Rainy Day Whole Wheat Semi-Healthy Cookies

Things that I like:

1. Being done with finals.

2. Spring Break!

3. A week at home in LA.

4. Rainy days.

Things that I don't like:

1. Being sick.

Unfortunately, being sick had to coincide with all of the above.  Can't bake, can't drive downtown to be in the "crowd" of a music video filmed by the talented Kurt Hugo Schneider...can't do too much at all because I sort of feel like death. On this plus side, I can catch up on everything in the Twitter/Pinterest/Blogging world that I put on hold during finals week, and post this recipe that I recently adapted from Joy the Baker (quite successfully, I might add).

After this baking catastrophe, I was determined to prove that I'm not a total fail at baking from scratch.  Plus, the Whole Wheat in the title makes me think it's sort of healthy, so we're just gonna roll with that thought. I used bigger portions of dough per cookie, I wanted them to come out super soft, not as crunchy (see how mine are thicker, and hers are thinner and oh-so-stackable)  I also didn't freeze the dough; I can be very impatient.

Here is Joy's recipe for Whole Wheat Chocolate Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies

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

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.

Take a look at Joy's list of recipes--they'll make you want to bake for days!

Superbowl? Try Super-Bowl-Them-Over-With-Cupcakes!

My sports-loving neighbors: Elysa, do you even know who is playing on Sunday?
Me: ...uhm...[platter appears] Cupcake??
My cupcake-loving neighbors: OMG YOU'RE AWESOME!

Figured that if I fed them, I wouldn't have to hear about my lack of sports knowledge for three straight hours.  Introducing my rendition of GuinnessGasm cupcakes (recipe from SF Food Wars found here).  They were chocolate Guinness cupcakes with a chocolate ganache center, topped with Baileys frosting.  This is why they keep me around.

Let's take a moment to appreciate the fact that while I was making these FROM SCRATCH, Tier's contribution was nacho ingredients, then chilling in front of the tv. Yep, that's how we work.

Attempted artsy shot.  Note to self: learn how to do neat things with camera.

GOOO...FOOTBALL!!! ...Yeahhh...If the neighbors hadn't made delicious nachos, I would have peaced.

chocolate cheesecake cupcakes

with ganache frosting.  Did you get all of that?

Chocolate + cheesecake + cupcakes + ganache + frosting.

Those are some good words right there.

It's a lot of chocolate, and a lot of delicious.

Is it okay that I'm slightly more excited about the cupcake wrappers than the actual cupcakes themselves?  Mostly because the wrappers are a delightfully bright turquoise and frill out at the top.  It makes me want to string cute, colorful cupcake wrappers around my room.

Not a bad idea.  And low-cal too.

The recipe can be found here via The Food Network.

Baking cupcakes with a surprise in the middle makes it that much more impressive. Just my opinion.  Thanks to Kaylee for helping with...most of the baking.