Happy Hump Day, ya'll...


I'm here with a virtual cookie exchange blog.  And thanks to my lovely sister in mystery, Ellie Ashe for nominating me to participate.

So, here's how this sucker works:

1.  I post a recipe and you bake up the yummy goodness (if you so desire).
2.  I nominate 4 other victims... I mean bakers and they repeat the same process next week on their blogs or FB page or wherever.
3.  They each nominate 4 more people and then COOKIES take over the world (insert evil laughter here).

Whew!  Complicated stuff.

Now on to business, I'm trying to eat healthier and still find a way to enjoy holiday sweet treats.  So, I'm passing on a recipe (slightly tweaked) from a personal trainer friend of mine.  She used all organic stuff and well, I'm not quite that healthy minded.  I cheated on it--a little.  But feel free to swap out the brand/style of ingredients as you choose.

Here goes:

Hot Chocolate Cookies
Ingredients:

1 cup warmed almond butter (I zapped in microwave for about 15 seconds to soften)
1 egg, large
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup chocolate chips 



Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2.  Place all ingredients in a large bowl, mix until combined and doughy. Scoop 2 tablespoons per cookie and roll in palm hand to create a ball, then flatten when placing on cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes. Cool.

Makes 16 cookies (I made mine smaller for little hands and I made 23 with this recipe)

Recipe Notes:

I made these last night to test the recipe.  These come out of the oven as very soft cookies.  You absolutely have to let them cool on the baking sheet.  Otherwise, they start to fall apart.  They smell heavenly while cooking and they have a very "dark chocolate" taste.  Almost that bittersweet flavor.  The almond butter is both a healthy choice and a necessity for me as I'm allergic to peanuts.  But peanut butter may very well work and may be sweeter.  I think the recipe could have stood a little more sugar, but again, trying to cut down on the sugar and these are plenty rich without adding more.

So, there you have it.

Now...

To nominate lovelies for this Cookie Swap, I've chosen four amazing romance authors from my past.  I've lost contact with most of these beautiful women over the past couple of years since my switch to the cozy mystery genre.  But they are truly talented and unbelievably kind and generous.  I'm sure some (if not all) of them will carry on the swap. And if you do, be sure to tag Linda Poitevin so that she can add you to the updated list of recipes.

Love to all and Happy Holidays!

I tag the following ladies:

My Ghosts of Christmas Past (miss ya'll so much)!

Denise Alicea
Miriam Newman
Eliza Knight
Rachel Firasek