author: Gretchen Holt-Witt
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
photos: yes
hardcover | 185 pages
chapters/sections: the classic gotta-haves for a bake sale / seriously chocolate / everyone can have a cookie (allergy specific) / celebrate / make it fast / sensational cookies
fun features: 100% of author proceeds from the purchase of this book go directly back to the organization and pediatric cancer research.
I also love the fun, colorful boxes located at the end of many of the recipes in the book. They are full of tips and hints for making your cookie fundraising event a success, from "be prepared" to "what to offer" to "cute counts" to "pricing" to "community involvement" and more! Also, there are heartwarming, personal Cookies for Kids' Cancer stories interspersed throughout the book.
(a few of the many) recipes destined for my kitchen: speculaas / sally's potato chip sandies / chocolate pillows / everyday skinny mints / deep chocolate cherry cashew cookies / doggie cookies / poppy seed cookies / toffee-almond meringues
my thoughts/review: There is heart, soul, love, and sunshine pouring out of every page of this beautiful little cookbook. I cried my way through the foreword, the preface, and the introduction and smiled my way through each recipe. I'm inspired by the whole Cookies for Kids' Cancer organization and I have plans of bake sales and fundraisers and time in the kitchen with my own kids running through my head.
This is a book that I think everybody should run out and buy immediately. And buy a few extra to give away while you're at it. This book is truly inspirational.
what I've tried so far: Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies - Peanut Butter cookies have been one of my favorites since I was a kid. I love the good, old-fashioned ones made with smooth peanut butter and given cross-hatches with a fork. I think they were one of the first things I baked all by myself. I wasn't sure what I was going to think about a gluten-free (flourless) version, but the photos in the book were just so enticing with peanuts peeking out and chocolate sprinkles spotting them...I just couldn't resist. And I am SO happy that I didn't, because I LOVED them. The kids loved them. They are chewy just like my favorite peanut butter cookies. And I love that I now have a fabulous gluten-free cookie in my arsenal. I think I'd love to bring a double batch (one of my classic beloved pb cookies and one of these) to any cookie-sharing opportunity!
Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies
by
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 10-12 minutes
Keywords: bake dessert gluten-free vegetarian soy-free peanut butter peanuts eggs cookie American
Ingredients (about 4 dozen)
- 1 3/4 cups natural creamy peanut butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 cup coarsely chopped cocktail peanuts
- chocolate sprinkles, optional
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350° F. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
Beat together all of the ingredients (except cocktail peanuts) in a large bowl until smooth and creamy, 3 minutes or so. Stir in the chopped peanuts.
Drop by heaping 2 teaspoon (or scant tablespoon) scoops onto prepared baking sheets, leaving an inch or so between each cookie. If you want to use the chocolate sprinkles, scatter some over the top of each scoop of dough.
Slide into preheated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are just beginning to turn a light golden, rotating pan(s) halfway through the baking time. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
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So Gretchen decided to take action and instigate hope with something simple and sweet.... one of Liam’s favorite activities, baking cookies, became Gretchen’s solution. She started with rounding up friends and family to bake and sell 96,000 cookies during the holidays in 2007 - which with 250+ volunteers, she accomplished, raising $420,000 which was granted to a new therapy for pediatric cancer.
Fast-forward to today, what began as an idea to help fund one promising new research project in 2007 has grown into a movement to change the face of pediatric cancer. In just over 4 years Cookies for Kids’ Cancer has funded DOZENS of pediatric cancer research projects by raising more than 6 million dollars from thousands of grassroots events held all over the country – all 50 states plus Guam, Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK and Germany.
Sadly, Gretchen’s son Liam passed away at age 6½ in January of 2011. The funds raised from that first bake sale in 2007 were funneled to developing a treatment that would have helped her son. But the treatment only became available late 2011, months after Liam died. Which just goes to show how real this is - how CFKC is funding real treatments that have the potential to save real lives. And that is what keeps the CFKC team and Gretchen going. After all, it only takes $100,000 to get something going.
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I received a free copy of this cookbook from the publisher. All thoughts stated in this post are 100% my own. This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
