Whole Grain Mexican Wedding Cookies

On this lovely Thursday evening, Will is acquainting himself with the 40 page manual (i'm not exaggerating) required to safely install and operate our carseat, and I'm baking cookies. Boy, I'm glad my husband is an engineer! :)

Ever since I started this blog, I've thought it would be fun to occasionally share new recipes that I've come across since I've been so enjoying cooking lately (now that I have time to do it!) It is only fitting that this is my first recipe to share since it has been a "pregnancy favorite." The original recipe can be found at 101cookbooks.com, a whole foods recipe website. I've modified the recipe a bit (hopefully for the better - I added chocolate chips! :).

These cookies became especially important to me after a visit to the doctor a month or so ago when they warned me to "be sure to watch that weight gain." Who in their right mind says that to a hormonal pregnant woman?! After obsessing about it for the rest of the day, I was reminded of my wise friend Ellen who often says, "Sensitivity to reproof is the surest sign of need of it." (originally from Fenelon's Let Go, I believe.)

So, I decided that yes, indeed, I had been eating too many ice cream sandwiches and I needed a healthier option to indulge that chocolate craving of mine. Here's the recipe - with whole wheat flour and only 1/2 cup sugar in the whole batch, its basically like eating a granola bar! :)

Whole Grain Mexican Wedding Cookies

1 cup pecans, pureed in food processor (I put them in my coffee grinder and run it till they are finely broken up, but some still in larger pieces)
1 cup butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup oat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
powdered sugar for dusting (optional - yes, they still taste good w/out the powdered sugar on top!)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Beat the butter until it becomes creamy (the original recipe calls for mixing all the ingredients in a stand mixer, which I'm sure would be lovely, but since I have not been blessed with one of those beauties yet, I just use my regular old mixer). Add the sugars and mix till everything is creamy and lighter in color. Next, add vanilla and ground pecans. Slowly add the flours and salt, mixing till a stiff dough is formed. Finally, add a (generous) 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips.

Form dough into cookies, w/approx. 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. Bake for 12 minutes (it takes more like 14 min. on my airbake cookie sheets) or until the bottoms of the cookies begin to brown slightly. Dust with powdered sugar. Enjoy! (Makes about 2 dozen cookies)