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Appetites and Adventures

Strange But Good Holidays

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Christmas Eve traditions are special.

That doesn’t mean the tradition can’t be #strangebutgood!

Every year we have family friends over for desserts and drinks after dinner.  And every year I make a different dessert and drink.

Exhibit 1:

In my version of heaven, cookies have the nutritional merits of spinach.  My German Chocolate Chip Cookies do not qualify as spinach, but they do have a few redeeming qualities.  I’m declaring these #strangebutgood because they are a cake-turned-cookie, and it’s a little strange for a holiday cake-cookie to be sort-of healthy.

German Chocolate Cookies 1

The most important lesson I have learned when you are trying to make a dessert a little healthier is not to go too far.  You’ll see here that while I made some subs, I still left some “real” flour and sugar in.  This is important if you’re going to be sharing with people who aren’t used to eating like a blogger.

The healthier subs were spelt flour and NuNaturals’ new Tagatose sweetener as a sugar alternative for some of the sweet.   The most important redeeming quality is that they taste delicious… which they were.

German Chocolate Cookie bite

Like the cake, these cookies are a combination of chocolate and coconut.  I loved the chewy bits of coconut against the melt-y chocolate chips.  That with the crunch from the nuts made the texture in this cookie fantastic.  I used macadamia nuts because they are my mom’s favorite, but almonds or cashews would go well here too.

My healthy changes went undetected.  In fact, I never told anyone they are healthy-ish.  Don’t be afraid to sneak a little #strangebutgood healthiness into your cookies!

 German Chocolate Cookies

German Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • 1 C butter, softened
  • 1 C packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 C NuNaturals Presweet Tagatose
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp coconut extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 C flour
  • 3/4 C spelt flour
  • 1/2 C cocoa powder
  • 1 T cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1 C chopped macadamia nuts
  • 1.5 C unsweetened coconut flakes

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream together the butter, sugars, eggs, vanilla, and coconut extract in a large bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, and baking soda.  Stir dry ingredients into the butter mixture, until fully incorporated.

Fold in chocolate chips, nuts, and coconut.

Spoon batter on to parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 mins.

Exhibit 2:

As much as I like to try new things, my favorite cocktail is a classic Manhattan.  It’s one of the oldest cocktails.  It’s a simple mix of whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Angostura bitters.  With a marinated cherry (don’t forget – it’s the best part!).  With my favorite drink in mind, this year I created Christmas in Manhattan.

A week before Christmas Eve, I poured a bottle of Bulleit Bourbon into an empty ACV bottle (typical blogger…) and added 2 cinnamon sticks and 2 cups of fresh cranberries, sliced in half.  I took another 1/2 C of the cranberries, stabbed a hole in them, and covered them with Gran Marnier.  Both mixtures were then stored in a cool place for the week.

What resulted on Christmas Eve was a cinnamon-laced, festive, #strangebutgood interpretation of my favorite classic.

Christmas in Manhattan cocktail

Christmas in Manhattan

  • 2 oz. Cranberry-Cinnamon infused bourbon
  • 1 oz. Domaine De Canton (ginger liqueur)
  • 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth 
  • 3-4 drops orange bitters
  • Gran Marnier-soaked cranberry, for garnish

In a cocktail shaker add all ingredients and shake vigorously.

Pour into a martini glass (or short glass). Add a Gran Marnier-soaked cranberry for garnish and serve.

Makes 1 drink.

Note: I like this drink straight up, but you could add a splash of water or serve over ice if you prefer.

Want to Join?

All you need to do to join this link up is create a concoction that is Strange But Good, post it with the Strange But Good logo, and link up to your recipe.  (See below for code.)  In the Strange But Good post each week, you’ll see a link to add your own recipe and picture at the bottom of the page.  I’d prefer you use a new strange but good dish, but if you realllly have a good previous one you can add it.

Not a blogger?  You can play too!  Send me an email with a picture of your food and a brief description by noon on Thursday and I’ll include it in Friday’s post (too late this week, obv… but next week it’s on!).

 

Sprint 2 the Table

Remember to use #strangebutgood in any Tweets and Instragrams of your creations. 🙂




***

This is the last dessert or drink thing I post for a while.  I swear.

Do your families/friends mind if you make a healthier versions of foods?

What are some of your tricks for lightening up recipes?

Comments

  1. I think your strange but good foods sound pretty delicious! Coconut and chocolate are TOTALLY meant for each other in my opinion! Okay, yum to that martini! That sounds simply fabulous!

  2. I don’t drink cocktails very often but I am intrigued by the Christmas in Manhatten. It sound yummy (which is probably dangerous!)

  3. Totally agree that you can’t go too far with making replacements…there’s a reason why baked goods that taste yum also contain butter & sugar- no coincidence!! I love healthifying recipes, my family eating & loving it and THEN telling them some of the ingredients…if I told them beforehand, chances are it would go untouched! The other day I roasted up some squash and my brother (who claims to hate squash) polished it off thinking it was sweet potato…boy bursting his bubble sure was fun!

  6. Okay, I’ll be back on the Strange but Good track next week, I promise! I’ve never had a Manhattan, but cinnamon and cranberry? Can’t go wrong with that. And I totally love subbing healthier flours–I think they make for better desserts, as cookies/brownies come out extra-dense. Who’s going to argue against a chewier cookie??

  11. i added grapefruit pulp and carrot pulp to a chocolate gf muffin mix with coconut flour. No one new. I forgot to take a pic though. Made me think of you. And i love it when you trick people with healthy cookies. mawahahahahaha

    • I get jealous of people with juicers just because you have the pulp to use. Have you ever made crackers?

  12. YUM! My roommate swears that vegan (and in my world, that does actually mean healthier…which is not always the case) cookies have ‘a taste.’ But when I offer such delicious, slightly tweaked treats to others in my life, they usually have NO clue. [Dads are particularly easy to please. :)]

    So, I failed a bit again this week in not providing an actual recipe…but you know how hard it is when my entire diet is Strange But Good. I have started to think of this Link-Up as What I Ate Wednesday for Weirdos.

    Also, I am making the Bluberry Mustard Squash for a whole family of not-as-adventurous eaters this weekend, and would like to see how that goes before I post a recipe!

    • I love that you make the vegan not necessarily being healthier distinction. There is some tasty vegan junk food out there. 😉

      Your link ups make me smile. Keep doing your thing, friend. But I am going to need that squash-berry recipe. Soon.

  13. I’ve never heard of tagatose. Interesting.

    I have that strange but good picture that I sent you but it’s not in a blog post anywhere. It’s just a picture that I took. Could you post it next week?

    • It was good… didn’t detect an aftertaste, but I don’t know what would happen if used on its own.

      Happy to post the pic. 🙂

    • You should! It’s so much fun – I infused vodka with bacon and habaneros for New year’s Day brunch 2 years ago.

  17. The cookies sound good 🙂 At first I though that you actually put spinach in them lol! That’d be pretty wicked and a great way to get kids to eat their veggies 😉

  18. I think your cookies sound and look awesome. I love the combo of coconut and chocolate. It’s yum. And I definitely agree with not healthifing the baked goods too much. They may taste great to me, a blogger, but I can see my friends may be able to tell sometimes that it’s healthier. Although not often.

    • My co-workers have learned to always be suspicious… I keep them on their toes by sometimes giving them the fully-loaded versions. 😉

  20. Oh man. That martini looks fantastic. 🙂 Glad you got to do some drinking and sugar eating for Christmas. I’m trying to quit sugar (easier said than done). I’m doing Sarah Wilson’s 8-week program. I’m on week 1 (again — technically started last week, but then I got Nutty Butter in the mail … d’oh).

  21. LOVE the idea of a strange but good recipes! I’m glad there are people out there who also like combinations that are a little out of the ordinary. That Christmas in Manhattan looks strange but sooooo good. 🙂

  25. I love that you let non-bloggies submit… my only problem is I don’t have anything yet. Maybe one of the new things I plan on trying in the next month… hmmm 🙂

  27. I’ve never been much of a cocktail drinker so my knowledge of liqueurs is very small, which leads me to ask whether Gran Mariner is a new spirit I haven’t heard of, or whether you meant Grand Marnier? I’m actually really hoping for the former, because Grand Marnier makes me watch to retch (KRYPTONITE FRUIT) 😛

    Cookies are good though!

  28. OH MY WORD those cookies!!! You had me at “chewy bits of coconut” and “melt-y chocolate chips”! I have to bookmark those for later! 😀

  29. Soooo creative!!!! Wow!!! I always make my mom try my “healthy” creations and usually she likes them. Sometimes though, they’re too much for her. Like green smoothies. I can’t break her of the fear.

  30. Couldn’t agree more that you can’t go too far when healthifying recipes. I’ve definitely been guilty of trying to make fat free, sugar free cookies and that didn’t go over too well at all – no one would touch them, and even I had a hard time convincing myself they were edible.

  32. Yay for a sneaky cookie success! I have many recipes where I’ve learned to keep the butter- makes such a difference! I do think my husband gets annoyed at my healthy makeovers sometimes, but it definitely makes a difference when I don’t mention it… 🙂

  34. I need more tricks for lightening up recipes actually. I never get the chance to test things ahead of time, and I don’t want to bring a healthy, but bland dish to a function, so I stick with what I know. when I do make something healthy, i usually don’t tell anyone it’s semi-healthy until after the fact either. It’s just easier that way.
    These cookies sound great, and German chocolate is the Hubby’s favorite so I’ll definitely be trying them.

  37. Major YUM to the German Chocolate Cookies! I agree that there should be some “normal” per se ingredients left in desserts, but there’s no shame in tweaking them a bit to perk up the nutrition points! Cake-like and chewy cookies are my fave, and who doesn’t love chocolate or coconut- I’m book marking this 😀

Trackbacks

  2. […] peppermint pudding isn’t the only #strangebutgood thing around […]

  3. […] whiskey drinker check out my Christmas in Manhattan recipe.  It’s one of my […]

  4. […] German Chocolate Cookies […]

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