So, fabulous author Seanan McGuire has a recipe for dark chocolate pomegranate cookies.
Being me, I of course went (a) must try, and (b) more chocolate!
Because that’s how I roll.
Last year, I made gluten-free Winter Queen cookies using buckwheat flour and corn starch. They were tasty.
This year, I opted for a vegan (but not gluten-free) version, and am currently baking the first tray worth of a double-batch since my intention is to cart them all over the place (to the day job on Actual Solstice, to the table at my annual Solstice Shindig, to my mother’s place over xmas (as part of gift baskets), to my girlfriend’s NPPP’s place on xmas morning, and so on) for the next week or so.
This year’s version (doubled) goes as follows:
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Winter Queen Cookies 2011
Ingredients
3 C wheat flour
1 C tapioca starch
1/2 C cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
1 C granulated sugar
3/4 C lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 C pomegranate molasses[1]
1 C vegan margarine (or shortening, or whatever works)
1/4 C raw pomegranate seeds[2]
1/4 C small, non-dairy, semi-sweet chocolate chips
Directions
Pre-heat the oven to 350F
In a VERY large bowl, combine the dry ingredients
In a second bowl, combine the wet ingredients, creaming them together with a fork.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients – it may help to use your hands, eventually, and the dry stuff needs to be well-integrated with the wet.
Add the seeds and the chocolate chips and mix them (knead them?) into the dough until well-distributed.
Drop, by the table-spoon, onto a greased cookie sheet (you can get between 15 and twenty onto a large-ish cookie sheet and still have room for the spread).
Bake for 15-20 minutes[3]
Remove from oven and ALLOW TO COOL before transferring to a wire rack. (If you don’t do this, your cookies *will* fall apart).
Serve with hot chocolate, mulled red wine, or whatever your little heart desires.
Enjoy. 🙂
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Let me know how they turn out. 🙂
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
[1] Available at Middle Eastern – or, I gather, Kosher – grocery stores. Deliciously tart and adds a certain something to white-chocolate-apricot almond cookies, too. 😀
[2] You will most likely have to shell and gut a pomegranate to get them. Give yourself the time you’ll need. Trust me.
[3] I’m guessing. I’m working with an oven with only one functioning element, so it tends to take 40 or so when I cook them.
Urban Meliad 