Cookie Comparisons

Newman-O’s

I know I’ve been slow with the Newman’s Own Organics reviews; although, I could have stopped at the chocolate bars and you would have already experienced the best. However, these Newman-O’s merit special attention.

The line-up includes chocolate-on-chocolate, mint-on-chocolate, and ginger.

There’s my youngest brother enjoying the chocolate crème.

The NOO website explains their source of organic cocoa and palm fruit oil—basically, the company strives for environmental protection and fair trade for workers when they source ingredients.

Personally, I thought the full-on chocolate cookies were a bit too much. The mint crème was excellent, but my favorite by far was the Ginger-O’s. I love all things ginger, so it’s really up to your individual taste.

This brand also comes in original, peanut butter crème, and wheat-free.

Newman-O’s rating

  

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Joe-Joe’s

If the price of Newman’s Own Organics does not attract you, but the Oreos are still out of the question, try Trader Joe’s brand Joe-Joe’s. This cookie has vanilla bean crème—now that’s good filling. Compared to the usual Oreos and other Oreo stand-ins, these taste less artificial. And they’re actually cheaper! (12 cents/oz. for TJ’s cookies compared to 24 cents/oz. for Nabisco according to Tracking TJ’s in 2006)

Joe-Joe’s rating

  

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Oreos

The problem with Oreos—or rather, the reason for the above crème sandwich cookies—is the hydrogenated vegetable oils and high-fructose corn syrup. And do you really want vanillin (an artificial flavor) more than real vanilla bean? But as far as taste goes, real Oreos are probably better than…

Dunksters (distributed by ALDI) (Bi-Lo)

Dunksters rating

 

But, remember, there’s more to life than chocolate and cookies…

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homemade desserts: two flops and a fave

In the past couple weeks, I’ve had a lot more time than I usually do, so I made a couple desserts. (And now that the 2010-2011 school year is over, I’ve got oodles of time!)

Lavender Cupcakes

Ever since I heard of baking with lavender, I’ve been intrigued. I picked up some dried lavender blossoms from a natural foods store last year, and then pretty much forgot about them.

But then I found this recipe from the blog Cream Puffs in Venice for lavender cupcakes.

I found that I didn’t really enjoy them. One reason for this is the lack of presence of the lavender. A description for these cupcakes reads: “The fragrant taste of the lavender flowers gives the cupcakes an elusive hint that you can’t quite put your finger on.” On the contrary, I wanted to be able to recognize the lavender!

Another problem could be the age of the lavender flowers. I bought them quite a while ago, so the flavor has faded.

And, of course, the fact that I forgot to add baking soda and salt to the mix—to fairly evaluate this recipe, I should really make it again the right way, but I’m not sure it would make a difference.

This it the third from-scratch cupcake recipe I’ve baked, and honestly, my cupcakes never seem to turn out quite right. Let’s not mention those vanilla cupcakes I made for Ray’s birthday.

And then there were the rootbeer cupcakes from My Sweet Vegan—the chocolate ganache and frosting with vanilla bean paste were divine—but the rootbeer flavor was not very pronounced.

Panna Cotta with Cherry Syrup

 
Underneath the cherry syrup is the dairy equivalent of JELL-O.

Finding myself with three cups of half-and-half and a bag of cherries in the fridge, I decided to make Panna Cotta from the blog Ezra Pound Cake. This was my first time making “cooked cream,” the literal translation of panna cotta. I used cherries instead of blackberries—I like to make use of my super-cool cherry pitter.

However, the end result just didn’t do it for me. In this case, I don’t blame my ingredients or cooking (as could be said for the lavender cupcakes), but perhaps I was just in the mood for some chocolate instead.

Chocolate Pudding/Mousse

The recipe I used is based on Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip/Pudding from Chocolate-Covered Katie. It’s pudding made with silken tofu instead of traditional thickeners, and in this case, [vegan] cream cheese. When I made it, I added 1 Tbsp. cocoa powder instead of chocolate chips—an obvious alteration found in the related Tofu Chocolate Mousse. One can also melt chocolate before blending it with the other ingredients.

from Flickr user llsimon53

This method of quickly preparing healthy chocolate pudding is quite common—in cookbooks, I’ve found “Chocolate Tofu Crème” in Baking with Agave Nectar,  as well as “Decadent Chocolate Pudding” in The Healthy Southwest Table.

If you have chocolate in any form (cocoa powder, unsweetened squares, etc.), silken tofu, sweetener (sugar, agave nectar, stevia), and vanilla extract, you can make enjoy this dessert!

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first things first: chocolate! [review]

Back in March I received a box of Newman’s Own Organics’ finest organic snacks and sweets.

Please note that the products mentioned in this post were sent to me, free of charge, for the purpose of reviewing on this blog. I will attempt an unbiased analysis.

Chocolate tops the list—and with good reason! The line-up includes milk (38%), mocha milk, dark (58%), espresso dark, orange dark, and super dark (70%).

More Than Just Chocolate

The company was founded by Nell Newman as a shoot-off from Newman’s Own, which gives all profit to charity, so it’s almost a given that their chocolate is USDA Certified Organic and Rainforest Alliance certified. From GreenAmerica:

• RA standards prohibit the use of forced labor, child labor, and discrimination. At least 30% of the primary ingredient needs to be certified in order to earn this label.
•   This label means that at least 95% of the ingredients of the product are certified organic.

How is it?

This Signature Series is excellent. Don’t just take my word for it—reviewers include my mother, my little brother, and my best friends. Everyone agrees it is remarkably smooth and comparably better than main chocolate brands—it’s an indulgent piece of work. I think the word I heard was, “divine.”

   This is truly the best chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

My favorite from NOO, of course, was the super dark chocolate. I recently bought some Lindt dark chocolate that, as excellent as it is, lacks NOO’s balance of sweet and bitter creaminess. Both were 70% cacao, but that’s not always the best indicator of quality.

By the way, I enjoyed the “N’” imprinted on each square—I could almost pretend they’re for “Newton” (my name) instead of Newman… And check out that gold foil!

Where to buy

The most frequent question I’ve received when talking about Newmans’ Own Organics is Where can I buy this?!

On their website, one can find a list of stores carrying their products by region and online.

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Related articles

• The 20 Calorie Chocolate Fix (girl-heroes.com)
• Vegan Chocolate Citrus Muffins! (kblog.lunchboxbunch.com)
• Chocolate Counteracts Depression (scrapbooklady.typepad.com)
• A Chocolate Outrage I was passing through the… (tercessociety.com)

Reviews coming: Newman’s Own Organics

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting reviews of the company’s snack foods and sweets. The PR coordinator (Sally) has been pleasant to correspond with concerning the product reviews, and she even took the time to read some of my posts, like about my experiences in China. According to the company history (download pdf), the company was started in 1993 by Paul Newman’s daughter, Nell, when she developed a passion for organic food. Like Newman’s Own (the first generation), all profits go to charity.

Especially after participating in the 30-Hour Famine, I’m really grateful for this box of food from Newman’s Own Organics that showed up on my doorstep yesterday. It included:

• chocolate bars – milk (38%), mocha milk, dark (58%), espresso dark, orange dark, super dark (70%)
• pretzels – rods, thin sticks
• alphabet cookies – cinnamon graham
• Newman O’s – ginger, chocolate, chocolate mint
• mint tins – hot cinnamon, ginger, wintergreen, peppermint
• soy crisps – cinnamon sugar, white cheddar
• licorice – black, pomegranate, strawberry, tangerine
• hermits – original, cinnamon
• chocolate chip cookies – original, double, orange
• dried fruit – apples, apricots
• Fig Newmans – low fat and fat-free

I will link this post to the reviews as they are posted.

Where to buy

The most frequent question I’ve received when talking about Newmans’ Own Organics is Where can I buy this?! On their website, one can find a list of stores carrying their products by region and online.

Image © Newman’s Own Organics If you enjoyed this post, please

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Chocolate Hazelnut Cookie Monster

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I am a cookie hazelnut monster! 

toast hazelnuts.
skin hazelnuts.
[decide what recipe to use hazelnuts in.]
grind hazelnuts.
proceed with recipe…

Chocolate Hazelnut Macaroons

a.k.a. Haselnussmakronen

1.5 cups hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and pulverized
6 Tbsp. (1/4 c + 2 Tbsp.) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. lemon zest
1 pinch salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 egg whites
3/4 cup white sugar

1. Combine the ground hazelnuts, cocoa powder, lemon zest, salt, and vanilla in a small bowl.

2. In a large non-plastic bowl*, beat the egg whites until they foam and thicken slightly. Add sugar; continue to beat until stiff, “unwavering” peaks form on the beater when lifted out of the bowl. Gently fold the nut mixture into the whites until thoroughly combined.

3. Get a large baking sheet and either spray with oil or rub with a stick of butter. Drop the dough by tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about an inch apart. Flatten slightly. Let the cookies rest at room temperature for 1 hour before baking. (I’m not sure what this step does… let me know if you figure it out!)

4. Preheat the oven to 300F. Place the cookies in the middle of the oven; bake for 30 minutes. With a spatula, carefully transfer the cookies to a rack to cool.

*tips for beating egg whites

• use room temperature egg whites
• keep all utensils grease- and fat-free
• make sure no egg yolk got in there (contains fat)
• avoid plastic bowls because these absorb and retain fat, even when washed; use stainless steel, copper, or glass
• start at a slower speed and work your way up
• see more…

I forgot how much I enjoy baking!

I really enjoyed these macaroon cookies. They are delicate in both taste and texture, made unique by the ground hazelnuts, with a hint of lemon.

Do you ever make recipes from Allrecipes.com that don’t have pictures? (I tend not to, but I did this time.)

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