Saturday, June 23, 2007

Maple Walnut Cookies

Coupla' crazy days again this week. Our older daughter "graduated" from kindergarten. It was a very unique kindergarten experience that we felt fortunate to have, so it was difficult to say goodbye to the year and the teachers. I cannot imagine her attending full days in 1st grade either. I like having lunch with both girls -- even with juice spilling on the table, food landing on my shirt, and the constant jibba-jabba!

We've had a lot of activities with the school the last few days (and weeks). A graduation ceremony, an end-of-school party (and someone even made these mini vegan banana breads!! And labeled them with the ingredients!... I forgot to ask who, and should have, because that was super thoughtful). Anyhow, lots going on, all of it heavy with parental emotion.

Cookies helped! Chocolate too, but this time I skipped the chocolate to make my Maple Walnut Cookies from Vive. I remember testing these recipes and thinking about the maple walnut ice cream flavor that my mom loved so much when we were kids. I never understood her fondness for it, but then most kids don't have a hankering for walnuts! Now, I get those combinations like maple walnut and butter pecan. Yes, they are yum-um-y.

Speaking of butter pecan, these cookies are just as delicious with pecans, if you prefer their sweeter nutty taste. If you are familiar with my Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookies, these Maple Walnut Cookies are similar, however, the batter is not as firm when you form the cookies and the finished cookie is also a little softer. The maple flavor really comes through, and that sweetness is balanced by the earthy walnuts.

Ice cream also helped. With or without the cookies. I won't show you how many ice creams I have in rotation right now though. Maybe one day you'll get a peak...

5 comments:

Teresa said...

Kindergarten graduation! What and exciting and momentous week for your family, not to mention hectic too. That is awesome that someone else brought vegan banana bread! It would make my day if someone from my family did something like that for me. To bad they just don't understand...

Enjoy your summer with the girls, because it will go by so quickly!

-Teresa

Carrie™ said...

I have some maple walnut ice cream in my freezer right now. It's one of my favorites. Hubby doesn't like maple (and he says he's Canadian. HA!) so the whole thing is MINE!! I've made these cookies before and they really are a special treat. Sometimes I don't feel like the old standards for cookies and these offer something wonderfully different.
Sounds like a good day was had by all at the graduation. I was reading along and when I came to "jibba jabba" I burst out laughing. Jim & I say that sometimes. Nice to know we're in good company!

hyphen_helena said...

Congrats to your daughter! Entering elementary/grammar school seems daunting but I loved my elementary school. Possibly more than my high school. My friends and I always look back on elementary school and how much fun we had. So I think your daughter will love it, too.

Those cookies are wonderful! I just made some a few weeks ago and my parents devoured them. They're very sweet, which is exactly how we like them.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

That's so great about your daughter's graduation! I love looking back through photo albums of all my graduations (yes, I remember my kindergarten one! haha). And wow, those cookies look amazing.

P.S. - I just created a blog today; stop by!

Dreena said...

Hiya Teresa, yes most hectic, but precious memories. The whole year there was a lot of acceptance and interest in our vegan diet. I'm sure some people frowned upon it, but if they did they didn't make it known, so it was quite positive overall.

Hey Carrie - no, no your hubby cannot be Canadian... what's he thinking??! No July 1st celebrations for him unless he has pancakes with MAPLE syrup. I can see not liking the Aunt Jemima stuff, but real maple syrup goodness - that just can't be!! Funny, yes, mealtimes there is A LOT of jibba-jabba from the girls. How often I say "enough jibba-jabba, now get to eating"! The nagging mom... :)

Thanks Helena, wow, I have just a few scattered memories of my elementary days. But yeah, they are fun, innocent years before entering junior high and high school. Yikes, I can't even think about that for our girls. stopping there! :) Cool, I'm glad you like these cookies. They are sweet, which is interesting because they have less sugar than my other cookies. But the extra maple syrup makes up for the reduced granulated sugar, giving that intense maple sweetness.

Yay, veggiegirl, I'll pop by to check it out!! I didn't have kindergarten graduation, but then I've got a *few* years on you. :)