Candy Bites Energy Balls

School was over and I had nothing new for snack, information usually met with great dismay by Crazy Kid 2. But I had a plan! With my right and dominant hand useless thanks to a tendon injury, I haven't been able to cook or bake much in the last few weeks. But energy bites are made in the food processor which I can handle single-handed. And the rolling could be done by my servants children.

We looked over our collection of pinned energy bites on Pinterest, but nothing with dates managed to catch our interest. And we had to use dates because I need to get them out of my fridge. So I asked the kids how they felt about making up our own recipe. Crazy Kid 2 and Crazy Kid 3 were enthusiastic. Crazy Kid 2 said we should put them on Pinterest if they turned out ok. :)

I asked the kids how much of the different ingredients they thought we'd need. Crazy Kid 2 has been trying to pay attention to serving size lately, so her first thought was a single serving of dates, which was about 3 whole dates. We looked at other recipes and those usually had 10 or more dates, so we started with 10. We estimated the other amounts and put the ingredients into the food processor.

The first taste of our Candy Bites Energy Balls was pretty awful. Crazy Mom accidentally put waaaayyy too much vanilla in. I thought it wasn't possible to have too much vanilla. It is. We decided to try to kill the vanilla taste with more dates. That wasn't enough. So we upped the peanut butter from 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup and that seemed to do the trick.

Crazy Kid 3 discovered you need to press pretty hard to get the mixture to stay together, but it will stick together.

I decided to make this a literacy/math mini lesson while I was at it and had Crazy Kid 2 write out the recipe, with corrections as needed. We got to talk about fractions, abbreviations, and measurement. We also made a life lesson out of it:

"You always need to test. You need to try again if your first experiment doesn't work. If it tastes bad, add more of the things you like. You have to try your best and if it comes out bad, do not be sad."

Words of wisdom from a six year old. :)

In case you can't easily read 1st grade writing, here is the finalized recipe.

Candy Bites Energy Bars

17 whole dates

1 cup oatmeal (we used rolled oats, not sure how quick oats would work)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Put all of the ingredients except for the chocolate chips into the food processor. Mix until all combined. Add the chocolate chips and pulse until just distributed. You could stir in the chocolate chips separately, but I'm lazy and don't care if my chocolate chips are slightly chopped. The Crazy Kids got creative and added a chocolate chip to the top of each Candy Bite.

Some good looking cookie recipes from Joanne Fluke's book Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery. If I put them here, I can put them on Pinterest and I'll have them. If I make them, I'll try to make a point of updating the blog about how they turned out.

The book was a fun mystery with a touch of romance. I'd recommend it and I will read other books in the series. If anyone reads this and makes the cookies or passes on the recipe, please give Joanne Fluke and her book credit.

Chocolate Chip Crunch Cookies

Preheat over to 375

1 cup butter (2 sticks) melted

1 c white sugar

1 c brown sugar

2 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 t vanilla

2 eggs beaten with fork

2 c crushed corn flakes (just crush with hands)

1-2 c chocolate chips

Melt butter, add sugars and stir.

Add Soda, salt, vanilla, and eggs.

Mix well.

Add flour and stir in.

Add corn flakes and chocolate chips and mix thoroughly.

Form dough into walnut-sized balls and place on greased cookie sheet - 12 to a sheet.

Press down slightly.

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Cool on cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to a wire rack until completely cool. Will not be crisp if not on a wire rack.

If the cookies spread out too much, bake at 350 and and do not flatten.

Yield - 6-8 dozen

Regency Ginger Crisps

3/4 c melted butter (1 1/2 sticks)

1 c brown sugar

1 large fork  beaten egg (or two medium eggs)

4 T molasses

2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

2 t ground ginger

2 1/4 c flour

1/2 c white sugar for later

Melt butter and mix in sugar. Let mixture cool, then add egg(s). 

Add soda, molasses, salt, and ginger. Stir thoroughly.

Add flour and mix in.

Chill for 1 hour to over night.

After dough chills, preheat oven to 375

Roll dough into walnut sized balls.

Dump balls into bowl with white sugar and gently shake bowl to coat.

Place on greased cookie sheets, 12 to a sheet.

Flatten with spatula.

Bake at 375 for 10-12 min.

Cool on cookie sheets for no more than 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack. If you leave the cookies on the sheet for too long they stick.

Yield - 6-7 doz

Black and Whites

2 c chocolate chips

3/4 c butter (1 1/2 sticks)

2 c brown sugar

4 eggs

2 t vanilla

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

2 c flour

1/2 powdered sugar in a small bowl for later

Melt chocolate chips with butter. Microwave on high for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth.

Mix in sugar and let cool.

Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between.

Mix in vanilla, baking powder, and salt.

Add flour and mix well.

Chill dough at least 4 hours, overnight is better.

After dough chills, preheat oven to 350.

Roll walnut sized balls of dough. (Wear gloves if you don't want to get too messy.)

Drop dough into bowl of powdered sugar and roll until coated.

Place balls on a greased cookie sheet - 12 to a sheet.

Bake at 350 for 12-14 minutes.

Let cool on sheet for 2 minutes, then remove to wire rack.

Lovely Lemon Bar Cookies

Preheat oven to 350

2 c flour

1 c cold butter (2 sticks)

1/2 c powdered sugar

4 eggs beaten with fork

2 c  white sugar

1/2 c lemon juice

1 t lemon zest

1/2 t salt

1 t baking powder

1/4 c flour

Cut butter into small pieces. 

Combine butter, flour, and powdered sugar in food processor until it looks like course cornmeal.

Spread into a greased 9x13 pan and pat down with hands.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until golden brown around edges. 

Remove from oven, leave oven on.

Mix eggs with white sugar.

Add lemon juice and zest.

Add salt and baking powder and mix.

Add flour and mix thoroughly.

The mixture will be runny.

Pour mixture on top of crust and put  back into oven.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Let cool completely and cut into bars.

Pecan Chews

Preheat oven to 350

1 c butter (2 sticks)

3 c brown sugar

4 fork beaten eggs

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

3 t vanilla

2 c finely chopped pecans

4 c flour

Melt butter and add brown sugar. 

Mix well and let cool.

Add eggs and mix.

Add salt, baking soda, vanilla, and nuts.

Mix well.

Add flour and mix until flour is thoroughly distributed.

Form dough into walnut-sized balls.

Place on a greased cookie sheet - 12 to a sheet.

Press down with spatula sprayed with cooking spray.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

Let cookies cool on sheet for 1 minute, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.