Category: baked goods

Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookie Recipe

P1050865

These cookies are a great combination of ginger and chocolate, and they are perfect for serving or giving away at Christmas time. Because the chocolate it bittersweet it really balances out the sugar, and the large-grain sugar coating makes them look really pretty. Perfect with sparkling lights!

I found this yummy recipe here.

The only difficulty I had was getting the sugar to stick to the outside. My hands tend to be quite cold, so I have to warm the dough up a bit in my hands before rolling in the sugar, which made things a little easier.

What you need:

  • 1/2 cup turbinado sugar (large-grain)
  • 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
  • 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or all-purpose)
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 4 & 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup  unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
  • 2/3 cup fine grain natural cane sugar (or white sugar)
  • 1 & 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
  • 1 large egg, well beaten

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F with the racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line two of baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Place the large-grain sugar in a small bowl and set it aside.
  3. Finely chop the chocolate into 1/8-inch pieces, so that it is basically shavings.
  4. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt.
  5. Heat the butter in a saucepan until it has just barely melted. Remove it from heat and stir in the molasses, (cane or white) sugar, and the fresh ginger. The mixture should be warm, so if it is hot let it cool a bit. Whisk in the egg.
  6. Pour the butter mixture over the flour mixture and stir until it is just combined. Fold in the shaved chocolate.
  7. Make balls out of 2 teaspoons of the dough and roll them between your hands. Roll in the turbinado sugar, then roll in your hands so the sugar sticks to them.
  8. Place them a few centimetres apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies puff up, darken a bit, and become fragrant.
  9. Allow them to cool for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool.
  10. Once cool you can store in an airtight container.

Rich Chocolate Cookie Cake

chocolate cookie cake - trust in kim

If you love chocolate, this one’s for you! Apparently this was Kate and William’s wedding cake, but it really isn’t a fancy cake, as might befit royalty. And it is super easy to make. It is really just biscuits bashed up and coated in chocolate – I know, awesome, right?

I don’t really consider this a cake, since it isn’t baked, but if the royals call it that then I guess I will too.

What you need for the cake:

  • 4 ounces dark chocolate
  • 4 ounces granulated sugar.
  • 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 egg.
  • 8 ounces Rich tea biscuits.
  • ½ teaspoon butter for greasing

What you need for the chocolate coating:

  • 8 ounces dark chocolate

What you do:

  1. Grease a 6 inch springform pan, then place it on a sheet of parchment.
  2. Break the biscuits into almond-sized pieces by hand.
  3. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture starts to lighten.
  4. Melt the 4 ounces of chocolate and add it to the butter mixture while stirring continuously.
  5. Beat the egg into the chocolate mixture.
  6. Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.
  7. Spoon the mixture into the pan. Press it down so there are no spaces; the part on the bottom will become the top, so you don’t want to have any gaps there.
  8. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least three hours.
  9. Remove the cake from the refrigerator and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of chocolate.
  10. Slide the ring off the cake and turn it upside down onto a wire rack with a baking sheet under to catch the drips. Pour the melted chocolate over the cake and smooth the top and sides. Allow the chocolate to set at room temperature.
  11. Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where the chocolate has stuck it to the wire rack, and lift it onto a serving plate.

I think this is best when it has been refrigerated, but you could also serve it at room temperature.

Moist Chocolate Zucchini Loaf

chocolate zucchini loaf - trust in kim

This chocolate zucchini loaf got rave reviews when I brought it to work the other day. It has enough chocolate to satisfy the chocolate lovers, but people also appreciated that it’s not too sweet. Plus we all pretended we were eating something healthy because the recipe contains zucchini, whole wheat flour and olive oil.

As a baker who is usually too busy to bake these days, I like recipes in which I don’t have to wait for butter to soften and then cream it. This is one of those recipes where you can just combine all the wet ingredients and fold them into the dry ones, so it’s relatively quick. But you do have to grate the zucchini – no big deal.

I made the full recipe when I baked this, but here I halved the recipe so it is only one 9 x 5 x 3 loaf. I didn’t use the walnuts because I knew some people would like it better without, but if it was just up to me I’d have put them in.

I found the recipe here.

What you do:

  • Softened butter, for the pan
  • parchment paper
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted (optional)
  • 4 ounces semisweet (or dark-my favourite) chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup well-shaken buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • 3/4 cup fine-grained turbinado sugar (I just used white sugar)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups shredded zucchini

What you need:

  1. Prepare the loaf pan by greasing it with butter. Then cut a piece of parchment paper that is long enough to come up on the two long sides over the top of the pan, so you will be able to pull the loaf out by pulling on the paper. Grease the parchment paper as well.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  3. In a large bowl whisk together the flours, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts if you are using them.
  4. Grate the zucchini.
  5. In another bowl whisk together the olive oil, buttermilk, egg, vanilla and sugar. Mix in the grated zucchini.
  6. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, being careful not to over mix.
  7. Bake for 50 minutes, rotating the pans once half-way through the baking. Test the loaf by inserting a toothpick. It should come out almost clean. Place the loaf on a cooling rack for 20 minutes before removing from the pan.
  8. Enjoy! You can freeze this loaf, or part of it, if people don’t eat it all right away. It is good for a few days after baking. Yum.

My Mom’s Fruit Platz

fruit platz - trust in kim

Platz is one of the Mennonite treats I grew up eating. My mom, Omas and Aunts all made it. Usually we ate it for faspa, the Sunday meal that consisted of cheeses, cold meats, and homemade buns (zwieback), jams and pickles. As a kid I wasn’t a big fan of faspa, but I always looked forward to the platz for dessert.

Platz, sometimes called Obstkuchen, is a coffee cake that is topped with fruit, then covered with a sugary-buttery crumb topping.

The fruit my relatives used was typically plums or apricots, but almost any fruit works. For this one I used a combination of plums and nectarines. A tart fruit works well in here, like sour cherries or rhubarb, because the topping is pretty sweet.

The crumb mixture we usually called streusel, but sometimes is was called ruebel.

It was typically made in a 9×13 pan, but I made mine in pie plates so I could give one away and keep one.

There are many recipes for platz, and I think they are all good. This one is my mom’s, so it is the best! The recipe (see below) is handwritten by my mom and stored in a drawer up at the family cabin. She no longer uses margarine for this; only butter will do.

I love to eat this cake while it is still warm, but since I grew up eating the day-old platz that was baked on a Saturday, I also think it’s pretty good a day or two later. I’ve learned to heat it up ever-so-slightly to bring back the freshly-baked feel.

What you need for the cake:

  • 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • milk
  • fruit, cut into slices

What you need for the streusel topping:

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup flour
  • pinch of salt
  • a dash of vanilla
  • 1/3 cup butter

What you do:

  1. Butter your pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  2. Cream the sugar and butter well.
  3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.
  4. Crack an egg into a measuring cup, then fill the cup to 2/3 with milk.
  5. Add flour and milk alternately, ending with flour. Resist the temptation to over mix.
  6. Place the thick batter into your pan and spread it evenly to the edges and corners. Hands work well for this; just wet them a little before you start pressing it into the pan.
  7. Place the fruit in one layer on top of the batter.
  8. To make the streusel topping start by melting the butter. Add the other ingredients and mix together. Hands work well for this too, then you can use your hands to spread the topping evenly over the fruit.
  9. Bake for 35-40 minutes. Some of the fruit will begin bubbling through the streusel, and the edges of the cake will be lightly browned.
  10. Enjoy!

platz recipe - trust in kim

streusel recipe - trust in kim

Margherita Pizza

margherita pizza - trust in kim

 

A Margherita pizza is the true test of good ingredients and a great pizza crust recipe. It is so simple, but everything has to be just right to make it taste delicious. I like to use the A16 Restaurant dough, which requires planning ahead a day or two. It has a perfect chewiness, with a crispness on the edges that bubble up and blister. The tomato sauce is simple; just some canned San Marzano tomatoes, crushed by hand.

This pizza isn’t like one from a take-out place, with a crust thick enough to hold up a ton of soggy toppings and cheese. This one is light, with a crispy crust, and you can taste each ingredient. Delizioso!

What you need:

  • 1/4 teaspoon yeast
  • 1 & 1/2 cups warm water
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 4 cups “oo” flour or all-purpose (I used all-purpose)
  • one 28-ounce can of tomatoes (San Marzano if you can find them)
  • 1-2 teaspoons salt
  • fresh mozzarella
  • freshly grated parmesan
  • fresh basil (optional)

What you do:

  1. Begin preparing the dough a day or two before you want to make the pizza. You can do this by hand, but it’s a bit more work than using a machine. Pour the warm (not hot – just body temperature) water into a mixer fitted with a dough hook, and then sprinkle the yeast on top.  Leave it for about 10 minutes and it should dissolve and become foamy – if it doesn’t your water was the wrong temperature, or the yeast is dead, so you need to try again with new yeast.
  2. Stir in the olive oil and salt.  Add most of the flour and mix on low for 2 minutes.  Knead on medium-low for about 10 minutes – it will pull away from the bowl and begin to look smoother.
  3. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it rest for 5 minutes. Knead once more on medium-low for 10 minutes – it will be smooth and quite soft.  If it seems much too sticky you can add a little more flour.  Coat a bowl with a little olive oil and then coat both sides of the dough with olive oil, placing the dough in the bowl.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge over night (or two or three nights).
  4. In the morning remove the  dough from the fridge and punch it down.  Fold the sides of the dough under and put it back in the bowl.  Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let it sit in a warm (not hot) place until about 2 hours before you are going to use it.
  5. Punch the dough down and divide it into 4 pieces.  Form each piece into balls and cover them with a damp towel for about 2 hours.  By this time the dough should have doubled in volume.  If it starts to get a skin on it you can spray it with a little water.
  6. To prepare the sauce, just put the tomatoes and their juice into a bowl and squish them into little bits with your hands.  Add the salt.
  7. Preheat the oven to 500-550 F. I used a brick oven, which had to be lit a few hours before to heat it sufficiently. This makes the Best Pizza, but understandably, most people will be baking in a conventional oven.
  8. To form the crusts, shape the dough into a disk with your hands.  Push down in the centre with your palm and pull the dough out gently with your other hand, rotating slightly until you have a crust that is about 10-12 inches/25-30 cm in diameter with a slightly raised edge. Dust your baking pan generously with flour and place the crust on it.  I don’t have a proper pizza stone or pan, and the baking tray I used worked just fine.
  9. Spread some tomato sauce onto the crust, then add the mozzarella and a light sprinkling of parmesan. You want to go light on the toppings or the crust will become soggy.
  10. Bake for 6-7 minutes, until the crust is crisp, golden, with some dark blistering, and the top is bubbling.
  11. Add a little fresh basil to the top if you are using it.

Buon Appetito!

 

making pizza crust - trust in kim
forming the crust by hand

 

baking in a brick oven - trust in kim
My dad had the job of baking in the brick oven.

Red Wine Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting and Cream Cheese Filling

chocolate birthday cake - trust in kim

This birthday cake is a combination of three recipes, put together to become my friend John’s dream cake. The cake is rich and chocolatey, and the red wine and cinnamon give it a subtle flavouring that people thought was coconut. Attempting to make it more of a red velvet cake, I added beet powder. I didn’t find that it added much redness to the cake, so it is totally optional. For me the best part of this cake is the icing – you can’t go wrong with butter and chocolate!

The recipe called for 2 cups of red wine, but I changed that to one cup of buttermilk and one of wine; feel free to use just red wine, just buttermilk, or a combination like I did.

In the photo you will see that there is only a thin strip of the cream cheese filling, and there are only two layers of cake. Because I only had two round pans that were the same size, I only had two layers in the completed cake. (There is an extra layer in my freezer, in a different size). I quadrupled the amount of cream cheese frosting when I typed up this recipe, so if you make this, yours will have more of the white filling, and enough to make a triple layer cake.

The cake recipe comes from Deb Perelman’s Smitten Kitchen Cookbook. The chocolate buttercream frosting is from addapinch.com – I didn’t add the espresso powder she used in her recipe. The cream cheese frosting is an alteration of Deb Perelman’s mascarpone filling.

I recommend keeping the cake in the fridge until you serve it. I like it when the icing is cold, making it more solid when it is sliced.

What you need for the cake:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pans
  • 2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 4 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 cup red wine (I used a malbec, but anything will work)
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 & 1/3 cups Dutch cocoa powder
  • 2 & 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons beet powder (very optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

What you do for the cake:

  1. Line the bottoms of three 9-inch round cake pans with parchment. Butter the parchment lightly.
  2. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
  3. In a very large bowl cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugars and beat for about 3 minutes, or until they are fluffy.
  4. Add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Beat in the red wine, buttermilk and vanilla; the batter will look a little odd, but it is fine.
  5. Sift the flour, cocoa, beet powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt on top of the batter. Mix until it is about 3/4 incorporated, then continue by folding it with a rubber spatula.
  6. Divide the batter evenly between the three pans, evening out the tops with the spatula. Give the cake a small tap on the counter to remove any air bubbles (something my mom taught me), and place them in the oven. The recipe says to bake for 25 minutes, but mine wasn’t ready yet, so test with a toothpick to see if it is done, and return to the oven for a few minutes before testing again.
  7. When you take the cakes out of the oven, let them rest on cooling trays for about 10 minutes. Then run a sharp knife around the edge before inverting them onto the cooling trays. Let the cakes cool completely before beginning to frost them.

What you need for the cream cheese filling:

  • 460 grams cream cheese (not light, not spreadable) at room temperature
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (clear if you have it)
  • a pinch of salt

What you do for the cream cheese filling:

  1. Beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy, then beat in the vanilla and salt.
  2. Add half a cup of icing sugar at a time and beat until it is incorporated and fluffy.
  3. Spread half of the filling on top of one layer of the cake, and place the second layer on top. Repeat with the second layer of filling and third layer of cake.
  4. Refrigerate the cake until the filling has firmed up a bit before moving on to the chocolate frosting.

What you need for the chocolate buttercream frosting:

  • 1 & 1/2 cups butter (3 sticks), softened
  • 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
  • 3 & 1/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
  • 80 mL milk
  • 1 & 1/2  teaspoons vanilla extract

What you do for the chocolate buttercream frosting:

  1. Cream the butter, then sift in the cocoa and continue to cream that. Sift and then beat in a cup of the icing sugar, then beat in about half of the milk. Add another cup of icing sugar, then some more milk and the vanilla. You might not use all the icing sugar or milk. Test as you go to see when you think it is perfect.
  2. Frost the cake. I have little patience for this sort of thing these days, so my frosting didn’t look amazing. Here’s a tutorial if you want to do it better than I did.

Enjoy! Bon anniversaire, John!

birthday boy - trust in kimcake - trust in kimeating cake - trust in kim

Salted Caramel Pound Cake

salted caramel pound cake - trust in kim

If you like caramel or salted anything, or if you like a buttery pound cake, then this one’s for you!

The pound cake has cream in it, so it is quite moist, and not crumbly. The salted caramel – well, that just puts it over the top. Don’t be afraid of the two step recipe – bake the cake, then make the caramel. It’s quite foolproof, and the results are impressive.

I sent some of the loaf home with a friend, and we both found ourselves wanting to ration it, so the goodness could last for more days.

The recipe comes from the Lottie & Doof website, one of my favourite recipe blogs. He got the recipe from a Martha Stewart episode where she had a guest, Matt Lewis, who shared this recipe with her viewers. Thank you Matt Lewis!

What you need for the pound cake:

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for pan 
  • 3/4 cup cake flour (or see the substitution using flour and cornstarch if you don’t have any)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt 
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan 
  • 1 & 1/4 cups granulated sugar 
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
  • 2 large eggs, room temperature 
  • 2 large egg yolks, room temperature 
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream 

What you need for the salty caramel glaze:

  • 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar 
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream 
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 & 3/4 teaspoons fleur de sel, divided 
  • 1/4 to 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted 

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F with the rack in the centre of the oven.
  2. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. Cut a long piece of parchment paper and place it in the bottom of the pan with the long end extending up the two long sides of the pan, with a little bit of overhang. Butter the parchment and dust it with flour.
  3. To make the cake flour: measure 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour, then remove 4 & 1/2 teaspoons of flour. Replace the flour with 4 & 1/2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Sift the mixture 5 times.
  4. Whisk the flours, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
  5. On high speed, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
  6. Add the vanilla and beat it in.
  7. On medium-low speed beat in the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you are doing this.
  8. Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the cream, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
  9. Pour the batter into the pan, smoothing the top. Bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
  10. Place the pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes before removing it. (I forgot to do this and broke the corner of the cake.) Carefully run a small sharp knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the side of the pan, then remove it from the pan by pulling up on the parchment paper. Leave it to cool on the cooling rack.
  11. To make the salty caramel glaze, place the brown sugar, cream, and butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Stir over low heat until the butter is half melted, then increase the heat to medium-high, bringing it to a boil. Whisk constantly for 1 & 1/2 minutes of boiling time. Remove from the heat and whisk vigorously for 1 minutes to release some of the heat. Add 3/4 teaspoon of fleur de sel. Let it cool for 5 minutes.
  12. Sift 1/4 cup icing sugar and whisk into the sauce until combined. Continue adding sugar, just a little at a time, until the mixture is slightly thick and pourable. It will continue to thicken as it cools. You may not need to add all of the icing sugar.
  13. To prepare for glazing the cake with the caramel sauce, place a wire rack on top of a baking sheet, then place the cake on top of the baking sheet. Use a skewer to poke holes in the cake. Pour the warm caramel glaze over the cake, then sprinkle it with the remaining 1 teaspoon of fleur de sel.
  14. Let the cake cool 15-20 minutes before serving. I didn’t serve it for a few hours, so it was completely cooled, and tasted great. It was really good a few days later too, with a cup of tea.

Roasted Root Vegetable Chips

roasted root vegetable chips - trust in kim

Even though I know they are so bad for me, I really really love potato chips. I never ever buy them unless it’s a special occasion because I know I will not be able to leave a single chip in the bag. I’ve tried some of those fancy root vegetable chips, and loved them too.

Looking for a healthy alternative, I figured I could make my own root vegetable chips at home, using much less oil than the store-bought bags of chips. The trick is getting them very thinly and uniformly sliced. To do this I used a mandoline.

The picture of the roasted chips above was taken before I decided I needed to put them back in the oven to get a little crisper. They should look more browned than in that photo.

What you need:

  • 1 small potato
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 parsnip
  • 1 beet
  • olive oil
  • salt

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
  2. Slice the vegetables as thinly and uniformly as you can.
  3. Place the vegetables in a bowl and drizzle with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, and some salt.
  4. Spread the vegetables in one layer on a baking sheet. Keep each type of vegetable together; the roasting time varies between the vegetable types.
  5. Roast for about 15 minutes, then check the chips. If some are done, remove them, then let the rest continue to roast, checking every 5 minutes until they are done. They will get crisper as they cool.
  6. It’s best to eat these the day you make them, as they will get a little soft.

sliced root vegetables - trust in kim

Long Leek Pie

P1040972

This is a really great appetizer, with a picture that doesn’t do it justice. But trust me, it’s yummy and it’s easy.  A winning combination.

It’s puff pastry topped with leeks that have been simmered in white wine and herbs, then topped with goat’s cheese or crème fraîche. Did you know that some people don’t like goat’s cheese? It’s true, and crème fraîche isn’t a bad substitute for those people.

The recipe is from Yvette van Boven’s cookbook, Home Made. It serves 4-6 people. Mine was smaller, but a lot for two people.

What you need:

  • 4 sheets all-butter puff pastry
  • 3 leeks 
  • ¾ cup white wine
  • butter
  • a few thyme sprigs 
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • ½ cup aged goat cheese, grated or crumbled, or 1/2 cup crème fraîche
  • 1 egg white, loosely beaten  

What you do:

  1. Cut the leeks into three sections, removing the bottom and the dark green leaves. Wash the leeks, then simmer in the white wine, butter, thyme, salt, and pepper for about 20 minutes. Remove the leeks from the simmering liquid and pat them dry.

  2. While the leeks are simmering, stack the puff pastry and roll it out lengthwise. Use the back of the knife to score a rectangle just a few centimetres inside the edge; this will form a border. Place the leeks next to each other inside the border of the puff pastry.

  3. Top the leeks with goat cheese or crème fraîche, and brush the outer edges with lightly beaten egg white. (I put a little bit of freshly grated parmesan on top of the crème fraîche)

  4. Bake for about 25 minutes at 400°F. The edge will rise and become browned.

Enjoy it while it’s hot!

Chocolate Chip Seed Cookies – for hormonal balance

seed cycling cookies - trust in kim

I’m really happy to be posting this recipe, as I have found these to be very useful little cookies. I know, the word “useful” isn’t usually associated with cookies, but in this case the word fits. You see, I was first interested in the recipe because I wanted to find a tasty way to eat a lot of ground seeds, as part of a natural hormonal balance technique called “seed cycling.”  Seed cycling can help with  PMS, low energy, menstrual cramps, irregular cycles, acne, back aches, headaches, uterine fibroids, hot flashes and more. These symptoms are not normal, although many of us have lived with them for years.

But what is seed cycling, you ask? It involves eating ground seeds daily at different phases of the month, and helps the body naturally re-balance hormone levels. This is for women who are menstruating, peri-menopausal and menopausal. And apparently for men too – they have hormonal cycles as well! There’s more information about seed cycling on this site and here.

The first phase, the follicular phase, happens the beginning of a menstrual cycle. If there is no menstrual cycle, this can be timed to the first day of the new moon. At this time you eat a tablespoon of freshly ground flax seeds and a tablespoon of ground pumpkin seeds daily.

In the second, the luteal phase 14 days later, you eat a tablespoon of ground sesame and sunflower seeds each daily. If there is no menstrual cycle this time coincides with the full moon.

It is important to grind the seeds daily, so they don’t become rancid. Grinding them also allows the body to digest the seeds; flax and sesame seeds in particular pass right through you if they are not ground. I store my seeds in the freezer so they stay fresh.

Now, you might be wondering why I made these cookies when I could just sprinkle the seeds on my yogurt, oatmeal or salad. Well, the truth is that I couldn’t force myself to eat them any other way. I tried mixing it with my plain yogurt  with fruit, but I had a strong dislike of the texture of the seeds in the yogurt, and I wanted to keep enjoying my yogurt snacks.

So I searched around for a while until I found this recipe, and it changed everything. Now taking my medicine is delicious. I altered the recipe a bit to incorporate both phases of the seed cycling, and changed a few other parts of the recipe to suit what I had in my kitchen, and how I thought it would taste better. You could also exchange the chocolate chips for some dried fruit.

So because of the seed cycling I started making these, but there are some other benefits to this recipe. It is gluten-free, nut-free, egg-free and dairy-free.  They also make a great protein snack. So I think a lot of people might enjoy this one.

Oh, and anybody can eat these, not just people who are trying to balance their hormones, or who have food sensitivities. They are a yummy cookie.

I’d love to hear your feedback if you found these cookies helped you, or if you just enjoyed eating them.

Makes 24-28 cookies.

What you need for phase 1 cookies:

  • 1 cup ground pumpkin seeds
  • 1 cup ground flax seeds
  • 1/2 cup ground rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

What you need for phase 2 cookies:

  • 3/4 cup ground sesame seeds
  • 3/4 cup ground sun flower seeds
  • 1/2 cup ground flax seeds
  • 1/2 cup ground rolled oats
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/3 cup maple syrup
  • 1/3 cup melted coconut oil or butter
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

What you do:

  1. Choose which phase you are going to bake for, then combine the freshly ground seeds, rolled oats, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and stir to combine.
  2. Add the vanilla to the melted coconut oil/butter, then pour it into the bowl with the maple syrup. Stir to bring it all together.
  3. Mix in the chocolate chips.
  4. Preheat the oven to 350F.
  5. Using wet hands, form the mixture into slightly flattened balls, about 2 dozen of them. I divide the mixture into 4 sections, then make each into 6 or 7 cookies. Make sure they each have a couple of chocolate chips in them.
  6. Bake for 10-12 minutes, one tray at a time in the center of the oven.
  7. After removing the slightly browned cookies from the oven, let them rest for about 5 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack.
  8. Store in the freezer, removing as many as you need for the day. I eat 2 a day.