Monday, April 25, 2016

milling mondays: whole wheat loaded cookies



For Esther's first birthday I thought it would be fun to use some personalized M&Ms I had saved from when we celebrated Esther's finalization. I thought this loaded cookie would be the perfect solution. Who doesn't like a cookie full of M&Ms, pretzels and coconut - yum!


Whole Wheat Loaded Cookies

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (2/3 soft wheat berries and 1/3 hard wheat berries)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups pretzels, broken
1 1/2 cups flaked coconut
1 1/2 cups M&Ms


Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting. Sift the flour once to make the dough less dense.


Mix together the freshly milled flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Gradually blend the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.

Finally stir in the pretzels, coconut and M&Ms.


Shape about 1/4 cup of dough into balls and place them about 3 inches apart on a un-greased baking sheet or baking stone.


Let the cookies bake for about 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

Let them cool on a wire rack.




ENJOY!


Saturday, January 16, 2016

disney

Last year we were able to join Michael's family for a day at Disneyland while they were vacationing there and Esther had a great time! We were not sure if she would be too young to enjoy the day and while she probably will have no recollection of that day she seemed to enjoy it. We saw lots of intrigue, pointing, clapping and smiling from Esther. So glad we were able to spend some time with family. Here are some snapshots from the day.