the oats and coconut and stir well till it comes together
3. Remove from heat; use a tablespoon and scoop out a heaping spoonful to make a round; and place each round in the depressions in the mini muffin pan
4. Leave the filled mini muffin pans in the freezer for 10 to 15 minutes; remove and serve; or save in an airtight container and store in a cool dry place

Lemon bars are fairly standard as well. I couldn't bring myself to add too much butter, so, added some oil instead. And, I made it extra lemony, slightly sour-sweet, which is the preferred flavor for the kids at home. It turned out fine for our tastes at least.

Ingredients
For the crust:
1 c flour
¼ cup demerara sugar
¼ cup butter
3 Tbsp neutral-flavored oil

For the filling:
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp flour
¼ tsp baking powder

a few tablespoons of powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preparation

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350°F
2. Combine the crust ingredients to a uniformly crumby mixture and press down in an 8x8 baking dish and bake for about 12 to 15 minutes in the 350°F oven til lightly brown
3. Meanwhile, make the filling: beat the lemon juice sugar and eggs till a bit thick, for about 10 minutes; then, stir together the flour and baking powder, and add it to the beaten lemon-sugar-egg mixture
4. Pour the filling over the baked crust and bake in the 350°F oven for another 20 to 25 minutes
5. Remove from heat and allow to cool; the bars will firm up as they cool; dust with powdered sugar if preferred
6. Cut into small squares for serving

Oats and Berry Squares

We baked a few goodies for the Holiday Season - we meaning me mainly, with my little girl being a fairly willing but rather inexperienced sous chef :)

Mostly Christmas Sugar cookies, some Lemon Butter cookies and a batch of these fairly "healthy" oats and berry squares. I had canned some Blueberry+Raspberry preserves from all the berries we picked over summer which seemed like a good filling for these simple oats and berry bars.

If using butter alternatives like Smart Balance™ or Earth Balance™ they don't behave the same way as traditional butter - they are too soft. If shaping them into cookies, preferably refrigerate for 2-4 hrs before working with it and even then, work really fast... but, as far as these bars go, it seemed fine - we just want a crumbly mixture to pack at the bottom and the Smart Balance™ Omega that I used seemed to work all right.

Ingredients
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup Smart Balance™ Omega butter or regular unsalted butter
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ cup berry preserves

Preparation

1. Beat brown sugar and butter until fluffy
2. Stir in flour and baking powder till it makes a crumbly mixture; reserve ¼ cup (or more) mixture for topping
3. Grease an 8-inch baking pan and pat the crumbly mixture at the bottom in a single uniform layer; spread the berry preserve in a single uniform layer over it; top with the reserved crumbly mixture
4. Bake in a 350°F oven for about 30-40 minutes till brown
5. Cool on a wire rack and cut into little squares or into rectangular bars. I like to cut it into little squares so it is easy to allow the kids to enjoy a reasonable portion at a time.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Ana, my wee little helper, and I made some simple sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. She wanted to leave some out for Santa, along with a glass of milk and some carrots for the reindeer.

I measured the ingredients and gave the scoop to her and she poured them into the mixing bowl. She wanted to stay a safe distance when I was beating the butter and sugar as a few flecks started flying around... but, we managed to make the cookie dough and refrigerate it without too much mess.

Then, after a couple of hours, I rolled out the dough and cut shapes with the Christmas themed cookie cutters and Ana patiently and enthusiastically decorated every one of the 3-dozen-odd cookies we made with this batch of dough!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ginger powder+nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Sprinkles and other decorative things (optional)

Preparation

1. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer till smooth and creamy
2. add beaten egg and mix some more till fluffy
3. add the flour, baking powder and flavoring spices and stir or knead to form a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hrs
4. then, roll out a small portion of the dough to ¼ inch thick (keeping the rest refrigerated until ready to roll out) and cut into favorite cookie shapes, decorate with sprinkles if desired, and arrange in an ungreased cookie sheet
5. bake in 350°F oven for about 7-9 minutes till edges are a bit crisp, take out of oven and leave on the hot cookie sheet for a minute before transferring to wire rack to cool