Feel free to skip the following paragraph if you either know about Chopped or honestly do not care about the basis of the show...
For those who don't know, Chopped features four successful, real-world chefs in a show with three rounds. (Appetizer, Dinner, Dessert.) At the beginning of each round, the chefs are each given an identical basket with 3-4 "mystery" ingredients that the average person would say "really don't go together." The chefs are challenged to create a culinary masterpiece fitting the category of the round within a specific time frame. At the end of each, the chefs give their plates to three judges, and the judges decide on one of them to be "chopped" from the competition. Process of elimination means that the appetizer round features 4 chefs, the dinner round 3 chefs, and the dessert round 2 chefs. Whoever remains at the end of the dessert round is the winner, and wins $10,000.
Anyway, the appetizer round on the show I saw today featured turkey breast, cucumbers, and graham crackers. Two of the chefs decided to crush their graham crackers and use them as breading for the turkey to pan-fry it. I thought this was absolutely genius and as soon as the show was over set off to the kitchen to make some of my own.
As it turned out, we had graham crackers, but not turkey. Or chicken. Or really any meat at all that isn't currently reserved for the playoff football game tomorrow. (Go Ravens!)
Disappointed, I nearly gave up... until suddenly it struck me. I could use graham crackers to make a cookie. And not only that, because of the natural sweetness contained in graham crackers, I could use them in place of some of the sugar contained in a cookie, and make it healthier... and heck, while I'm at it, I thought, scanning the kitchen and spotting a bran cereal resting among the rest of the cereal bags housed on top of the fridge, I could add bran cereal to really up the health factor!
So here they are, folks... my version of a healthy cookie. Serve them to your kids and I can guarantee they won't even know the difference!
Because this was a complete experiment I made the batch small, so this recipe should make about 25-30 cookies. Feel free to start small like I did to test them out on the family, and if they're a hit, double it next time!
Start off by preheating the oven to 375 degrees F. Then, begin with the following:
1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Stir these to combine them in a small bowl and set aside for a few minutes while you deal with the wet ingredients...
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Plop these all into a larger mixing bowl. Now for the fun part...
3 graham crackers (3 of the kind separated into 4 sections, so 12 sections total)
A good handful of any bran cereal (I used the flakes from raisin bran)
Toss these into a food processor and blend until they are crumbs. It should amount to somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 cup. Once they are crushed, add them into the bowl with the butter and sugar and blend on a medium speed until the butter has creamed into the sugar. Now...
1 egg
Add an egg and beat in until creamy.Then grab your flour mixture, add half of it into the larger bowl, and stir it in (carefully - don't want flour going everywhere!) until it's blended it. Then do the same with the remaining flour mixture. Once a nice dough has formed, it's time for the add-ins...
1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts
I used chocolate and walnuts, but you can use anything you prefer, as long as it adds up to 1 cup total! I think raisins would probably be good with these, or any other kind of nut. Just remember the goal is to keep it healthy! Walnuts are one of the better-for-you nuts and bittersweet chocolate doesn't contain nearly as much sugar as milk chocolate. Anyhow. Carefully fold in the mix-ins until they are well distributed throughout the dough.
Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet and bake for 10-11 minutes or until golden.
Let me know how they turn out for you and how your family likes them!
