hey, sugar

{image swiped from Joy the Baker}

I went on a sugar bender over Easter weekend. (Candied nuts! Cheesecake! Brownies! Alfajores! Pasta frola!) Then I felt horrible. The next day I decided that we'd been consuming too much sugar anyway and chucked most of the sweet stuff in the house-- it's doing nothing but harm to my body, so why do I keep shoveling it in? Dumb. Inspired to new heights of health, I nobly resolved to stop eating poison.

So, of course, here are some cookies. :)

Okay. The resolve was actually something like this: I will make dessert once a week and cut sugar the rest of the time. That way we don't have to give it up completely, which would be stressful and not much fun, but we are not sneaking it in throughout the week either. (After all, I try to avoid toxins on a regular basis, so I figure we can swing the occasional treat.)

p.s. I'm fine with the minute amounts of sweetener in dishes like this carrot salad . . and if my husband wants to buy a doughnut on his way to work, oh well, he's a big boy and can decide for himself . . .

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Peanut Butter Hazelnut Cookies with Dark Chocolate Drizzle
(adapted from Joy the Baker)

cookies:
1 cup natural peanut butter*
1/2 cup brown sugar (you can make your own!)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole hazelnuts

chocolate drizzle:
2 ounces dark chocolate
2 teaspoons coconut oil

1) Preheat oven to 350 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2) Spread hazelnuts on baking sheet and toast in hot oven for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly, and chop.
3) Meanwhile, beat peanut butter and sugars together in bowl of stand mixer until creamy. Add egg, baking soda, and vanilla; beat thoroughly. Stir in chopped hazelnuts.
4) Gently form cookie dough into discs and place on lined baking sheet. (My cookies have about 2 tablespoons of dough each.)
5) Bake cookies 10-15 minutes, until golden brown and slightly firm in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool 2 minutes on pan; remove to rack to finish cooling. (You may want to just bake two or three your first time around, to check the baking time. They won't be solid enough to pick up when they first come out of the oven, but will firm up while on the baking sheet. Magic.)
6) For the chocolate drizzle, melt chocolate and coconut oil together in double boiler and stir until smooth. (My ghetto version: stoneware bowl over small saucepan of simmering water. Totally works.) Drizzle over cookies, and refrigerate to set chocolate.


*I think a combination of almond and peanut butter is really good.