Bonding over chunky Zucchini Cookies

I’ve always loved spending time with my youngest baby brother, Wils. Every time I bake on a weekend and he’s finished with his homework, I drag him down to the kitchen to have a baking bonding session with me. I reckon it’s a lot more educational than watching cartoons. Sometimes I purposefully pick out recipes that I think he would have fun with.

He loved it when we made Rainbow Cupcakes (which perhaps I will share here when we make some during his summer break), and he also had much fun putting on itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny yellow polkadot bikinis on Mini Gingerbread Cookies for Christmas last year. If you’re curious, here’s a photo.

But let’s talk about these amazing zucchini cookies. These cookies had a wonderfully colourful batter, came out so chunky and chewy, and were incredibly filling because of the oats and other ingredients. And it is overloaded with so many toppings and cookie-goodness imaginable, it’s difficult not to love these. It’s rather healthy-looking as well [it looks a bit like granola bars, doesn’t it?], because of those lovely specks of zucchini and dried fruit.

Wils and I want to make these again. And again and again and again!

Making these cookies together was a lot of fun (but eating them was even better), especially the part where we got our hands all sticky and gooey from the dough. Wils wanted to have his cookies identified as his so he made square-shaped ones and left me to make circular ones.

He was very proud as he presented our parents with a tray of his own cookies as they came home from work that evening. He looked at them expectantly as they took their first bite; his face brightening as they happily gobbled up the rest of the cookie. He received no sermon for watching too much television that day.

I must say I really love the aftertaste these cookies leave in your mouth. There is a mixture of that sweet savoriness of the oats, as well as that of the chocolates and the cranberries, which just leaves you wanting more. One of my other little brothers, Jason, loved the cookies so much he brought a few big pieces to his school to share with his friends.

Unfortunately, because kids are so used to seeing and eating the regular old chocolate chip cookies, they were hesitant to eat this granola-bar look-a-like. Well, it’s their loss, and a gain for my brothers who like to hoard these.

Anyhow, here are the other goodies Wils and I made. You can click on the links I’ve provided for the recipes:

Mini Vanilla Cheesecakes via Handle the Heat

I thought the cheesecakes themselves were a bit salty (I don’t remember adding too much salt though), but eating it with the topping balanced it out. The original recipe has a special cranberry topping, but I used strawberries because it’s what I had.

Apple Cinnamon Cornbread via Two Peas And Their Pod

I had a problem with how the bread stayed gooey and didn’t actually cook through in the middle. The slices with the apple chunks were lovely though. If I were to make this again, I wouldn’t put the sugar topping on the bread anymore because it becomes too sweet for everyone, even for them sugar-lovers.

I can almost imagine what my humble oven might say if only it could talk, with all this baking in one day.