granola crunchies – bridal shower mode…

The Hooton family is in total ‘get ready for Meg’s bridal shower’ mode! Meggie asked her sisters Kate and Sara to stand as her maids of honour. She refused to choose one above the other…They are co-hosting her bridal shower, along with the ‘witches‘. All of our female family members have been invited, Meggie’s girlfriends, friends of mine and Mom’s that knew Meg as she was growing up. Such a lovely tradition – women gathering to celebrate a young woman’s choice to marry. How blessed are we to have so many loving and generous women in our lives offering guidance and wisdom. So very…

I can’t spill the beans on any of the details because we’re keeping everything a secret from Meg. I’ll fill you in next week!

At the same time, Ralph and I have been busy at the farm weeding the flower beds and getting the vegetable garden up and growing! What a difference four years make to the life of a garden. The soil feels like loam now rather than silty granules and rocks! Having learned my lesson last year from over planting and over seeding, this year I’ve given everything the room they’ll need to grow and flourish – fingers crossed…

I’ve been looking for a healthy cookie recipe for ages. To date, my attempts have been dry, brittle, too sweet or too hard. Sunday, I was poking around some of my favorite food blogs see my blog roll and found several more possibilities. This is my version of the King Arthur Flour granola cookie recipe. It’s a keeper!

Granola Crunchies  adapted from King Arthur Flour recipes

Preheat oven 350*F

1 2/3 cups large flake rolled oats
½ cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup multi grain flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup chocolate chips
½ cup hazelnuts
½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
½ cup pepitas
½ cup sesame seeds
1/3 cup almond butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
6 tablespoons melted butter
1/4 cup wild flower honey
1 tablespoon water

Stir together all the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, melted butter, almond butter, honey and water.
Toss the wet ingredients with the dry until the mixture is evenly moistened.
Spray a muffin tin with baking release spray then fill cups 2/3 full and pat down to form a puck.
Bake the cookies for 20 minutes, until they’re brown around the edges.
Cool the cookies in the muffin tin for 10 minutes then carefully lift out using a fork and knife to loosen them.
Store cookies in the refrigerator. They also freeze well.

THE LOVE: The fun thing about these cookies is that you can use whatever combination of nuts, seeds and dried fruit that you like. Be sure to keep the “glue” the same…

printable copy

one year ago: dark chocolate and toasted macadamia nut cookies

two years ago: vegetable lasagna with variegated oregano and hand-crushed tomatoes

Thanks for reading.