Waffle Week Day 6: dessert last

Today is the last day of waffles! My fondest hope is that you will go get a waffle iron already because so very much can be done with it. I didn’t even get to waffling sandwiches. Which if you do you should spread pimiento cheese between two pieces of buttered bread and waffle away.
After you waffle that sandwich, then you can make dessert. Like a proper sentient creature does.

Oh yes. Cookies.

At some point maybe I’ll try waffling actual cookies. Crazy thought. They’d have to be soft ones.
In the meantime I found this recipe for Chocolate Tic-Tac Doughs in the Pillsbury Poppin’ Fresh Homemade Cookies book I’ve had since sixth grade.

Poppin’. These better be some groovy snacks.

Please note my initial attraction to this recipe came from the words “dough” and “chocolate”. Done. And done. And how.

The recipe claimed they were “especially delicious eaten warm”. I must disagree. I may be the only person I know who can do without chocolate that has been heated. To me this dilutes the chocolate taste. I tasted a hot one and it was meh. Maybe it would be better with butter. Everything is better with butter spread on it.
I chilled the remainder of the cookies. Once chilled, the chocolate and the almond flavor from the extract really stood out. Then I got a bowl of ice cream and some Reddi-whip. I put a cookie at the bottom of the bowl and layered with stuff on top and let the cookie soak up some of the melt-y creams. I layered in more cookies. This was like a smashing chocolate cookie trifle. Yeah, baby. Do this. I’ll give you the recipe:
I halved and altered this a bit based on what I had. And to make it healthier-ish.
Chocolate Tic-Tac Doughs(based on a the Pillsbury Poppin’ Fresh Homemade Cookies recipe)
1 T. +1 tsp. splenda half bown sugar blend
1 T. Smart Balance
1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 1/2 tsp. plain unsweetened almond milk
2 T. beaten egg
1 T. whole wheat flour
4 T. + 1 tsp. white flour
2 tsp. dutch process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
Blend sugar, Smart Balance(if you have butter on hand, use it), almond extract, almond milk and egg. Do not fear the curdled look.
Blend remaining ingredients then stir in until well mixed. Drop by the teaspoon on heated and sprayed waffle iron.
Cook. Chill. Eat. Repeat.

Question of the day: How do you take your chocolate? Hot? Dark? Milk-y? Chip form? And am I the only one who can do without heated chocolate?

Pumpkin Time Again

I’ll explain the picture in a minute.
I finally succumbed to the autumn urge to pumpkin it up. And now I will pump(clap, point) you up! Sorry, SNL moment. Hans and Franz.
Since I held out on pumpkin recipes for the last post, this time I am showing you two. One vegan, created by the ever-lovely Katie, which you see at the top of the post. These pumpkin bars are so friggin’ fantastic. I barely managed not to eat the whole pan the first night I made them.
Then the next night I had a night shoot playing a goth, AGAIN:

Night fell, the shoot went on forever and at last at 4 am I arrived home with fake blood crusting on my neck, having been killed by vampires. Delicious image, no? I was starving and gulped down half the pan of these. Glad I had saved some. In honor of the goth-y state I was in when I consumed these, I took a picture of them with a comic about goths I clipped way back in the 90’s from a zine. Remember zines? Yeah, nineties grrl power. And goth power. And stuff.
Anyway, black attire or no, bloody or not, hop on over to Katie and check out the recipe for these bars.
And now, the non-vegan pumpkin bar:

This is the one that opened the floodgates of pumpkin. The gateway bar. Once you start, you can’t stop. It is addictive. I had been wanting to make this recipe for Pumpkin Bars from the Poppin’ Fresh Homemade Cookies cookbook, published by Pillsbury since…oh since I bought the book at a sixth grade book fair. A lot of other pumpkin recipes from other sources as well as a six year bout with anorexia distracted me from getting around to it.
Well done on this recipe, Pillsbury authors!
Incidentally, the Pillsbury Dough Boy(along with the Michelin man) was the inspiration behind the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. And I know him. The man who built and wore the costume. he’s not puffy. He says he filled in as Slimer occasionally during the film shoot. These are the folks I met at the parties when I was seeing a professional propsmaker. Ah, Hollywood. I digress.
I wish I had had cream cheese, I’d have frosted these suckers. But I did not.
Observe this picture of these bars:

Yep. That is some light Smart Balance I am putting on them. Incidentally, this variety of it is vegan. Not all Smart Balance is even vegetarian. One variety(the light heart right kind, I think?) has fish oil in it. Gross!
Now we’ve covered Katie, zines, goth-iness, vampires, fake blood, Ghost Busters characters, Hans and Franz, and fish oil.
So eat. Write a zine. Pump yourself up. Do a little dance. Make a little love, if you like.
Which of these activities are you doing tonight?
Let’s get to the recipe.
Pumpkin Bars(adapted from Poppin’ Fresh Homemade Cookies by Pillsbury)
1 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup splenda or stevia(or just use a full cup of sugar)
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cloves
1/2 cup applesauce
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
2 eggs
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Add wet and mix it up. Mix it good. But not too good, no need to beat this stuff. Pour into a sprayed 9×9 pan and bake til…done. I don’t remember how long I cooked these. I’m guessing a half hour more or less. But I took them out when slightly underdone because that is how I like them. Bottom line, take them out when they reach the state of done-ousity you prefer.