no-bake chocolate cookies : re-invented

gluten-free, refined sugar-free

This story wanders a bit - or maybe a lot. Kind of like a new puppy, easily distracted.

I grew up on no-bake chocolate cookies. No-bakes and chocolate puffed wheat squares were my kryptonite - I could and would eat either one without discipline and to the point of illness. Needless to say the next generation (my children following my shining example) was no different. No-bakes are the obvious answer to every question. Or they were.

Health issues introduced our family to a new eating paradigm and I hadn't even looked at that well-exercised recipe for a good long time, long enough to have forgotten exactly what was in them. A week ago our family grew by one (we now have an adorable grand-dog) an event certainly deserved to  be celebrated. Celebration = food so I offered to bring a treat when we went to meet Mark and Tiffany's puppy. As time was short my mind inevitably went to our fail-safe, no-bake chocolate cookies. Then I looked at the recipe. I may have gulped and certainly grimaced - 2 cups of white sugar!!! 2! I just could not do it. I argued with myself and still couldn't. Really, two cups of white sugar in roughly 30 cookies. That's a lot of sugar. A lot of plain not good sugar. Tasty, easy, gluten-free and full of sugar. Bah! 

Not one to be undone by a couple of cups of sugar I determined that although I may be tempting fate by playing with a recipe as sacred as this one, it had to be done. That or toss the recipe entirely. It seemed a worthy gamble and at the end of the effort all agreed that it was. In fact, the reinvented cookies were universally approved as the preference. Lest anyone be mislead these cookies are not healthy doppelgängers for the originals - they are chewier in texture and deeper in taste. More dark chocolate than milk. But even the littlest of our clan loved them.

I think we should christen them Bailey cookies in honour of the new puppy. They are good enough to have a name of their own (not just 'the healthy no-bakes, you know...') and Bailey (the Brittany) is cute enough to warrant a cookie named after her.

David liked these well enough to stand jealous guard over them. Deacon liked them well enough to request a blog post a week after the fact. The pictures are reflective of no intention to post but I cannot withstand a request from a 10 year old. Really, I cannot :) What grandmother worth her salt could?!

bailey cookies
(adapted from my mom's recipe for no-bake chocolate cookies circa 1960)

3/4 cup honey
1/2 cup coconut palm sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup milk of your choice, I used coconut milk
6 Tbsp cocoa
1 tsp vanilla
 3 cups quick rolled oats
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine the honey, palm sugar, butter, milk of your choice, cocoa, and vanilla in a large heavy saucepan. Bring to a rolling boil and cook for one minute. Remove from heat and immediately add the oats, coconut and chopped pecans. Mix well. Using a 1" cookie scoop drop in mounds onto parchment paper (or foil) to cool and set - about 1 hour. (A brief stint in the fridge will shorten that time somewhat.)

cranberry-pistachio biscotti

Any kind of travel originating from our house equals a cooking frenzy prior to take-off. Doesn't matter if take-off actually includes flight or only a road-trip, we travel like royalty. By that I mean we take our own 'plate' and 'linen' or at least our own food. The days of loving fast-food junk and gas-stop snacks are so far in the distant past as to be impossible to recall, and airport fare is only to be ingested to stave off imminent starvation - real starvation, not just the I'm-dying-of-hunger feeling that hits about 4 hours post-dining. So the day or two before we (or in this particular case David) leave I bust out the bowls and pans, make a terrible mess and a wonderful aroma, ending the day with a triumphant feeling of accomplishment and a bunch of travel-friendly eats.

When the destination is Japan our bags always include gifts for friends and colleagues there. Every trip we deliberate over what to take - the problem being that in our minds every cool thing that anyone could want comes from Japan so what could possibly be a welcome gift? And every trip we arrive at the same conclusion: everyone eats so .... something delicious. Here is where problem 2 raises its ugly head - what is delicious to one may not be delicious to another, especially (but not exclusively) when there are culture gaps. For example, the Japanese find many of our sweet treats cloyingly sweet and very unappealing while we North Americans need to train our palates to appreciate the subtleties of their very excellent deep dark chocolate. Then of course, it must travel well and arrive not only fresh but pretty, or at least not a melted mess or a pile of crumbs. Happily I have happened upon a few options that are now tried and true to the point of being eagerly anticipated by the recipients. One of the stops David makes every trip is the office he headed while we lived in Tokyo. The staff there have a particular fondness for this biscotti and have requested the recipe. This post is for the "office ladies" at COFI Japan.

This recipe is a long-time favourite at our house. I started making biscotti when I happened on the intriguing recipe in an adorable little cookbook of cookie recipes by Mary Engelbreit (1998). The first batch was a big hit and as the process is fast, super simple, and yields a nice amount for the work a household star was born. David loves these crunchy, dunkable cookies at least as much as the COFI staff. I have tried a few other options for the add-ins (most recently cacao nibs, dark chocolate, and tart dried cherries - a combination I thought most promising but David prefers the cranberry-pistachio duo). I was interested to find a recipe that promised to be the penultimate biscotti recipe published in Chatelaine magazine before Christmas 2013. That recipe was only grains away from the one I had been using but even so, I wondered if those grains would be the difference between .... I don't know what?! Naturally I tried the Chatelaine recipe and wouldn't you know it? those grains did make all the difference. I keep the sweet little M.E. cookbook but won't be looking back for the biscotti recipe. The only change I make to the Chatelaine recipe is to add a smidgeon of almond extract.

Although the recipe was published as a Christmas cookie, we have liberated it to whole-year status. The red and green of the cranberries and pistachio does make a lovely statement wholly in keeping with a Christmas theme but I ignore that element and celebrate the nutritional goodness of both add-ins as daily requirements. To be sure, these are not to be eaten for your health but mental health is important too, right?

Just have to say that although I don't love the actual trip, I do wish I was in Japan with David right now. 

cranberry-pistachio biscotti
(from Chatelaine magazine)

2 1/4 cups all-purpose white flour*
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup chopped pistachios
1 cup dried cranberries

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper and heat your oven to 325 F. Stir the flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until very creamy - about 5 minutes. Beat the eggs in 1 at a time, then add the vanilla and almond extracts. Stir in the flour mixture and then the pistachios and cranberries. The mixture will be a bit dry but should hold together. Gather the dough together and divide into two. Using your hands shape the portions into logs that are roughly 1" high x 2" wide on the parchment lined baking sheet. If the dough sticks to your hands (and makes you a bit crazy) you can dampen your hands with cold water - just don't use too much water, dampen is the key. The logs should be about 3 inches apart.

Bake until the tops are firm and golden - about 30-35 minutes. Remove from the oven, let cool until you can handle them (about 10 minutes). Using a serrated knife cut into diagonal slices about 1/2" thick. The next bit is a little like playing dominoes - stand the slices on their edges with space between them on the baking sheet. Return to the oven and continue baking for 20-30 minutes more.

These keep very well. If they have a chance :)

* Gluten-free flour mix works very successfully here. Another option that I like is to use 1 cup of cornmeal and 1 1/4 cups flour or gluten-free flour mix. I have a particular love for the crunch of cornmeal.

almond cardamom cookies with chickpea flour

One of the local whole foods markets I frequent has recently really stepped up their game in the taste-test department. So much so that I find myself timing my stops there so I can be sure of tasting whatever is on offer that day. One has to think these things through carefully or one is apt to miss the boat - there is only a limited amount on any given day and I suspect that I am not the only one to notice. These taste tests are not your run-of-the-mill-Costco offering. They are home-made and designed to promote whole ingredients the store is selling. Having spoken to the woman who does the making I know she doesn't 'invent' the recipes, she just finds them, makes them, and samples them. She is kind enough to provide the recipes (a necessity if the shop wants to sell the ingredients I would think) and I have happily made several at home. Yesterday I was there again and the sample was so good that I ate one and then boldly, one more. No shame at all. Snagged a recipe printout, checked to make sure that I had everything I would need and made a batch of these cookies first thing this morning. Of that batch, five cookies remain and I doubt that they will last the day.

Eden, Isaac, Mark, and David were my primary testers. Nobody wanted to share and Eden was sad that she didn't have chickpea flour on hand because she wanted to make some then and there. 'Nuff said.

The cookies at the store were gluten-free but used refined sugar. I used coconut palm sugar instead, added a spice and a little almond extract to up the almond taste. Unfortunately, while the taste-testing woman shares her recipes she does not share the source so I cannot give credit where credit is due - and I really think some reasonable credit is due here. These are good cookies  - not just good for gluten-free. At least we all thought so.

almond cardamom cookies with chickpea flour

gluten-free, refined sugar-free

1 cup almond flour

1 cup chickpea flour

3/4 cup coconut palm sugar

1 egg yolk

1/2 cup butter

1 tsp cardamom

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

Cream together softened butter and coconut palm sugar. Add egg yolk and both extracts, beating until smooth and creamy. Add chickpea and almond flours, mixing until a soft dough forms - this will take a minute or two.

Roll into balls about 1" in diameter and flatten slightly. (I used a cookie stamp just for fun, even though the cookies were a lot smaller than the stamp I liked the look.) Bake at 300 F. for 12-18 minutes on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cool for 2 or 3 minutes on the pan and continue cooling on a wire rack.

coconut-pistachio biscotti

The other day I was asked to answer a short list of questions about myself. Among the list: what do you do when you have 30 minutes of free time? what did you like to do as a child? what did you get in trouble for as a child? The answer to all three of the questions? Read/reading.

I remember very clearly the painful process of learning to read. I didn't begin learning until I was in Grade One at school - six years old. I don't remember much of the in-school process, just stumbling through reading aloud from the Tip and Mitten readers we used (I loved those readers, lol!) The vivid memories I have are of the sessions with my much adored but not-terribly-patient father as he helped me get the basics under my belt. I remember trying hard to do something that felt huge and murky. I don't know what magic wand was waved or when or how but it must have happened because voila! one day, Comprehension. The clouds parted, it all made sense, and my life has never been the same. I love to read. Love, love, love to read. My taste ranges wide and my library is large. I have books in literally every room in the house - except the bathroom (where ironically many people do the only reading of their day. Ha!) I read magazines and cookbooks, novels and history, scripture, biographies, and coffee table books. There are books I have read many times over and books on my shelf that are 'aging' until just the right moment when they will beguile or enlighten.

Once I understood the magic of print on a page books became a constant friend - always there, full of new stories of other lives, places and times. I would read when I should have been practicing the piano, or cleaning my room, or doing homework or chores. I loved to read at night before turning out the light - and often read far too late and into the wee hours. I read and read and read - through school and university and into motherhood. I suspect each of my children has a strong memory of me with a book in hand because I always did. Books by then had become more than entertainment, they were tutors, mentors, resources, as well. 

Of course, I have not lost that love. Curling up in a cozy corner or favorite comfy chair with a good book is a quiet luxury that I hope I can always afford. A cup of herbal tea, a soft throw, and biscotti add layers of lovely luxury. Just thinking about it I unwind, mellow.

Biscotti I realize, draws a mixed reaction. There are lovers and haters. I am a lover - most of the time. Not a big fan of the stuff on the grocery store shelf but then when one compares homemade cookies to the stuff on the shelves at the local grocery market is that any wonder? If you haven't had or made biscotti at home I urge you to try it. Super simple and so very delicious it is well worth the time. This recipe is not only delicious but reasonably healthy. Biscotti has less fat and sugar than a regular cookie so that is a plus right off the bat. This recipe has the added blessings of tart dried cherries, pistachios, and coconut sugar, flour and oil. I love the crunch of the cornmeal combined with the buttery flavour of the nuts all offset against the wonderful tart cherries .... I have a hard time keeping my hand out of the tin - so I don't set it on the table next to my tea and book :)

(Try these after they come out of the oven from the first baking - yummm! Good either way.)

coconut-pistachio biscotti
(adapted from whole living magazine)

1/2 cup unbleached spelt flour (or all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
6 Tbsp virgin coconut oil
1 Tbsp finely grated lemon zest
1 cup dried cherries
1 cup shelled pistachios

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the flours, cornmeal, coconut, baking powder, and salt. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer mix the eggs, sugar, coconut oil, and lemon zest. Beat until well combined. Reduce mixer speed and ad the flour mixture, mixing until just combined. Fold in cherries and pistachios.

Transfer dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using wet hands pat dough into a log about 14" long by 4" wide. Bake until firm and golden, about 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees F. Transfer the log to a cutting board and using a serrated knife cut diagonally into 1/2" slices. Arrange the slices standing upright on the parchment-lined sheet and bake for an additional 15-18 minutes or until they are golden around the edges and crisp through. Cool completely.


Full disclosure: I used to pay/bribe my kids to play with my hair while I read in the evening after a long day or on summer afternoons when it was just too hot to do anything else. I hope their memories of those times are as golden as mine - me with a book and all my little ones busy around me. Some with toys, some with a book of their own. Sometimes I read aloud to them. unwind.......

almond chocolate chunk cookies with cocoa nibs

If I was to bake a cookie simply to suit my preference I would most likely make a batch of snickerdoodles or maybe cry baby cookies. When I am baking cookies for David's delight I know without a doubt his first choice will be chocolate chip. Don't get me wrong - I am a big fan of a superior chocolate chip cookie but they are still not my first choice. Because of that, in my mind at least, chocolate chip cookies are 'I love you cookies'.

These cookies are not your typical thick and chunky chocolate chip marvels. Rather, they are thin and crispy with the perfect chewy texture - a chewiness that makes them particularly irresistible to me. Although probably not the first morsel you would select from the cookie plate at the church social (they are just not flashy attention grabbers) if you were clever enough to pick one my bet is that you would go back for at least one more.

Made with far more almond meal than wheat flour they are healthier than most cookies. Of course there is still butter and sugar but never mind, just don't eat the whole batch by yourself in one sitting. At least that is my justification. That and the cocoa nibs.

almond chocolate chip cookies with cocoa nibs
(adapted from the fabulous Not Without Salt)

1/2 cup butter
1 cup turbinado sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup almond meal
1/2 cup sprouted whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup chopped dark chocolate
1/4 cup cocoa nibs

Cream the butter and sugar, add the egg and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl mix together the almond meal, whole wheat flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter mixture and mix gently. Add the chocolate chunks, cranberries and cocoa nibs, stirring until everything is evenly distributed.

Using an ice cream or cookie scoop, form 1 1/4" dough balls and set well apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. (These cookies really spread - be warned.)

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 13 minutes or until just turning golden on the edges and still soft in the middle. Let cool for a minute or two on the baking before moving to a wire rack to cool.

Note: If you wanted to make these gluten-free simply substitute your favourite gf flour mix for the sprouted whole wheat flour. (My personal recommendation is to make your own mix using whole grain gluten free options. That way you get the goodness of whole grains that you often miss in commercial offerings. There are lots of good mixes to be found on various blogs or you can try the mix I like - you can find it at the bottom of this post.)

corn cookies

Momofuku's Compost Cookies are well known and loved so when I saw a recipe for their Corn Cookies I didn't think twice about should I or shouldn't I, I just knew I would. And I did. These are so very worth the leap off the healthy-eating wagon. Sweet, salty, and buttery with an irresistible chewy center. The ground freeze-dried corn adds an intriguing texture and the taste? .... like corn, of course. I really cannot describe them and do them justice. You'll just have to try them.

Freeze-dried corn is available at Whole Foods, Williams-Sonoma and on-line. You'll need it to make the freeze-dried corn powder - just grind the kernels to a powder in a blender or food processor. If you can't find the corn I suspect that a good cornmeal would be a reasonable substitute but I must admit that I haven't tried it. The downside would be the loss of the fresh corn flavour.

corn cookies
(from Momofuku Milk Bar by Christina Tosi)

225 gm (1 cup) butter (room temperature)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cup flour
2/3 cup freeze-dried corn powder
1/4 cup corn flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

Combine the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream them together on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes - until they are fluffy and light yellow in colour. Turn the mixer speed to low and add the egg. Increase the speed to medium-high again and set a timer for 8 minutes. This long creaming process forces the sugar and fat together, making the sugar fully dissolve. When you are finished the mixture will be a very pale in colour - almost white - and will have nearly doubled in volume.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix just until the dough comes together. Don't overmix.

Using large ice cream scoop portion out cookie dough onto a parchment sheet lined sheet pan. Spacing isn't really an issue at this point because you need to cover the pan carefully with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least an hour but not more than 1 week. DO NOT bake the cookies from room temperature. IF you do the butter will melt out too quickly.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the cookie dough balls on another parchment lined sheet spacing them about 3" apart. Bake for 18 minutes. The cookies will spread, puff up, and crackle while in the oven. After 18 minutes, the cookies should be very faintly golden on the edges and bright yellow in the center. Cool the cookies completely on the pan.

raw chocolate macaroons

During my April visit to Vancouver Jonathon told me about some chocolate macaroons. He said they were amazing and I had to have some. uhummmmm. I must admit that although I love a good treat they just didn't sound that compelling. Not compelling enough to drive across town for one little cookie. I was sooooooo wrong! Last week we made that drive over a bridge or two and bought a macaroon for me and another for him and.... tada! first-bite quick trip to another dimension. I am publicly repenting my ridiculous judgement. The first thought I had after the 'oh my this is incredibly good' thought was that I would need to learn to make raw chocolate macaroons myself as the distance between Calgary and Vancouver is indeed prohibitive - at least when one is considering a single macaroon. Happily, they are about the easiest treat under the sun. Happier still there is a lot of merit in a single cookie. 

I chose to make my macaroons mini-sized. I was feeding some mini-sized people for one thing and for another, I feel more decadently indulged when I can have more than one. 

The macaroons were an unqualified success. Not too sweet but sweet enough. Richly, intensely, darkly chocolate. Absolutely satisfying. The perfect punctuation to a happy Sunday supper.

*update: upon reflection I figured that these would be better with more coconut oil - creamier -and a little less coconut. So I tried it and they are much better.  The changes are reflected below. The bonus is that you get more of the MCTs now! In order to form the cookies you will need to let the 'dough' firm up a little - about 30 minutes in the fridge should do the trick.

raw chocolate macaroons

1 3/4 cups fine flake unsweetened raw organic dried coconut

3/4 cup raw cacao powder

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup extra-virgin coconut oil

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp Himalayan sea salt

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and process until combined. (Or simply beat together in a bowl.) Using a scoop, form balls and put on a parchment lined tray. Freeze for about 15 minutes before serving. After the initial freezing, these can be kept in the fridge.

Note: I happened to have some exotic sounding coconut so I used it in an effort to duplicate as closely as possible the deliriously delicious treat I had in Vancouver. I also had the cacao so I used it. That said - these would be ridiculously amazing even made with cocoa and any unsweetened coconut. If  you can't find fine flake (and it can be a bit hard to source - and really isn't worth the effort) just process regular flaked coconut in your food processor until it is quite finely ground. The regular shreds wouldn't produce as pleasant a texture in the resulting cookie. I wouldn't use sweetened coconut though as the extra sugar would be too much.

And just so you know? the whole first batch was gone last night so I had to make another today. Of course.

Wonders

Back in the mists of time, when we lived in Osaka, I had some (ahem) adventures in the grocery store - that lead to even greater adventures in the kitchen. Ahhhhhh, the mystery foods I bought. (Actually it was more often ugggggg than ahhhhh but time kindly softens pretty much everything.) Once we bought adzuki bean ice cream bars for the kids as a treat. That turned out to be one of the greatest disappointments of their young lives, they thought they were getting chocolate because that's what the picture on the package looked like.... Five sticks of ice cream ended up melting in the sink and five sad kids looked at me accusingly. Oh well, I believe we have all moved on and hope they scarcely remember the tragedy. Another time I bought what I hoped was chili powder to make one of their favorite comfort food dinners, only to find out that it was, in fact, chili pepper. And we all know that a tablespoon of chili pepper in a recipe is a world away from the same amount of chili powder. More accusing glares.


Fortunately, there were some delightful discoveries. Like Wonders* - as in I wonder what they call these (because I can't read the Japanese on the package). Essentially sandwich cookies made of crackers and icing, they are addictive. The touch of salt combined with sweet icing and the buttery crunch of the crackers....divine. 


So this 'recipe' is really more of a suggestion and follows my philosophy that it is a shame (bordering on sin) to waste any speck of cream cheese icing. In case you have any cream cheese icing left after making the Snap Baby Cookies (and licking the beaters) this is an excellent suggestion. 


Wonders


-an even number of Ritz crackers (or reasonable facsimile of Ritz but personally I am a purist)
-cream cheese icing


Spread a generous amount of icing on one cracker and top with another cracker. Press lightly. Enjoy thoroughly.


Variation: (for when you have mastered the basic version)
- substitute graham wafers for the Ritz crackers

If you want to be really nice to a friend in need or... anyone really, you can make up a stack of these. Wrap them in parchment paper or wax paper, tie with cute twine or ribbon, add a little tag or note and you are a star.

*My name for the cracker/cookies because I never did find out what they are really called.

Snap Baby Cookies

Meinhardt's in Vancouver is one of my favorite stores anywhere. I know some women would rather eat worms than go to the grocery store (or almost rather at any rate) but I have always enjoyed shopping for food. Some food stores really raise the bar. Entering them is a total sensory feast - the rows of perfect produce gleaming and seducing with their bright colors, the smells from the deli and bakery, the racks of dry goods and spices from exotic locales, ahhhh...... Well, yes - Meinhardt's is one of those stores. I want to buy every beautifully packaged item (total sucker here for great packaging) and have a taste of every enticing offering. Jonathon lives close to a Meinhardt's  (lucky guy) and stopped in the other day. He bought a cookie and immediately called me - mid-treat - with this wonderful revelation, "If Homemade Oreos and  Cry Babies had a baby this would be it!" Now that may not make you drool but it sure got me wiping my chin. Homemade Oreos x Cry Babies!!!!! My word!! Got right on that and realized success right off the bat - but really, how could I lose? 


Absolutely delicious. Promise. Trust me.

The cookie part is not exactly the same as the Cry Baby Cookie recipe - more inspired by.We decided to call them Snap Babies. 

Snap Baby Cookies

2 - 2 1/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp ginger

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp sea salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 Tbsp molasses

2 1/2 Tbsp liquid honey

Combine butter and sugar, beat. Add the egg, molasses and honey and beat well. Sift dry ingredients together (using only 2 cups of the flour) and mix into wet ingredients. If the dough is really wet and sticky, add more flour to make a fairly stiff dough - one that can be easily rolled into a ball. Form 1" balls and bake on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 12 minutes at 350 F.

(I used a small 'ice cream' scoop to make my dough balls. Not as messy as hand rolling, and the size is uniform which is nice when making sandwich cookies - no hunting for matching size cookies.)

Cool on wire racks.

When the cookies are cool. Spread a generous tablespoon of icing on a cookie and top with another cookie. Press together. Let them set for a while....if you can! Then lean back and soak up the raves. Or lick  your fingers. Either or both.

Cream Cheese Icing

1 package cream cheese

3 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese until softened and creamy. Add the sugar 1 cup at a time - unless you want to see it puff up and sift gently down over the floor and counter. In that case, go ahead and add all 3 cups at the same time (as you may suspect I did - and you would be right). Either way, beat until the icing has a smooth consistency. Lick the beaters (because wasting cream cheese icing is a shame) and fill the cookies.

mmmmmmmmmm...... Yum! All of us (Eden, Hannah, and the smaller people including toddlers - but not real babies - that were here when these debuted) agreed one or two was not enough.