#25: Banana Cashew Cookies (as found in Sandra Lee's Bake Sale Cookbook)
All right, before I give you this recipe, I have to be frank: this is probably the worst cookie I have tried thus far. Now, this might be due to a series of misfortunes I had while trying this recipe out, but I'll let you be the judge.
Ingredients:
1 package (17.1 ounces) banana nut muffin mix
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup banana milk
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups chopped cashews
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper; set aside.
- Note: This is the first cookie I've attempted where using parchment paper would be well advised. You'll see why in a moment.
2. In a large bowl, stir together muffin mix, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Add banana milk, butter, and eggs, stirring until combined.
- All right, first of all, finding 17.1 ounces of muffin mix at Smith's grocery store in Provo, Utah is apparently IMPOSSIBLE. I hate Smith's. I can NEVER find anything I need without tearing that whole store apart AND the people working there are RUDE... I would kill for an Albertson's at this point in my summer. I had to compensate my lack of Krusteaz muffin mix with, *gulp*, Fiber One banana nut muffin mix. Mistake number one, RIGHT THERE. Not only were there only 15.7 ounces of mix, but it was full of FIBER, which I am convinced played a role in these cookies not turning out.
- ALSO, the whole reason I wanted to try these cookies out was because the recipe stated that if you couldn't find banana milk, replacing the 1/2 cup with one full cup of milk with 1 teaspoon of banana extract would work just as well... and I have a lot of banana extract to use up. LIES. The one cup of milk made the batter extremely runny.
3. Gently stir in cashews. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets, spacing cookies two inches apart.
- I HATE SMITH'S... I couldn't find any cashews either, so I had to use walnuts. Which is fine, because I prefer walnuts, but it's the principle of it all. Plus, because of the milk issue earlier described, the cookies ended up running into one another, resulting in one massive cookie on my cookie sheet. Uh, yuck.
4. Bake for 13 to 18 minutes or until lightly browned.
- 15 minutes later, the cookies looked wonderful. They weren't. They were flat, the edges were brown, the insides were still raw, and on top of that, the cookies were impossible to get off the cookie sheet. After I literally dislocated my shoulder trying to get one of these cookies off of the sheet, I tasted it... and it tasted... healthy. And not the good kind of healthy. The overly "fiber tasting"... I had a stomachache after trying these. Luckily for EVERYONE I tossed this batch as well as the remaining batter... but I'm still counting it in my blog. Failures are just opportunities for success... or something along those lines. Take a look at these nasties...
STUCK. I had to soak the cookie sheet for four hours to get it clean. Gross.
This is what my nightmares are made of: healthy cookies. Seriously?
#26: No Bake Cookies (as found in the Wild Strawberry Lodge Seafood and Dessert Cookbook)
Next up, these delicious gems. This story is actually a pretty funny one. I had to make two separate batches of these bad boys because I messed up the first batch in a very big way. You'll see what I mean...
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
½ cup milk
½ cup butter
4 tablespoons baking cocoa
½ cup crunchy peanut butter
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
1. In a medium sauce pan, combine sugar, milk, butter and cocoa. Bring to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. FOLLOW TIMES EXACTLY OR THESE COOKIES WILL NOT TURN OUT.
- All right, if you know me at all, you know I saw those big, upper case letters and rolled my eyes at them. I seriously shouldn't have. The first batch I tried of these was simultaneously being made while I was tackling the banana cashew cookie, so I wasn't necessarily paying attention to times. Needless to say, I should've listened to the recipe. I am too dang stubborn.
2. Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, oats and vanilla. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto wax paper. Let cool until hardened.
- That's it. And I messed them up. So, the rest of the story goes that while I was simultaneously making the other cookies, I let the chocolate mixture sit while I dealt with the other craziness. Bad move. I added the peanut butter about five minutes later and the chocolate started to harden on contact. Adding the oats made it the consistency of sawdust... NOT DELICIOUS. On my second attempt, I added the peanut butter, let it melt, and then added the oats, which was much better.
Lesson learned: follow recipes. I stinkin' love no bake cookies, and these didn't disappoint. And again, a huge thanks to Stephen's co-workers for taking them off my hands... how else could I lose as much BMI as I have been with my personal trainer if you hadn't? Big thanks!!
I was silly and forgot to take a picture of the successful cookies. We all know what no bake cookies look like though, FANTASTIC!
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