Cookies & A Chat Anyone?

If you follow my blog regularly, you know that I love to bake cookies, and I love to tweak recipes to be a bit healthier, or to my tastes as well as to find a quicker method. I have been doing this nearly all my life, I urge you to use the original recipes first, it is the only way to know what it should taste like. If you are experienced of very much a risk taker, go for it! What is the worst that can happen???  

I have been battling some nasty female health issues for a month now, that has been hard on my diet, my motivation in the new year to cut down on my treats, and well I caved and baked these divine little cookies. In my tweaking of the recipe I did not make as many changes as normal, and even used full on butter, not The Best Life sticks I have in the past. I simply added whole wheat flour, added in powdered ginger, as I was lacking fresh ginger and was not going out...so added a lot more to make up for it. The biggest thing I did was instead of making little balls coated in fine sugar, I created tubes of dough, smaller in diameter so that I can freeze and bake as desired as well as just sprinkling on raw sugar on the tops...something I do to most cookies I make as I adore the crunch. So without further delay I will get on with it...one tiny note, look for a posting note at bottom of page. 

Cookie time!

Can you tell I am still not up to par? I figured if 

I can read this,and I am nearly blind, then all of you 

can read this as well. 

TIPS!!!

Spray your measuring cup with cooking

spray and molasses will pour out completely!

Only have powdered ginger, just add more to taste.

If you have fresh, it is grand, or candied even works

nicely!

Whole Wheat flour adds to better health, 

but also adds a nutty flavor to any cookie, 

without nuts. Also it will change the look and feel of

dough, it can also change how it appears when

baking...but you will learn to work with it.

Sub brown sugar for white for a richer flavor . 

I did so even with having molasses in the cookies! 

You can sub low fat baking sticks as well as use 

egg beaters and it will not change these cookies too much, 

they may be just a bit softer. 

 This is the dough after all steps are 

followed. It is not as smooth and is more brown because of 

the tweaks I made.

 I needed the dough after it was chilled and 

workable, formed into several large balls,

and then made tubes...super small diameter 

tubes for mini bite size and one slightly

larger to make the day of  as I did not have quite 

enough for another roll. I popped three into 

the freezer and the other one back into the fridge.

 After the dough chilled enough for slicing, I did so.

I topped with raw sugar and baked the 8-10 minutes until

the edges browned, the tops started to crack just a bit* 

and then cooled the cookies. 

* not as much cracking w/ first round as dough was very cold.

 And here you go....yummy, soft cookies with a bit of crunch from the raw sugar and the perfect size to have two for the "price of one!"

A note from Ruby....

If you are a member of the Facebook fan page, then you know I have written I am going to post only once or twice a week for awhile. It is for many reasons. The first is not much is going on in my life as far as adventures during the cold, wet months of Winter. We even nearly cease going to wineries, so no scenery of our drive to share.  I know when the warm months arrive, we will resume our Sunday drives and will always share our adventures about Northern California. 

The next reason is that over the next few months a lot will be changing in our families lives. Our middle daughter is to marry in June. Our oldest is to move back for at least four months if not longer come late May, and she too may marry in September. We also of course have all the wedding preparations to help with and special occasions squeezed in. There is a few months to go, but already we have so much to get done and it does take time away from here. I will share what I can from time to time. 

The next big thing and something that will be posted about here, every step of the way, is we are, after loosing our dear little dream cottage to short sale, and nearly loosing all that we owned and who we are as well in the process; We have decided to try buying a home again. This will be a long process. We are currently saving all we can and plan in July to apply for an FHA loan, possibly qualify for a home buyers assistance program. With the help from friends and our daughter's help adding her name and savings to the effort, we hope to be in the home by December of this year. 

We hope to get back into the same area, and we hope for a fixer upper, and we are even looking at homes that may scare others away, ugly ducklings that could become swans.  If we can get it funded. I plan to share the process of getting into a home after such a life changing event, as well as what happens after and the remodeling on a very tiny budget to make it a home that hopefully will be our new dream home. 

Coming next month I shall profile a single book in a weekly post. Like I did with Inner French Girl and The Happiness Project, I will re-read Queen Of Your Own Life.  This book and the online  friendship with the author(s) got me through so many rough days. So I am excited to share it with all of you as I read through it and reflect on my feelings and views.  Of course recipes will still continue from time to time and as I have posted just recently  if you pop over to Facebook or follow me on Twitter, I share wonderful photos, videos and books ; inspiring quotes and web sites too. I do it daily, so great way to see what I am up to and into at the time. 

As always if you have favorite posts, themes etc, please feel free to email me and tell me! Feel free to post on FB & Twitter as well. I love hearing from my fans, I know you are out there and reading, would love to hear from you personally as well.

Adoringly Yours,

Ruby