Cinco de Mayo Cookies

I had some time to experiment in the kitchen this past weekend, so I tried several new recipes.  I found a recipe for Crunchy Tortilla Chip Cookies with Avocado Frosting over at Jazzy Gourmet Cooking Studio (by Sherry K).  It intrigued me so much that I just had to try it.  I’ve tried several sweet treats made with avocados in the past 10 years (avocado ice cream, avocado smoothies, avocado cream pie, etc.), and they were wonderful, so I figured this would probably be good too.  I also figured it would be fun to test it out on my family WITHOUT telling them what the “secret” ingredients were.  I was right.  NOBODY guessed, and everyone thought they were pretty good.

I made the frosting first, because I couldn’t wait to try it.  I started out making it exactly by the original recipe, but I thought the avocado flavor was a bit strong, and it was a little thicker than I wanted it to be…so…I added more powdered sugar, Neufchatel cheese (‘cause I LOVE that stuff!) and more lime juice, and came up with the version listed below.  I really like the avocado/lime combination though…very nice…AND…the acid in the lime juice keeps the avocados from browning in your frosting!

I made my usual adaptations to the cookie recipe, and then (…since I was experimenting…) thought I’d play with it some more.

My first batch was the plain ones - pretty much following the original recipe.  I added miniature chocolate chips to the second batch, just to liven them up.  Then, I was thinking that if I’m going to call these “Cinco de Mayo Cookies” (because I don’t want the name to give away the ingredients!), I wanted to follow along with a Mexican-style theme.

Cinnamon and chocolate are commonly used together in Mexican cooking, so…I thought…”I’ll try adding some cinnamon!”  I also had some extra coconut in the freezer that was calling out to be used…so…I thought…“coconut is a common ingredient in Mexican sweets too…let’s add that!”

Anyway…each batch had an additional ingredient added LOL!  Happily, the final batch (with ALL the additions) was my personal favorite, so that’s the recipe I’m sharing with you.  If you don’t like any of my additions, just leave them out…or go try Sherry K’s original recipe.

Either way…if you’re looking for something different, and FUN to make for your friends…give this recipe a try.  You can even use the cookies as a party game if you have folks try to guess the ingredients!

I posted this picture of the ingredients on my Facebook page before I made them, asking people to guess what I was making.  I got all kinds of interesting answers, but nobody guessed cookies.  Hee, hee!

Cinco de Mayo Cookies

Cookies:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (but NOT melted)

1/4 cup DiabetiSweet sugar substitute (or regular sugar - I know this alone doesn’t make the recipe diabetic friendly, but it does reduce the calories!  Besides, I recently found a bunch of this stuff on a clearance sale for a GREAT price, and wanted to try it out.  It’s really good!)

1/4 cup brown sugar (I found out that DiabetiSweet also makes a brown sugar substitute…if it’s as good as their regular variety, you’ll love it!)

1/4 cup HEB Real Egg (the original recipe calls for 1 egg yolk)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (you can use all-purpose flour if you prefer)

1 cup crushed tortilla chips (I used yellow corn tortilla chips when testing this recipe.  They have a little stronger flavor than the white ones, so I think I will probably use white corn ones in the future.)

1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

1 cup miniature chocolate chips (optional)

1 cup flaked coconut (optional)

zest of 2 limes (optional - save some to sprinkle.the tops with)

Frosting:

1 cup mashed ripe avocado

4 ounces Neufchatel cheese, softened (or regular cream cheese)

1-1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 Tablespoons lime juice (you can use the bottled kind, but fresh is SOOOO much better!)

1/8 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugars.  Add egg (or egg yolk) and vanilla, mixing until combined and fluffy.  Stir in flour and crushed tortilla chips.  Once mixed, stir in any optional ingredients you decide to try.  

Using your favorite sized cookie scoop (or a teaspoon) drop 1 inch apart onto a parchment lined baking sheet and flatten slightly.  (I forgot to flatten the first 2 pans full…they tasted fine, but took a little longer to cook…AND were a little more difficult to frost!  Also, if you don’t have parchment paper, just use an ungreased cookie sheet.)

Bake at 350°F. for 12-15 minutes, or until edges start to brown.

While cookies are baking, combine avocado, cream cheese, powdered sugar, lime juice and salt in a small bowl, and mix well.  (I actually just dumped all the ingredients into my food processor and pulsed it all until it reached the consistency I wanted.  This way I didn’t have to mash the avocados first.  Feel free to adjust the amounts of the frosting ingredients to suit your own taste preferences…that’s what I did!)  Set aside.

After baking, allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Once your cookies have cooled completely, you can frost them with the avocado/lime frosting, then sprinkle the tops with lime zest.  (I completely forgot to use the zest, but I’m sure it would make the cookies even prettier, and give them an extra zing of flavor!)

Depending on the size of your cookie scoop, this recipe will make 3 to 4 dozen cookies.

If you try these, please let me know what you think…and what other ingredients you may have played with while making your own variation of them.

Remember, if you like them, be sure to go give Sherry K a shout out, and tell her that Faithy sent you!

Blessings,

--Faithy