Mama Pick-Me-Up Cookies

One afternoon last week, I was putting something away in my baking cabinet and I spied a bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans that I had forgotten about.  The evil wheels in my brain started turning and I instantly thought about cookies.  And given the caffeinated nature of espresso beans (have you ever seen a two year old try to climb the walls of a bath tub?), I started thinking “what if I could come up with an easy, super nutritious cookie for moms only?”  OK, so maybe dads could have it, too.  And I started with the goal of lots of whole grain, chocolate, and espresso beans — and done in a no-bake method to keep it quick and easy (remember those no-bake cookies we all ate growing up?)  

These fit the bill in many ways — whole oats, ground flax, no added sugar (other than the chocolate), some sunbutter and pumpkin seeds for protein, the espresso beans to get you through three different soccer practices on three different sides of town, and a sprinkling of sea salt to cover the salty and sweet craving.  Hell, these are almost nutritious enough to call granola bars.  Your choice of whether you eat them for breakfast or dessert.   The only thing I couldn’t squeeze in here was a glass of red wine — I’ll try to do better next time.

(And BTW, any reference to a particular cookie made by the Chef on South Park is purely unintentional.  Yet, still funny.)

Mama Pick-Me-Up Cookies

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

1/2 cup of butter (1 stick)
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup of ground flax
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup of sunbutter (or other nut butter of your choice)
1/2 cup of salted pumpkin seeds (or other nut/seed of your choice)
3/4 cup of chocolate-covered espresso beans 
Sea Salt to sprinkle on top (optional) 

1.  Melt butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan over low heat until completely smooth.  

2.  Add in sunbutter and salt and stir until incorporated.  

3.  Remove from heat and add in oats and flax and stir well.

4.  Chill for 20 minutes (use the freezer to speed it up) and when cool, stir in chocolate-covered espresso beans and pumpkin seeds. (If you are particularly concerned about each cookie getting a similar number of espresso beans, you can put  a few in by hand during the next step.)

5.  Line a baking sheet with parchment and take one heaping tablespoon full of cookie mixture and form it into a ball and drop onto parchment (if mixture isn’t cool enough, it will be harder to form into nice little balls — but neatness is overrated).  Sprinkle each cookie with a bit of sea salt (if you like…)

6.  Chill for another 20-30 minutes until firm.  Store in the refrigerator or freezer.   Eat over the sink while no one is watching (they’re crumbly).