Good Granola Dunking Cookies

December 3, 2010 Laura

God help me if I leave my house without a snack for Scarlett. It never fails. Even if she’s cleaned her plate, within an hour she’ll ask for a snack. The kid is the ultimate grazer. I’m the same way though. My only issue with the whole obsession is most easy-to-grab, throw-in-your-purse snacks are processed within an inch of their life. She loves granola bars, but I find them crammed with sugar. (Oh man, they’re good though.) We like to make our own, but this granola treat by Whole Foods is a hit because, well, it’s called a cookie.

Scarlett never turns down a chance to make cookies, but she especially had fun this instance as we baked with her cousin during our visit with my parents for Thanksgiving. A teenager who has every reason to be bored with a little cousin, Alice couldn’t wait to get started. In fact, the entire project was born from Alice’s idea that the girls should have a proper tea party–Real dunking cookies, steeped tea and all.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
2/3 cup agave
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups low fat pumpkin granola
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Method

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix together flour, granola and baking powder.

Cream butter, agave, egg and vanilla.

Add the butter mixture to the dry ingedients and blend. Stir in cranberries.

Roll a teaspoon full of dough in palms to make small balls.

Lightly press onto greased cookie sheet one inch apart.

Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, or until middle of cookie doesn't transfer onto toothpick. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.

Sweet Potato Chronicles

Enjoy with tea or a big glass of milk or, like us, on the go too.

The girls worked together, and Scarlett loved her cousin’s enthusiasm for baking. I can remember doing these projects with Alice when she was younger. It was also so nice for me to just sit and watch all the action. I think I even bailed on the clean up too. (Sorry, mom)

The girls rolled the dough in their hands because Alice was particular about the right size of cookie.

These cookies are perfect for tea. They are firm and great for dunking.

Since there is about 10 million kinds of flavored granola (choose wisely though…many are loaded with sugar), you can make a different cookie every time. On this day, we even used blueberry agave instead of plain. You can also pretty much throw anything in to the batter–raisins, dried blueberries, sunflower seeds, carob chips, crushed almonds. They all sound good to me. But nothing sounds better than homemade cookies and an unexpected tea party with family.