Recipe-Sweet

My best Brownies ever. The first bite of my OWN recipe. All in that one bite, I tasted what I had been working on for such a long time. About a year before I made my brownies, I had found a recipe on the internet that I wanted to try. It turned out so well that when people tasted it, with a smile on their face saying it was so good, that they wanted another one, saying they couldn’t stop, it made me want to keep going. I bake for many reasons, it makes me happy, I go into my own world in the kitchen, I forget all my troubles and just BAKE. But the main reason I bake is that lots of kids have allergies like me and my family do. I can’t have gluten or wheat. I also can’t have too many eggs or dairy. The rest of my family is allergic to things like me but they are also allergic to nuts and soy. It sounds pretty impossible to bake without all of those crucial ingredients, but I do it differently. I put my heart, soul, love, joy, sorrow, sadness, my everything into what I bake. I hope that you give this recipe a try and come to adore baking as much as I do, and I hope that you and your family enjoy these brownies as much as we do. Serves: 16 Ingredients 1 cup (175g) vegan/dairy free butter, melted and cooled in the fridge 2 tablespoons (30ml) grapeseed oil 1 cup (200g) brown sugar 1 cup (200g) white sugar 4 flax eggs, made from 4 tbsp ground flaxseed 5 tbsp hot (not boiling) water 4 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 cup (200g) gluten free flour blend 1 cup (85g) good quality, unsweetened cocoa powder (I use a combination of regular and dark) 1 teaspoon salt Dairy-free chocolate chips added to your liking (up to 1 ½ cups (200g)) Method Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) then line a 7×11 inch baking tray with parchment paper and set aside. Make your flax eggs: combine your ground flaxseed meal with your warm (not boiling) water and set it aside for at least 5 minutes. In a large bowl combine the cold melted butter, oil, and both sugars. Add the flax eggs, vanilla and salt then whisk for about one minute until evenly combined. Over the same bowl, sift in the gluten-free flour blend and cocoa powder. Gently fold the all of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until JUST combined (do NOT overmix). Fold in half of the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then smooth the top. Generously top with the remaining chocolate chips. Bake for 35-40 minutes*, or until the center of the brownies is JUST set to the touch. Remove your brownies from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature before removing from the baking tray and cutting into pieces. *A note from the Stone Soup test kitchen: we only needed 30 minutes of baking, as our oven is quite hot, so you might want to check yours a bit sooner. Ours came out of the oven bubbling like lava so if yours do too we’d advise not touching them until they have cooled! Charlotte Weimer, 12McLean, Virginia

My family makes three kinds of cookies every year at Christmas. There’s a dark chocolate mint brownie, a sugar cookie, and a chocolate chip peanut butter cookie. Ever since I’ve been small, I’ve asked my mom every year if I can help. For as long as I can remember, she’s let me get things for her—whisks, bowls, measuring cups. However, this year, even though I’m twelve, I don’t expect any more than a “Not this year, Lily. Maybe next year.” But when, as she’s getting out the ingredients for the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, I ask, “Can I do them this year, Mom?” I’m surprised when she says, “Sure, Lily. You’ve helped me for a bunch of years. Do you think you could manage it?” “Sure,” I say, thrilled. I’ve made muffins before, but never one of the Christmas cookies. She hands me the recipe, and under her watchful eye, I gather the ingredients and begin to mix them together. When I’m about halfway through, the phone rings. My mom picks it up, saying, “I’ll be on the phone for a little while. Finish mixing them and put them in the oven. I should be off the phone by the time they come out, but if not, let them cool and put them in some Ziploc bags and put them in the box with the rest of the cookies.” Then, to the phone, she says, “Hello? Oh, hi, yeah, this isn’t a bad time…” She walks up the stairs to talk in peace. I finish mixing most of the ingredients. The last ingredient is butter—I look at it for a moment, then shrug. Dad always substitutes oil for butter. I get out the oil and pour in the correct amount. Mixing them together, I accidently spill the chocolate chip bag a bit. Oh well, I think. A few extra chocolate chips never hurt anybody. I set them on the cookie sheet in little balls and stick them in the preheated oven. By the time I’m done cleaning up the timer is beeping and I open the oven. The cookies look slightly…flatter…than usual, but I think nothing of it as I let them cool, then lay them in plastic bags and put them with the other Christmas cookies. A few minutes later, Mom comes back in. “Done?” she says. “Good. It’s time the Christmas cookies were done, we’ve never been doing them on the twenty-third before.” *          *          * Now it is Christmas day, and we’re spending it, as always, at Aunt Lavinia’s with the rest of our family. Mom and I lay out the cookies on a large tray. She unloads our box and looks at me very, very hard. “What did you do to the cookies?” she asks, rather angrily. “I only traded the butter for oil like Dad always does,” I say, brushing my hair out of my face nervously. “Not for cookies!” she said. She never fools around with recipes. I’m expecting more, but she just sighs. “Oh well,” she says. “Too late to change them. They’ll have to do.” About halfway through the night, Aunt Lavinia comes up to me and Mom, one of my cookies in her hand. “These are the best you’ve ever made!” she says enthusiastically. “What did you do differently?” Mom’s face breaks into a smile. “Ask Lily,” she says. “She’s the one who made them.” Aunt Lavinia turns to me. “These are great,” she says. “You should make them again next year!” Since then, I’ve always made the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies at Christmastime. Aunt Lavinia’s yet to be disappointed. Note: “Christmas Cookies” is a fictional story! However, it was inspired by the following recipe. Recipe makes approximately 36 cookies. Ingredients 1 cup (200g) all-purpose flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt ⅓ cup (80ml) vegetable oil ¼ cup (60ml) milk ½ cup (55g) granulated sugar or honey 1 cup (200g) packed light brown sugar 1 cup (200g) peanut butter 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup (200g) chopped peanuts 1 cup (200g) semi-sweet chocolate chips Method Preheat oven to 350⁰F (175⁰C). Prepare your baking sheets with parchment paper or butter. Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl. Set it aside. Cream oil, milk, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a mixer or with a whisk. Slowly add the eggs and vanilla, continuing to mix until they are incorporated. Then add the peanut butter to the wet ingredients and combine thoroughly. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the wet, stirring constantly, to make a soft dough. Stir the peanuts and chocolate chips into the cookie batter. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto sheet pans, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool for about 2 minutes before removing from pan. Ella Martinez Nocito, 10Sunderland, MA

This cookie was discovered when I was bored. I wrote up a recipe and the Lembas cookie was invented! This cookie is named after the Lembas bread from the Lord of the Rings that the elves make. And, just like the bread, you can eat one cookie and be full for a couple of hours. As my family says: “It tastes like gingerbread, smells like banana bread, and has a texture like a sponge cake.” This cookie is truly unique. Ingredients 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour (or cake flour. I use all-purpose for everything) 1 cup (200g) sugar (less if you like. You can use ½ – ⅔ cup (200g) of honey as a substitute. I found that honey tastes better if you like that sort of thing.) ½ cup (115g) butter (unsalted, as salted doesn’t taste good. Blech!) 2 eggs 1 pinch salt 1 tsp baking soda (to make it rise. Don’t be surprised when something bubbles in the oven, it’s just the soda!) ½ cup (120ml) milk (lactose-free works just as well as the real thing) Optional ingredients These optional ingredients are just suggested flavorings. Some people don’t like ginger, so if they don’t want to, they can take it out with no ill effects, same with the cinnamon, and the molasses. Ginger (½ – ¾ tsp) Cinnamon (½ – ¾ tsp) Molasses (up to 1 tsp, to taste) Method Put all the dry ingredients into a big bowl. If using honey instead of sugar, please see next step. Melt the butter (but not completely!) and add to the dry stuff. If using honey, pour it in now, please. If you use honey, it might be runnier, but once it’s baked, it’ll be fine. Add the eggs and mix in. Pour in the milk and mix everything together. In the meantime, you can preheat the oven (some ovens heat up almost immediately, like mine does, so for me, heating the oven is always the last step. If yours heats up slowly, turn it on while melting the butter). Pour the mixture onto a baking tray tray (approx 9 x 13” / 23 x 33cm) covered in parchment paper, and bake at 400 ̊F (200 ̊C) until golden brown (around 20-30 mins). Don’t worry if the mixture is runny at first, because this is what is supposed to happen. Enjoy with jam or butter. Yum!