Tuesday, August 19, 2008

TWD: Chocolate Chunk Granola Rum Grabbers



Everything's better with chocolate right? That has been my motto of late...seems like anything that has that beloved dark cocoa color or flavor to it somehow seems like I just want to shove it in my mouth and chew happily away.



I have always been a chocolate lover...probably thanks to my Mom who has one of the world's largest sweet tooths. Rumor has it that she consumed a hot fudge sundae almost daily while pregnant with me...ahhh the old days!

Anyway, so when I set out to make this week's TWD...the Granola Grabbers, as chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking, I didn't even really know what they were. I thought, granola and grabbers. Healthy cookies? Well kinda. When I found the recipe in the book, I thought oh those look yummy and of course I could switch them up. I thought I wanted to add something extra sweet but wasn't sure what...until my eye lit on this container of Ghiradelli Dark Decadence individual chocolate squares that one of our friends gave us for Xmas last year.



I pulled out 3 60% chocolate squares, cut them into pieces (thanks to reading Dorie's note in the book today about adding chopped chocolate in recipes rather than regular ole processed chocolate chips!), and added them to my grabbers. I also added Tahitian Vanilla extract in honor of the Tahitian Vanilla Granola I picked up at the store today.

I marinated the raisins in hot rum for 15 minutes as well, subbed white wheat flour, diced pecans instead of almonds and peanuts, cut the butter by 1/3, omitted the wheat germ, used dark brown sugar, and put in about 1 tablespoon of whole milk. From start to finish, the cookies were in the oven in 30 min, I loved the speed of this recipe.



While I am talking about modifications, what the heck is up with all the butter in this recipe? For the whole recipe you are talking 14 tablespoons of butter which is almost 2 full sticks. For 1c of flour? That is crazy insane butterage!

I cut mine by about 1/3...so for 1/2 the recipe I only used about 5 tbls and it was more than fine. When I make cookies other than butter cookies, like an oatmeal or chocolate chip...I use way less butter than this recipe calls for. Isn't the idea for these to be SOMEWHAT healthy? Dorie says in this book she expected her kids to take them to school. Wheat germ, nuts, granola...and a trough of butter?! Whaaaa?



Anyway, just somewhat of a rant, but these days SO many recipes seem to call for way more sugar and butter than is necessary in my opinion, I typically cut butter and sugar by at least 1/3 in almost any recipe, and do not have issues with lack of sweetness or flavor. Most recipes don't even consider if you add something like 'sweetened' coconut or honey, or other things that have sugar in them already. 99% of what I eat is too sweet for my taste...in almost all my cupcake recipes I cut sugar because hello, how much do you put in frosting??? That is overkill.



Anyway, back to the grabbers! I didn't press these down and they domed up into little pebbly mountains of amazing cookie goodness. Taste on these things was ... OMGYUM!!! The dark chocolate gives them a tiny bit of a sour chocolate kick which is a great contrast to the sweetness of the rum, coconut and raisins in the cookie. Bonus is that while they are not exactly HEALTH food, because of the white wheat flour and the granola, they actually pack a decent fiber punch. Gotta get your fiber in! 35g a day, baby. Which means I can 'grab' these tomorrow for snacks all day long and not feel guilty right?! HA! I've already been grabbing them for 'dessert' tonite as well.

Find the recipe at Michelle's blog, though seriously, if you don't already have Dorie's book and you like to bake, you should definitely get it. Amazon has ridiculous deals, I have seen it a few times for something like $12! And it's something like 400 pages..98% of RECIPES. Amazing ones.



Be sure to check out the other TWD community's grabbalicious cookies. Enjoy!

30 comments:

betty geek said...

Stack them high! They turned out great! :D Rum in my tum!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

those look great--glad to know you can skimp a bit on the butter and they are still fine.

PheMom said...

LOL - they look great, but my first thought was of pirate rum runners or something. I think I must need to get to sleep now! Lovin' the chocolate addition too!

Shelby said...

Dark chocolate and rum? I would have thought I had died and gone to heaven! I think your adaptations is one I would be interested in trying!

Anonymous said...

SO glad to know that cutting the butter won't hurt them too much. I agree with you, that was a lot of butter. Such a great combo of adaptations you made!

Steph said...

I agree with you 100% that recipes these days call for way too much butter and sugar. I cut the butter down too, but wasn't as risky as you to cut down to 5 tablesppons and have it work! Great job!

Anonymous said...

Your cookies look great. Genius idea to add the rum!

Engineer Baker said...

Hehe - little pebbly mountains perfectly describes these! Good to know you can cut back on the butter - it does seem pretty excessive, but I've gotten used to that with Dorie.

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on cutting sugar in things, I like a mildly sweet treat, not a sickly sugary tooth hurting treat. Your cookies sound wonderful, nice job!

Susie Homemaker said...

chocolate and rum.
chocolate and rum.
chocolate and rum.

ferris bueller, you're my hero.

CB said...

Booze and chocolate? Oh heck yeah! Fun substitutions! Yeah I kinda gasped at the amount of butter myself. But it didn't stop me from eating more than 1 cookie! LOL.
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Christine said...

yum chocolate and the raisins soaked in rum. Can't go wrong with that. Cookies look delicious!

Megan said...

Yes, I totally agree about cutting out the amount of butter. And you can totally get away with it -

Melissa said...

the rum-soaked raisins was such a great idea! Well done!

Prudy said...

Rum soaked raisins and dark chocolate??? What could possibly be better? They sound out of this world.

The Food Librarian said...

You took this recipe and brought it to another level! This is now a college-age afterschool snack! :) Great job!

Anonymous said...

I'm never sure if one can cut back on the butter or not, so it is fun to see that you did it and the cookie police did not come knocking on your door...yours look very lovely. Must try that next time...might entitle me to an extra cookie!

Maria said...

Glad you included chocolate! It is a must!

Pamela said...

Oh my gosh..."trough of butter"! Hilariously true. I've toyed with the idea of cutting sugar or butter in recipes, but I've not taken the leap yet. Your cookies look great.

Honeyed Hashette said...

RUM RUM RUM!
Hee hee!
Were these as good as they look?

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

Dark chocoalte? Yum! Your cookies look good!

Faery said...

Wow Mara, this is sounds sooo good, by the way I have a surprise for you in my blog, please come see.

Rigby said...

Your cookies sound absolutely delicious! I agree about the overkill in sugar and butter in recipes, however I've never been brave enough to try cutting back the amount (I'm always afraid it won't turn out). I'll keep some of your tips in mind.

Ivy said...

Wow! These look amazing!

Mary Ann said...

Yum-these look wonderful! Beautiful pics as always!

Kiki said...

Yum! These look amazing!!

Jules Someone said...

Mmmmm. Rum. I may have to try with a little less butter next time and see what happens.

Snooky doodle said...

hmmmmmmmmm these look decandent . and they re on the healty side compared to other cookies :-) i agree with you ready made chocolate chips are really awful better tru relicious chcolate pieces. thanks for the recipe I like it alot.

Bungalow Barbara said...

Love all the variations you made on this recipe!

I agree with you about too much sugar. Mixed feelings about butter -- I just love buttery cookies like shortbread. I never cut back with those! It's good to hear you can cut back with this recipe. I think I may try it with some of the upcoming cookie recipes, too.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

I cut butter (or oil) and sugar all the time also. Often I substitute some plain yogurt for the fat. Keeps things moist. I did it for some of the butter in the grabbers. I used very little sweetener in my granola. The cookies were plenty sweet. I did the white wheat flour too. Love your rum soaked raisins!
Nancy