Dark cocoa cookie is festive fun when they are decked out bon bon or made into twist candy bow shapes like these just in time for holidays. And festive candy wrappers. 🍬
They remind me of the sweet treat colors in a Swiss Colony catalog.
The good news is there’s no planning needed! Work I dug my heels in for many years where I holiday planned other people’s parties in private venues.
…I know what it’s like to be on my feet for hours in heels, hiking miles in a room. That was good enough exercise where I had no additional trekking outdoors need on the weekend. 😊
And if that’s how you feel no matter what you do all week… while kicking your feet up, holiday bakers can take a break. And make a guilt-free treat.
An enjoyable plate of no-bake Christmas cookies can be the pre or post-Advent fix (along with Advent chocolates).
How does that sound?
If good, holiday party celebration festive cocoa candy bows and balls are quick and no-bake easy.
You decide what shape you make ’em.
Your delightful no-bake cookies can be a joyful respite when you’re tired of standing or doing hours of prep holiday cooking.
Good for people who work all day in kitchens too.
And then the day of the event, the enjoyment flies by. Everyone is happy. You with your prepped plate making something creatively homemade and TASTY.
Because if it’s healthy only, it’s NOT happy. 😊
No one need know that it took minutes to make.
You get to be Mary with the guests.
The reward part is spending time with people, laughing and having a good time, and not having to do any cooking work.
And these dark cocoa cookies are like a delightful break you give yourself where you don’t cook or bake.
Dark cocoa in case it doesn’t ring a bell, are the tastes from the cookie sandwiches that start with “O” and end with “O.” The cocoa tastes different than traditional hot cocoa’s cocoa.
And you can make these with the same ingredient or use regular cocoa (or healthy cacao).
Either cocoa way, the best part is they’re sweet energy snacks in disguise.
They won’t last on a plate long.
Making them is as simple as rolling out the dough…
Then refrigerating for a few minutes to let the dough rest (and dry out a little).
And finally, cutting out your shapes.
Or you can roll the dark cocoa cookie into fun balls… probably blindfolded without refrigerating.
Add your decorations while the dough is still sticky. You can zhugh with powdered gold ginger dust or more (dark) cocoa decadence.
Or use elegant uniform sprinkles and coconut flakes for confetti. 🎉
You can dye the confetti with healthy natural powders like blue spirulina, green matcha, and beet that I’m suggesting here.
With a little magical water ingredient, they will make colors like pastel watercolors.
And if you want the colors to be more vibrant colors, you can use natural liquid gels like Pandan gel that will give a deep green.
You can pair your sweets with a festive pistachio layered cacao beverage that you freeze and bring to room temps to watch the naturally sand art unfold.
Gingerbread cookie is a non-negotiable for me. It’s a happy holiday cookie tradition.
…For you too?
My healthier (but delectable) recipe version is below (that doesn’t compromise taste!).
This is a sweet tray of puffy and light bread cookies. There are 12 regular cookie cutter size and 10 smaller ones (22 cookies total) that took 12 minutes to bake in 325°F/165°C. B-ready?
These are healthy conscious cookies that you can learn more about below.
…Because I think healthy ingredients are delicious and belong in everything happy food made.
And the first question I ask myself is: does this recipe have any anti-inflammatory food value?
And if the recipe calls for sugar, butter, or flour, how can I get by with as little of it without compromising taste and texture?
…Especially because I discovered adult eczema in 2020, and in 2021 when I ended up in the hospital emergency room from skin inflammation, as a recurring second eczema flareup.
But before those 2 years I was already passionate about an anti-inflammatory diet for prevention reasons.
….And thankfully from health awareness and better lifestyle choices, haven’t felt the irritated skin effects since those stinging first years.
I’ve stayed food conscious and haven’t given up non-negotiable happy sweet foods… that would be a life not worth living (in my opinion).
But I’ve learned how to not tip-the-scales with food. Everything in moderation still (and even more as you age).
…And you can adopt an anti-inflammatory lifestyle if you’re wanting to optimize longevity and be more kind to the body we care for. You and I only get ONE
Reading healthy diet books is something I’ve been passionate about since I was a young adult.
Today I’ve zero’d in on a few for life…
The anti-inflammatory diet is forefront. It makes healthy sense to me and in my life where all signs pointed down that path.
I think for everyone that follows, destiny leads you down your best road.
…And after my real life eczema experience, I was convinced eating and living anti-inflammatory year-round was the #1 plan.
An anti-inflammatory diet includes plant-based foods and a lot of the same foods you’d find on a Mediterranean diet… In case you’re wondering what diets it’s kissing cousins closest to.
I like how the diet has little case “a” for “anti” as it encourages food variety choices in specific food categories. Our bodies opt for (and crave) biodiversity in our biomes.
In anti-inflammatory diets, the biggest difference is the focus is on preventing foods that cause daily inflammation.
…Like granulated sugar and gluten flours are common big offenders… and then as each person is different, there are specific individual foods you learn about with your body, as you go and test.
And as funny as life can be… of course, I turned out loving baking… and SWEETS! Challenge-ON.
And at first I learned the hard way.
Because when you’re first learning to bake, you find ingredients that work foolproof to achieve the cake or cookie you want after it comes out of the oven.
And there’s not usually an easy baking path (or many recipes out there) making treats we’ve come to love out of healthy food substitutes that taste just as good!
So then you end up with powdered sugar for icing or vegetable shortening for texture.
But I slowly learned that didn’t have to be the only way.
Like learning to ride a bicycle or ice skate…
It took time for me to tweak and test and learn what healthy and creative paired ingredients would work to not compromise textures and tastes.
Sometimes it took many fails to find wins in the oven.
And I have high sweet taste bud standards.
…’Cause I was raised on all those processed American sweets that were allowed in my weekly childhood diet.
But then daily I also learned about healthy foods from my mom’s balanced dinner plates of protein, veg, and carbs… and I kept my gourmet ox tail, squid soup delicacy, and trying persimmons at home experiences to my young self.
Because back then, no one my age wanted to stick out. And I knew my food experiences were so different than my classmates.
Especially when I had whole wheat bread sandwiches I wanted to hide on school field trips, when white bread was the glorified lunch bag sandwich.
I survived those times and forgot all about them. The were overshadowed by all the happiness I felt going to the grocery store and seeing food variety and abundance.
…Mostly the kid accepted snack kind that kept me happy for days.
…Like Twinkies, and Ho-Hos.
When I was younger, I would’ve been thrilled if you added a drip sugar IV to my veins,
Cookies especially were my weakness (and still are my faves today).
And then gradually evolved to sourcing sweet ingredients and making my own batch of cookies from scratch.
This is where a homemade gingerbread cookie is still hands-down the one that makes me the happiest with the balance of sugar and spice… and my cookie version is actually more aligned to a Chai tea spices.
…And goes great with a cup of Chai. 🫖
But it’s definitely a cookie in every sense where it has some (but a lot less) butter and sugar.
From taste and texture, you’d never know it has less sugar and less butter than most comparable cookies out there.
And that’s good (for the body’s health) because when you eat less sugar, you crave less.
Because sugar is still fact-fully known to be an addictive substance, like a drug.
Sweet addiction can come from a batch of cookies.
So often I use honey, fruit, and monk fruit that are anti-inflammatory good and work for many bakes.
But not great for a traditional gingerbread cookie.
…So cutting down the sugar and butter is the best bet… and especially if you don’t want to tip-the-inflammatory-scales.
That’s the game I play every time I eat something with sugar. And is the game that many of play to some degree without knowing it.
They’re hidden inside the body and can develop into chronic diseases like Diabetes 2 fastly on the rise.
Balancing blood sugar is at the heart of may health issues.
So every little bit of healthy effort, helps. And for building good habits. Of course the sugar compromise took experimenting with and my sweet desire switch didn’t happen overnight.
But these days, you’ll find me adding granulated sugar rarely… with a few bakes like a small brown packet for scones that makes 8 pieces. It just wouldn’t be the same crunch and joy without.
And adding 1/4 cup sugar plus some candy zhugh for a gingerbread cookie recipe this size to make a worthwhile joyful tray. 🍥
…We’re born with sweet taste buds on the front of our tongues for a reason.
But in my lessons learned, you don’t need to add powdered sugar icing that takes a high amount of sugar to make a little impact. And that adds to sugar addiction points if you’re counting.
You also only need 2 pats (2 Tbsps) of butter and NOT a whole stick for decadently good cookies!
Shifting butter also works toward a better anti-inflammatory mission.
My motto version: enjoy a sweet and then eat some carrots in between. And better yet, bake in some carrots (or your go-to list of anti-inflammatory foods) in your sweets. 🥕
When you use rainbow-healthy 🌈 ingredients that can help lower your grocery bill (I find), you can make your own food dishes and baked goods that make your mouth sing and smile.
And as win-win, you’re winning anti-inflammatory points when you partner with your body’s healthy tastes. 😊
Like when you add anti-inflammatory spices to a lower fat gingerbread cookie. 🫚🧡
This is a delicious gingerbread cookie that is more cake-bread-like and full of warming spices.
Servings 14cookies
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2-1/4cupswhole wheat and all purpose flour
2Tbspbutter, melted
1eggbeaten
1/4cupmolasses
1/4cupbrown sugar
1/4tspsalt
1tspbaking soda
1/2tspground allspice
1-1/2tspground ginger
1/2tspcinnamon
1/2tspcardamom (optional)
Instructions
Fully combine ingredients to make cookie dough. It will look like moist cookie crumbs.
Add dough to plastic wrap and tightly wrap pace to make a rectangle.
Refrigerate for at least one hour. The longer you let the dough rest, the spices will aromatically meld in (for up to a week in the refrigerator)..
Roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out cookie shapes. This will make about 14 regular sized cookies.
Preheat oven (and refrigerate cookie tray while waiting for preheated oven to heat up).
Bake on 325°F/165°C for 10-15 minutes. Cookie bottoms will have darker baked brown marks.
After cookies have cooled, you can add icing. Icing: melt white chocolate in a double broiler. To make more, add a small amount of refined coconut oil.
Smear white chocolate to tops of cookie and zhugh with decorations while the chocolate is not set.
Cranberry pumpkin trifle is a healthy and tasty sweet treat snack that’s good for the gut where Greek yogurt is the white creaminess you can’t wait to dip your spoon in. And it’s a no-bake easy dessert (for brunch?) that you can make with 10-minute simple assembly.
This makes a great in-between dessert (amuse bouche) go-to… with sweet and sour-tart vibes infused. 🧡
This is a tasty way to keep celebrating and still enjoy food with heavy feast menu days that the holiday season is peppered with. 🎉
When I worked in catering planning, building in extra food touch point details won points with hosts and guests.
Like a special dish add or an amuse bouche (mouth amuser appetizer).
And if you’re feeding guests or hosting a party, small details like an across-the-board zhugh topping are a great way to impress them with very little work.
In an individual dessert like a cranberry pumpkin trifle, the multi-layer effect looks inviting to bite into.
The contrasting taste pairings and rainbow-y colors do the work for you.
And goes well on a food table in individual glasses … oui?
And the other reason a trifle is great is it’s just 10-minute prep work.
It can be enjoyed for no occasion at all…
Like for a great breakfast treat as a starter before your activity day, hike, or physical exercise.
Or anytime of day snack.
I like to have them ready for a Sunday brunch.
The ingredients are simple: canned pumpkin, cranberry sauce, Greek yogurt and orange zest.
And if you’re a bit like me, you want to know all the ingredients before you decide to make a recipe.
✅ You want to know if you have them on hand.
Nothing worse than getting excited about a food dish or gathering all the ingredients, and then not having a primary ingredient on hand.
✅ I also look at the ingredient list to see if they are ingredients I want to use for healthy reasons.
✅ And food ingredients that excite. 🥳
Then when all the checks are there, that’s when the prepping can begin.
The party is when it all comes together.
Success is when there’s a tasty pair duo or combo… Or in this case, it’s a pumpkin-cranberry-orange trio. 🎶
You can hand spoon layer the pump-o-cran trifle.
You can use store-bought or pre-store in freezer yogurt and oranges.
The frozen orange won’t be as vibrant fresh as fridge fresh oranges, but it could save you a trip of foraging.
Storing up can last you though the winter. That’s how we can be one with nature 🧘🏻♀️ and more like our foraging squirrel friends than we think. 🐿️
Both the pumpkin and cranberry are convenient cans you can store in your kitchen pantry.
It’s a myth that cranberry or pumpkin are seasonal foods. They’re available on middle aisle shelves all the time so you can get when them on sale if you want. And during the end-of-year months, it’s hard not to bump into them near end-of-aisle checkout areas.
And if you’re doing low-sugar, look for frozen whole bags of cran-berries that are wildly healthy like most berries that are full of polyphenol anti-inflammatory goodness.
You can make your own cranberry sauce. And then store the whole berries and extra sauce in your freezer.
Whole pumpkin is similar has similar healthy and easy vibes. It’s adds beta carotene and the antioxidant vitamins A, C, and E to complement an anti-inflammatory diet.
A-C-E was one of my earliest healthy food acronyms I learned that still has longevity (in A-C-E foods and my memory). 😊
And canned (pumpkin) that’s in puree versions ready-to-use is conveniently on most grocery shelves 365 days a year.
It’s a good alternate or change up from tomato sauce… and because tomato sauce is acidic.
If you’re trying to reduce heartburn symptoms, then that’s one easy swap you can make.
Also, pumpkin has a mildly sweet taste, pairing well with the same herbs and spices (as tomato sauce) like oregano and basil.
But I like to punch it up with pungent sage too. ⚡️
And if I’m sweet baking with pumpkin, I usually pair with ginger spice.🫚
Pumpkin sauce is also a glowing orangy-color that lights up faces. 🎃
On days you need energy, pumpkin can help you along with a bowl of pasta. And if you make your own homemade pasta (or eat egg yolks) then you’re getting B12, B6, and B2 from the egg yolk that plays well together to create food syn-energy. 🔋
Then with extra leftover pumpkin, you can see how that all comes together in this tasty cranberry pumpkin trifle dessert.
Pumpkin cake is so easy to make from a one-bowl batter with ingredients you already have on hand. And the cake will impress on a table any time and for any occasion. You can add in your fall carrot cake vibes.
Baked in a metal loaf pan is easy, but you can make the cake in any bakeable shape you want. Metal will help the cake heat fast and cool down quick.
And the best part is it looks like a bread loaf on the outside. Slightly dry and dramatic with walnuts or whatever zhugh you want to fall or drip off! 😋
Ready to make this pumpkin cake?
It’s ready in 30 minutes or less. It’ll take you 5-10 minutes tops to pull out the ingredients and hand combine.
And you can use all your favorite ingredients and pairings.
You can substitute so many ingredients for pantry items that you probably have on hand.
Like, if you ran out of eggs, you can make this…
And if you don’t have milk of any kind, you can still make this!
The only ingredient that it needs is flour if you want a cake with cake texture.
That’s it!
And if you don’t have pumpkin on hand, you can still make this a tasty holiday fall vibe cake with the other flavors you add in…
Because pumpkin doesn’t have much flavor in a cake.
So for this tasty and healthy cake list of ingredients I would suggest pureed pumpkin, carrot, coconut oil, orange zest, walnuts, and spices you have on hand (such as cinnamon, pumpkin, and cardamom).
The spices and zest will spice it up!
Ginger spice pairs well with carrots, but always wants to standout and overpower other flavors.
And so in this pumpkin cake, I also added a lot of aniseed that I had (instead of a lot of ginger) that’s a subtle licorice flavor. And makes this such a unique taste that others will ask about in a good way!
I paired the carrot taste with orange zest instead (that’s a twist)! 🟠 And you can add what flavors inspire you… and what you have on hand.
And then when you have all your ingredients in the bowl, you don’t even need a mixer. You can combine by hand with a spoon in a bowl. That’s what I would suggest (for easy cleanup too! 😊).
…Sooo along the lines of easy, the recipe below 👇explains how you can eas-ily sub ingredients for what you have AND also prep the pan so it’s no stick and no extra prep time. 🎉
…Oh, and if you need some other quick serving EASY delicious dessert table ideas… a chocolate pumpkin trifle table centerpiece or swirly cinnamon muffins might be up your alley for your last-minute delicious dessert! 🍽️
This is such a versatile cake that can you pull off in 30 baking minutes and one-bowl.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Total Time 35 minutesminutes
Servings 6
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2cupsall purpose flour (or whole wheat flour or combo)
1can pureed pumpkin
1/2cupmilk (of choice, water, or any liquid such as tea or coffee)
1largeshredded carrot (cooked for better results)
zestof one orange or shredded coconut
1tspvanilla extract (optional)
1Tbspmaple syrup (or honey)
1egg (or applesauce or banana)
1tsplemon juice (or ACV or white vinegar)
1Tbspcoconut oil, melted (or neutral oil)
spice (cardamom, pumpkin, cinnamon, anise)
pinch of salt
1tspbaking powder
1/2tspbaking soda
chopped walnuts (or your ingredient topping zhugh)
Instructions
Turn the oven on to pre-heat to 400°F/204°C. Melt the coconut oil in the baking pan vessel or loaf pan you will be using in the pre-heat oven.After the coconut oil turns liquid, pull pan out of the oven and swish around the bottom half of the pan.
Add coconut oil and wet liquid ingredients to mixing batter bowl. Then spoon in dry ingredients and flour slowly. Mix by hand with a spoon or you can use a baking mixer gently on low until combined. Do not over mix.
Add the batter to the baking pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes.
Let cool. The cake should come out easily. Enjoy!.
Berry shortbread cookie is an easy, no-bake sweet way to have berry good raspberry, strawberry, or blueberry jammy tastes. You decide!
And if the cookies were organization tools, these berry shortbread stack nicely.
Shortbread is not bread or short of anything. These edible plate weights are low-sugar and made from healthy ingredients. They take minutes to make and are 4 ingredients (and butter here is not one of them).
…You in? 😊
And if you want to bring this shortbread cookie fruit forward that’s a good pairing, bring in a mix of fruit filling.
Fruit is always a good answer and berries are nice whether it’s holiday or year-round.
You can pick from exotic berries like gooseberry or mulberry that give some balancing tart notes. Or more sweet red notes like strawberry or raspberry. And a dramatic blackberry is always welcomed.
I saw some berries out in the wild that have orange and lemon colors… nature is always coming up with new food ideas. 🧡
And I’m guessing these grape-like ones are sour berries and not edible. Leaving them for wildlife is a good idea.
It’s much easier to forage for frozen or fresh berries at the grocery stores. And blending in pureed frozen berries that are easily available year-round are the perfect find for this shortbread cookies.
And even better and easier, use or make a jam that’s calling you. These days you can find organic jams and more natural options without high fructose corn syrup.
For holiday season, you can also get a bright holiday cranberry red from cranberry cans or lingonberry from a specialty food or farmers market. It’s a rainbow choice of jewel berries that you can smear in your cookie while making or leave as topping options for your guests.
Berries are antioxidant healthy, so you’ll have no regrets. They’re powerful fruit gems. And they add a pop of color and make cookies so tasty you may want to make these berry shortbread cookies more often.
They will last for a week or longer covered in your refrigerator.
And even months longer in your freezer where you can bring them out when you have a hankering for something sweet.
…Or you need a last-minute plate of homemade cookies for the table.
When you bring them back out to room temps, if you like cookie dough tastes, then leave them alone. But if you want the more dry texture that cookies are, then you can sprinkle a dusting of almond flour on the tops.
That’ll make them look fresh… and that’s all the zhugh you need. Why add more to something already nice and simply decadent?
And if you have fresh berries on hand, that could be a nice side add too… 🍓
