I love to bake. If I'm not packing a parcel of fair trade jewelry for
Dunitz & Company, I might be baking. Sometimes it's tough finding new recipes I want to try. Truth is I'm sort of in a rut. I seem to always favor recipes I've been making since I was a young girl. If you've known me for years and years, you're probably familiar with my Chocolate Chip Cookies. Other favs come from my grandmother's Settlement Cookbook. Peanut Butter Cookies. Oatmeal Raisin. Date Squares. The classics! I thought I'd search the internet for some recently published yummy looking cookies that are made using fair trade ingredients. Do you think it's time to try one of these recent recipes? Maybe one of these below will become your new favorite.
About a year ago, I attended a beach marshmallow roast with my
Fair Trade Los Angeles friends and colleagues. At the time, I'd never eaten Tony's Chocolonely's yummy bars. Tony's had donated some of their "everything" bars for our s'mores and now I'm hooked. I
discovered this recipe from New Zealand of all places that uses broken up pieces from Tony's bars. This is definitely on my list for a new baking experiment. And I'm sure you could swap out the type of candy bar you select for your sweet creations.
And from the UK comes another
recipe discovery using Tony's chocolate bars. This one calls for two different types of chocolate bars. Honestly, it never dawned on my to use fair trade chocolate bars for baking. But, honestly, it makes a lot of sense. Note to Nancy. Time to substitute chips from grandma's cookbook with fair trade certified candy bars chopped up!
And another from the fair trade kitchens of the UK. These
Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies use candy bars from Divine. And I know you can buy Divine in the USA, because I have. It never dawned on me how to even bake red velvet cookies. Now I know what to do! Shall we give it a go?
Seriously! I'm now all about using candy bars as part of cookie prep. I had no idea Dr. Bronner offered their own brand of candy bars and coconut oil. Evidently they do, because I found this recipe on their website with these as part of the ingredients listed. Did you know that Dr. Bronner is a member of Fair Trade Federation?
(Dunitz is also a verified member.) They call their cookies
Magic Nut Butter Cookies, probably because they don't use traditional flour.
Here's a call out to
Fair & Square Imports of McKinney, TX. Not only do they have a blog which includes a post (and video) of this cookie recipe, but they also sell Dunitz & Company jewelry in their store. You know I love that! OK - so back to recipes. Sure enough "
Arthur's Fair Trade Salted-Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies" also use Divine Chocolate bars.
Camino is based in Canada and offers up all sorts of fair trade ingredients - many appropriate for baking. This must be why I discovered a couple of cookie recipes on their website. Their
Healthy Snack Cookies might be a fun option because it uses bananas and blueberries. And of course they suggest substituting fair trade chocolate for some of the blueberries. Did I mention that Camino offers a variety of chocolate bars? My guess is if you're not in Canada, you can find the needed ingredients in the USA.
Here's another recipe from Camino I know a lot of you will want to try.
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies! Many people I know are crazy for chocolate. They'll always go for fudge cake and chocolate ice cream over other choices. Me, I prefer carrot cake and vanilla. Given that, let me know, hahahaha, how you like this recipe. It looks rich and crazy good for you chocolate fiends.
Want to know my take away after discovering these recipes online? It's time to pull out your grandma's cookbook and start doing some ingredients substitutions. Even if you haven't located fair trade sugar or cocoa powder, I know you can find some amazing chocolate bars. Time to break them up and start substituting them for the chips you might otherwise by at your local supermarket. What do you think? My grandma's cookbook dates from 1945. And I think it's time to do some updates. My updates might just be the way to everyone's heart! -ND
