The Learning Umbrella

So far this year, I have baked 257 cookies.  I have a chart up in my kitchen to keep track, because I’m working on a big cookie project.  At the beginning of the year, I pledged to bake 1000 cookies and raise at least $300 to send to treat and prevent fistulas in Africa.  This is an obstetric injury that women (or young girls, really) sustain when they labor for too long having their babies unassisted.  Having recently had a child (naturally) myself, I felt such sympathy for these poor girls when I heard about this clinic that does surgeries to correct the (awful) wounds. 

I have sold some cookies, and family and friends have kindly sent me checks just to “sponsor” my cookies.  I take cookies to meetings and give them to neighbors, and then I talk about why I’m doing this.  And I’m clearly behind schedule here, since I’m only 1/4 done but the year is 1/2 done!  Must bake more cookies!  This is hard when I’m cutting out the sugar from my diet, and I still have this gut mistrust of artificial sweeteners.

A wonderful recipe I found to accomodate my low sugar diet:

1 cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free + 1 tsp xanthan gum)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1/4 cup peanut butter

2 large eggs

1/4 cup mashed banana

1/2 cup peanut butter chips (sweet) or 1 cup chopped peanuts (crunchy)

1.  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease cookie sheets.

2.  Beat peanut butter, eggs, and bananas.  Gradually blend in dry ingredients.  Stir in chips or nuts.

3.  Drop by spoonfuls onto cookie sheets.  Leave some room - mine spread a lot, but I was using gluten free flour and that usually spreads more than wheat flour.

4.  Bake for 5-8 minutes, and transfer to wire racks to cool.