Not in the garden for a change

french breakfast radishes + rainbow chard (Photo credit: mamichan)

Glinda brought home a bunch of rhubarb and an enormous bunch of French Breakfast Radishes from the farmer’s market downtown, so dinner was radish sandwiches (Good, crusty bread, good butter, sliced radishes, preferably FB, and a bit of salt.)  Heaven!  And today I’m making a strawberry-rhubarb pie with ginger and an almond crumble top.

Yeah, I’ve been in a bakin’ mood.  On Monday I made a batch of my breakfast cookies. Glinda took some to work and said that everyone went nuts over them.  She ventured the opinion that they were “Nikolaj Coster-Waldau naked good.”  I think those deserve to be immortalized with a name and a fixed recipe, don’t you?   Before I print it, I should say that these began life as Doubletree chocolate chip cookies.  You know, those big ones they give you when you check in?  They’re really extraordinary as they stand, but I’ve been playing with the recipe the way I always do, and some of the variations have been quite good. (A couple sucked, but that happens.)  This version?  Best. Ever.



The Nikolaj  

1 cup butter

1/2 cup almond butter

1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

4 eggs

2 T vanilla extract 

1 teaspoon lemon juice

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup rolled oats

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon or more

1 tsp ground cardamom or more

8 oz bag semisweet chocolate chips

4 oz chopped pecans

4 oz chopped almonds

8 oz shredded coconut

4 oz dried cherries

4 oz chopped, dried apricots

2 T cocoa nibs

2 T flax seeds

Cream butter, almond butter and sugars together until fluffy.  Add eggs and beat until they’re blended.  Add vanilla and lemon juice, then the flour, baking soda, and salt.  Mix well.  Then add the cinnamon and cardamom.  You really need to flavor these to your taste.  I used a lot of both, probably more than a teaspoon of each.  Use your own good judgment here.

Then the fun really starts.  Toss in the nuts, coconut, oats, dried fruit and chocolate chips.  Then add the cocoa nibs and flax seeds.  By now your batter is getting stiff, so you may have to blend with a spoon at the end.

Bake on parchment @ 350 for the best results.  You want a mound about the size of half an apricot, maybe a little larger.  This batter doesn’t lend itself to small cookies.  Just go with it.  They’re usually done in about 13-15 minutes, and will be a bit golden around the edges.  They’ll make about 4-5 dozen lovely, chewy cookies.