Wait, weren’t we talking about amazing holiday cookies just the other day?  Yes, I know I just gave you those addictive Maple Jam Thumbprint Cookies a few days ago.  Too many cookie recipes, too soon!  Well, ’tis the season for homemade baked goods.  Besides, who can go to a party with only one type of homemade cookie?  Underachievers, that’s who.  These shortbread wedges are ultimate party showstoppers.  People will be raving.  You will be a party queen.  Recipe requests will come pouring in.  Holiday cookie success.

Sweetened entirely with honey and made with whole wheat flour, these hover on the border of healthy cookies.  Eh, the cup of butter aside … they might qualify.  Either way, they only have six ingredients and I can pronounce all of them which is enough for me.  Honey-sweetened and pecan-studded, these addictive shortbread wedges are drizzled with enough decadent dark chocolate to satisfy even the most demanding palette.

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Cookie season is upon us.  The social calendar is quickly filling up with parties and other cookie-appropriate gatherings. Your kitchen is probably covered in a fine layer of powdered sugar by this point.  In a sea of sugar-laden, overly-processed baked goods, sometimes you want to be able to bring something to the party you can actually feel good about eating.  Or at least not feel bad about eating.  No need to sabotage those New Year’s Resolutions before they even have a chance to get started!

I’m the first to admit that I’m a chocolate snob.  One look at a fruit-based dessert and I’ll quickly move on to something fudgy and decadently chocolate.  These jam thumbprint cookies converted me.  After one bite I was addicted … after eating nearly the whole batch, I quickly had to make a second batch so there would be some to actually take to the party!  Lightly sweet and nutty, these naturally sweetened jam thumbprint cookies are the holiday cookies you can feel good about sharing.

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A few weeks ago, when Hurricane Irene was barreling toward the Eastern seaboard (aka. My Home), New York City was in a panic.  Store shelves were stripped bare, batteries had never been worth more and people were walking around with more cash in their wallets than they had since the early 90s.  Like most other urbanites, I went to stock up.  Load our pantry with necessities.  Non-perishable items to live off of if the worst happened and we were stranded for days on end.  I came home with a whole chicken and a bunch of fresh basil.  Oops.

Of course, that chicken turned into an amazing one-pot meal because I was certain that if the world was going to end we weren’t going to go out hungry.  Then, in a fit of panic upon realizing that I didn’t have the proper necessities to survive Storm-aggedon, I decided it was time for Emergency Cookies.  Cookies to get you through a hurricane tropical storm.  Cookies to soothe the nerve-wracked soul but healthy enough to keep you in your skinny jeans if the world doesn’t end.

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Let’s say that you have a Dear Friend who suddenly, without warning, was required to go on a strict vegan diet.  Luckily, this was a temporary situation but a drastic change nonetheless.  Being told that you can eat no eggs, no butter, no cheese, no milk overnight would be a shock to anyone’s system.  After being told that you can’t eat those things, what is the only thing you want to eat?  All kinds of dairy!  Let the buttery cravings begin!  As a good friend, I scoured the ends of the internet to locate a baked good suitable to my friend’s situation.  Enter these perfect little morsels.

These magical cookies are made with all-natural peanut butter, heart-healthy olive oil and whole wheat flour.  Dark chocolate chunks crank up the antioxidant value, making these a front runner for the healthiest cookie around.  They are free of dairy, white flour and white sugar!  Sounds too good to be true, right?  Even for us non-vegans, these cookies pack a fudgy, peanut butter-chocolate two punch knockout combo that ends up with a snack you can feel good about chowing down on.

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Ok, I’ll admit it … I’ve been on a bit of a chocolate/peanut butter binge lately. Unlike the heavenly, yet potentially sugar-coma inducing, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes, these cookies produce the same dynamic flavor combo yet are lighter and decidedly more snackable.  Consider these cookies the slightly less mature, more rough-around-the-edges younger sibling of the (arguably) elegant cupcakes.

With a crisp outer shell and a chewy center, these can become rather addicting.  Made with oatmeal, whole wheat flour and all-natural peanut butter, the recipe was right up my alley.  The salted peanuts smash right up against semi-sweet chocolate chunks for a true flavor explosion in your mouth.  Get thee to a kitchen, pronto!

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This time of year, the beginning of summer, is usually known as the Era of Competing Interests.  Interest #1: The loads of sweet summery desserts that are practically mandatory for the plethora of upcoming BBQs, picnics, and outdoor parties.  Interest #2: The ability to wear a new bathing suit/tiny summer dress to said BBQ, picnic or party.  These two interests rarely get along and are the cause of many internal battles concerning the exact calorie count in a 1-inch brownie versus the actual calories burned on the elliptical machine.  The mounds of fresh fruit appearing at the grocery stores and farmer’s markets have been known to inject in this debate an intense desires to make berry pies, cobblers and all things representing sticky sweet, summery goodness.

I don’t want to alarm you, but I may have found a solution to this annual occurrence.  How does a sweet, cakey cookie packed with fresh blueberries, lemon zest and toasted almonds sound?  Pretty darn good.  Ok, let’s make this official … Do you, Antioxidant-Packed Blueberry, take you, Fiber-Filled Almond, to be your partner in cookie making magic for summers to come?  They do!!  And now, I introduce you to the results of a marriage made in cookie heaven.

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Sometimes you feel like a nut … sometimes you don’t!  Doesn’t that little jingle bring up images of sweet coconut drenched in chocolate?  I’ve been on a bit of a candy-inspired baking binge lately, and these little guys are no exception!  These coconut macaroons taste just like an Almond Joy.  Seriously.  Just like it!  Except perhaps, with a slightly more gourmet twist.  Plus, if you don’t feel like a nut, you can leave the almonds out and suddenly it a Mounds bar macaroon!

The beautiful thing about these macaroons is how simple they are.  Toast up some coconut and almonds.  Mix in some sweetened condensed milk.  Fold in some whipped egg whites.  Bake.  Drizzle with ridiculous amounts of melted chocolate.  That could be the entire recipe!  I did you the favor of providing slightly more specific instructions below, but you probably won’t need them.

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