Healthy Slice & Bake Cookies

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup white cane sugar
5 tablespoons canola oil
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1.  Whisk flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

2.  Beat sugar, oil and butter in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer on high until smooth.

3.  Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until smooth.

4.  Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until just combined.

5.  Divide dough into 2 and mold into logs.  Wrap with plastic wrap and freeze just until firm, about 45 minutes.

6.  Preheat oven to 350F.

7.  Remove one roll of dough from the freezer and let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Unwrap and slice crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds, turning the dough a quarter turn after each slice to help keep the cookies round.

8.  Place 1/2 inch apart on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

9.  Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  (The longer you bake them, the more crisp they will be.)

10.  Remove and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

 

You can make both cookie logs, or leave one in the freezer for a rainy day.

It’s very kid friendly, and so yummy!

 

The next step is to ice them.  I always use the basic royal icing recipe from Wilton, which consists of white powdered sugar (I use the organic one from Whole Foods), Wilton’s meringue powder, and warm water.  You may choose to make it from raw egg whites or egg whites powder instead.  I’m sure I will give that a whirl one of these days…

To create the colors, I used the natural liquid food colors from Chocolate Craft Studio.  They are made from all natural ingredients and work great!

You can spread the icing across the cookies or pipe it on with a pastry bag.  The kids enjoy “drawing” on the cookies with the icing using the pastry bag.

The recipe was adapted from one that I found at Eating Well.

With St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow, you’re probably on the hunt for all things green, especially edible ones, because that’s just cool (at least my kids think so).  Most of the green colored food that is made for St. Patrick’s Day is filled with harmful artificial colors – definitely not healthy or good for your kids.  I was determined to make something green, in a natural way, to keep the kids entertained at the table and possibly want to eat their dinner for a change.

My idea:  green mac and cheese – and it’s fairly simple to make.  I used pureed organic spinach to give the cheesy sauce the cool green color, and surprisingly the spinach flavor was very subtle.  This means I can get my kids to eat spinach without a struggle – a dream come true!

Here’s how you can make this organic green mac and cheese for your St. Patty’s Day table.  The ingredients are simple:  I used a box of organic mac and cheese from Whole Foods and bag of organic baby spinach from Trader Joes.  Both are fairly inexpensive, which makes is even better!

I lightly steamed the baby spinach for about 1 to 2 minutes – just until the leaves start to wilt.  I didn’t want the spinach to lose all of it’s nutritional value, so a light steaming is the best way to go.  DON’T DUMP THE GREEN WATER THAT’S LEFT OVER – YOU’LL NEED IT!

After steaming, transfer the spinach to a deep bowl (or blender if you don’t have an immersion blender) and add a few tablespoons of the green water that’s left at the bottom of the pot.

Puree the spinach and green water until it’s nice and smooth.  It will be a bright grassy green color – SO COOL!

Set aside the green puree, and make the mac and cheese according to the directions on the box.  Add the cheesy sauce.  Then start adding the spinach puree, a few tablespoons at a time.

If you want it a light green, then just a few tablespoons should be enough.  Keep adding more of the puree to make it a deeper green color.  I used about 1/4 cup of the puree.

Wait until the kids see this….  you may end up making this more often than once a year!  And the best part of is all is that you can make it green and organic.

WAIT!  That’s not ALL I can do [says the Cat in the Hat]…

Hold onto the leftover puree to make some green eggs and ham (or turkey)!  Just add 1 to 2 tablespoons of puree to some beaten eggs and scramble!