Sugar High Friday: Soy (Extreme Measures)

Double Soy Chocolate Chip Cookies With Cranberries & Currants

When I set my mind to something, I am down for the whole thing. Obstacles have never deterred me. For many years I put my Ikea/West Elm/Cost Plus furniture together with a pair of scissors, a sauce pan, and a pitcher of margaritas, because I didn't have any tools (and because I was daft!). So - when I came across a reference to a most wondrous thing in the blogosphere -- Sugar High Fridays -- I knew I had to get in on it. Even though I haven't baked in years and don't even have flour, sugar, or butter stocked in the house these days. Even though I don't own a digital camera to easily document the production & final glory of my entry. Even though the ticking clock was against me making the June deadline. Ha! I make a mockery of common sense.

Though very sorry to miss SHF #18: Candy is Dandy but Liquor is Quicker, I was game for this month's challenge: make a dessert that features at least one soy product. I found a great online resource and finally settled on an easy first effort: cookies. Originally called Cranberries Currants Butter Cookies, I'm renaming them "Double Soy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cranberries and Currants." Or maybe not. In any case, my first Sugar High Friday entry features TWO soy products: soy butter and Zoe Foods Flax and Soy Granola Cereal, Cranberries Currants flavor.

Now, I can shop and follow a recipe just as well as the next person. But photographing the process was an entertaining debacle. I love my Pentax manual camera, but I have no flash, and being a working stiff really puts a crimp in my daylight hours. The solution was clear: run home on my lunch hour & crank this recipe out with my camera around my neck. Already, it was an amusing task; when I discovered there still wasn't enough light to photograph in my kitchen, further absurd adjustments had to be made. At each stage of the process I hauled my food processor and ingredients out to the back yard where I found extra-bright light (check out the glare in these pics!) -- and weeds as tall as corn stalks! (Must learn to garden this weekend!) I tried not to drop the dough into the dirt, struggled to keep the weeds out of the frame, and cursed every time my camera went swinging from my neck into the counter or the oven door - slam! Meanwhile, the clock was ticking, and the dogs next door were barking like banshees, alarmed by all the commotion.

Process aside, the good news: the dough was fantastic! (In fact, I didn't even get to try the finished cookies, because I over-indulged so much.) When I had one batch out of the oven, I put them on a plate and sped back to work, a little late, but offering chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. Consensus was they were very tasty, with a slightly more "earthy" or "healthy" flavor than your average cookie. Hurray.

I originally waffled over adding chocolate chips, thinking it might be nice to tweak the recipe to be completely vegan. But when I read the nutritional information for Zoe Granola Cereal, I knew I had no choice; a person could probably be thrown out of Sugar High Fridays for stats like these:

Foods Flax & Soy Granola Cereal is a moist, naturally sweetened, blend of dry-roasted soybeans, ground flaxseed, grains, and fruit. Every serving of Flax & Soy Granola Cereal has a tablespoon of ground flaxseed and naturally provides omega-3 fatty acids, protein, fiber, and phytoestrogens, natural plant estrogens. It contains no cholesterol, is low in saturated fat and sodium, and is wheat free.

The best part was the reminder of how truly sublime warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies are. One of the memories I hold dearest to my heart is of a rainy afternoon at Long Beach Day Nursery School so many years ago. After indoor painting, we were treated to chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven. While the rain tumbled down, the universe was forever transformed by the smell and taste of those treasures. It was magical, and the memory is a permanent reminder to me of the unknown, unexpected delights to be encountered in Life.

And so, it's done. I love you, Sugar High Fridays. And I will be getting a digital camera very soon.

Double Soy Chocolate Chip Cookies With Cranberries and Currants

Preheat oven to 350°F

Beat Together
8 oz soy butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs

Stir In
2 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Mix In
2 cups flour
1 box Zoe Foods Flax & Soy Granola - Cranberries & Currants

Add
6 oz bittersweet chocolate chips

Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet and bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes.