TWD... Oh My GOODNESS!!! Let me tell you about these little "Trufflish Nuggets" as Dorie calls them. They were our Tuesday's With Dorie bake this week and I was really hesitant to even try them. First, they are made solely using a food processor and we don't have one. I like to do everything by hand, but needed for this recipe. Second, Dorie's recipe calls for sliced almonds and my pantry in empty of almonds at the moment and being 1.5 hours away from a store that has them in a snow storm was bad news. Third, they reminded me a lot of a similar cookie from nine years ago and I was not sure if anyone at my house would eat
But the desire to bake with my group and the chef in me started brain-storming about all the ingredient substitutions I could use to make it all work... First, we decided on that our Pampered Chef food chopper would work. Second, peanuts would be a great replacement for almonds and then third, maybe if I added chopped cherries to the mix instead of the figs from 9 years ago. Then maybe they would taste like a "Big Cherry Mountain" candy bar...
Mission Accomplished... These are so good!!!! tastes just like the candy bar and they are gluten free and lower calories.
Since our group has promised not to share Dorie's recipe found in her Cookbook: "Baking with Dorie - Sweet, Salty Simple" on page 179, I thought I would share mine... (Sidenote: my recipe is half of Dorie's recipe, It made 18 tablespoon sized cookies)
1/2 cup chopped peanuts them.
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons semi-dark cocoa powder
2 egg whites (make sure its whites only)
I laid the cherries out on a paper towel to dry while I chopped my peanuts and coconut. Mixed those together in a medium mixing bowl, next chopped the cherries and added them to the bowl and stirred the three ingredients together. Next I added the sugar, the salt and cocoa powder, stirred until well blended. Last I added the 2 egg whites and mixed until everything looked wet and like paste.
I used a over-full teaspoon to scoop dough onto cookie sheet covered in parchment paper and placed them about an inch apart. Baked at 350* for 25 minutes. Dorie's recipe says until cookie is firm, but soft and will peel off the parchment paper.
