Baklava Thumbprint Cookies

I haven't been knitting much lately. Consequently, I haven't had anything to blog. So, it's been crickets and cobwebs over here.

Part of the problem, is that I've got a bit of startitis. Not even startitis: it's like not-starting-itis. I have piles of beautiful yarn collected for several lovely projects. Patterns printed, needles selected. All sitting in a basket. And I just haven't cast-on.  There were even a couple of days last week where I didn't knit. Not one stitch. It's the first ever time in my knitting life that this has happened to me, and it's sort of freaking me out. I've knit EVERY SINGLE DAY since I learned to knit in 2001. Even when I had the flu and I couldn't stay awake for more than 10 minutes at a time. Even when I had food poisoning and I was hugging the toilet for 24 hours, there was knitting in my hand. I'm sure it will pass, that it's just a phase, and for now, I'm trying to just roll with it.

In the meantime, I've been cooking and baking a lot. So, instead of knitting, you get my second crafty-love.

Baklava Thumbprint Cookies

Here's one of my new favorite cookie recipes. Baklava Thumbprints. Soft, tasty spice cookies with a nutty filling modeled off of the sticky, gooey, delicious mess you find between crisp sheets of phyllo pastry. These are not even terribly bad for you. Whole wheat pastry flour and alternative sweeteners make them fiber-rich and not-too-sweet. They are terrific with a cup of my favorite tea: Good Earth Original, to which I'm utterly addicted.

This recipe is mostly my own, though it borrows heavily from a few recipes in my new favorite cookbook: Veganomicon. I should say,  I'm not vegan. I'm mostly vegetarian just because I really don't like meat very much (aside from In'n'Out cheeseburgers. I will ALWAYS eat one of those), and I love trying new ways of cooking and eating.  Vegan cooking forces you to think about food in a very different way from the traditional meat-veggie-starch model. It's fun. And this book has been really inspiring to me.

Actually, these cookies aren't TECHNICALLY vegan anyway. I used honey in them, because I felt strongly that honey was key to the baklava flavor I was going for, but it would be really easy to just replace the honey with more brown rice syrup, or some maple syrup, or even just turbinado sugar for some textural interest.



I hope you give these a try!

Baklava Thumbprints

Makes about 2 dozen little cookies.

1/2 cup honey (or 3/4 cup maple syrup or brown rice syrup, or just up the sugar to 1 cup)

1/2 cup sucanat or organic cane sugar  (i like to use one of these instead of the white, bleached, granulated kind, but use what you've got.)

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (or omit this if you don't care about lowering the fat and up the oil to 1/2 cup)

3 tbsp soy, almond, or cow milk (whatever you prefer)

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all purpose flour)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

zest of one lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp garam masala (optional)

for the baklava filling:

1/4 cup  shelled pistachios

1/4 cup  walnut halves

2 tbsp brown rice syrup

2 tbsp honey (or maple syrup, or more brown rice syrup)

Preheat the oven to 350 and lightly grease a couple of baking sheets.

For the thumbpring filling, chop the pistachios and walnuts in a food processor, or finely chop them by hand. Mix them with 1 tsp cinnamon, the brown rice syrup and 2 tbsp honey. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, oil, milk,  applesauce (if using), vanilla and lemon zest. Add the cornstarch and whisk everything until the cornstarch is dissolved.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 tsp cinnamon. Stir until everything is all combined.

Roll the dough into small balls, about 2tsps each and place about 1"-2" apart on a lightly greased or nonstick cookie sheet. They won't spread out much, but they'll puff up a little. Press each ball with your thumb to create an indentation for the filling.   Drop a teensy bit of the nut and honey filling, about 1/4-1/2 tsp depending on how deep your thumb indentations are, into each cookie.

Bake for 12-14 minutes. Don't let them get too brown or they'll be tough when they cool. They should be a bit soft still, and they'll crisp up as they cool. Cool on a rack and enjoy with a nice cup of your favorite hot beverage!

Roasted-Banana Coconut Rum Bread

No, not knitted banana bread, but tasty nonetheless!

I've been unbelievably productive these last few days, but productivity-in-progress makes for boring blogging. So, I'll distract you from the lack-of-knitting with baked goods.

Mmmm...

Roasted-Banana Coconut Rum Bread. I went to Trader Joe's the other week and bought 2 pounds of bananas because I thought I had cancelled our Planet Organics delivery for the week. But I hadn't, somehow, so we ended up with something like 4 pounds of bananas for two of us to eat before they withered away and died on the counter. So, banana bread it was!

These loaves are inspired by this recipe over on 101 Cookbooks (one of my fave blogs ever). Ever since the first time I tried this recipe last year, I've seen no reason to ever make banana bread without roasting the bananas first. It does something just magical, caramelizing the sugars and intensifying the banana flavor. Try it, seriously. You'll never go back.

However, I did do my best to make these "healthier". I cut as much fat as I could. I used only 2 tablespoons of butter for a doubled recipe, and replaced the rest of the butter with lowfat Greek yogurt, and used light coconut milk instead of the regular, full fat kind. And I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of cake flour. I've been doing this a lot lately, inspired by Heidi of 101 Cookbooks, and I've found that you can safely use whole wheat pastry flour in almost every baked good (though haven't done it with bread...) and it turns out just fine. I've done cookies, cakes, pancakes -- and they all are great!

Because I cut so much fat, it seemed ultra-mega important to not overbake these for fear of them drying out, and I think I got it perfect.

I got kind of lazy when I was mashing the bananas into the coconut milk, but I liked how it turned out with the extra-big chunks of roasted banana goodness. The coconut flavor is nice and subtle, but definitely present. I'm not the hugest fan of coconut -- I hate chewing the stuff, and so often the flavor is just cloying. But here, I think it adds to the tastiness without jumping out front, waving it's arms and screaming "HEY! I'M A COCONUT!"

Here's my modified recipe. I hope you'll give it a try and let me know what you think!

Tomorrow, I'm heading over to Oakland to see Lesley and her kids, Peter and Emilia. I'm going to do a little spinning demo for Emilia (Lacey's packed up in the car already) and we're going to do some kool-aid dyeing. Can't wait!

Roasted-Banana Coconut Rum Bread

Makes One 9 x 5 inch loaf, or 2 smaller loaves, or maybe a dozen  muffins!

2 ripe, unpeeled bananas

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or cake flour)

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp butter, melted

1/2 cup plain yogurt (I used lowfat Greek yogurt, but I bet any plain yogurt'd be fine)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar (I used organic natural sugar)

1 large egg

1/2 cup unsweetened, light coconut milk

glug of rum (optional)

1 tsp vanilla extract

pecans, for topping (optional. feel free to add raisins or walnuts or chocolate chips or any other tasty goodies. about 1/4-1/2 cup should do the trick)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the unpeeled bananas on a cookie sheet and bake for 12-20 minutes until they're nice and black on the outside and have started to seep tasty roasted banana juices. Remove from the oven, and set aside to cool.

Lower the oven to 325 degrees.

Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, stir the sugars into the melted butter, and then stir in the yogurt. Mix in the egg and the vanilla. Add the coconut milk to a third bowl, then squeeze the banana flesh out of the skins and into the coconut milk. Mash with a fork until the coconut milk and bananas are incorporated together, then stir in the splash of rum, if using.

Add the butter/sugar/yogurt mixture to the flour and stir quickly to incorporate a bit, then fold in the banana mixture. Be careful not to overmix -- it will get tough when you bake it. A few spots of flour are okay. If you are mixing other goodies into the batter, fold them in with the banana mixture.

Tip the batter into a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan and smooth the top a bit. Sprinkle the top with pecan halves.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for about an hour, until crispy golden on the outside and a toothpick in the center comes out mostly clean. Remember, DO NOT over bake this!

Cool on a rack, then slice and enjoy! This should last a couple of days wrapped in plastic on the counter. Slice it up and toast it, and spread it with butter if you want -- not much fat in the batter, so go crazy!