Little Chefs: H is for Honey Bee Cookies

One quick note before we tackle this recipe: I decided to skip the letter G because it was gingerbread cookies. I just can't bring myself to make gingerbread men when we are so close to Halloween. So, we'll re-visit that one in a couple months.

Now, on to the Honey Bee Cookies. I should start by saying I really don't like honey. It's one of those foods that I come pretty close to despising, so take this review with a grain a salt if you happen to like honey (I've heard there are some freaks who do).

We started this recipe fairly late on a Tuesday night. Why would I do this to myself? I don't know. I'm a glutton for punishment I guess. The boys were cranky and I was tired, so it wasn't long before I was pushed to my limit of irritation.


Michael decided that he would rather make the biggest mess he possibly could and started dumping ingredients out on the table and painting the side of the mixing bowl with the doughy spatula.



I almost ended the whole thing right there. But I decided to power through it and try to relax. Relax, relax, relax. We all got back on track fairly quickly.


Note to self - save these little projects for the weekend so it will remain something fun instead of turning into a chore.

About halfway through the mixing, all I could smell was honey. I had a pretty good idea by that point that I wouldn't be eating many of these cookies, but I had to give it a valiant effort because how can a cookie really turn out all that bad? There were three variations listed and I decided to give the coconut addition a try with the desperate hope that the coconut would disguise some of the honey. What can I say? I really wanted a cookie! It didn't work. These things smelled so good while they were baking and they looked so good cooling on the rack, but after just one bite I knew it wasn't for me. Fortunately, the boys and Kamaki all like honey, so they are in the process of demolishing the batch so I don't have to dump them in the garbage.


Honey Bee Cookies*

1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1 egg
1 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Beat margarine, brown sugar, honey and egg in a medium bowl on medium speed, scraping bowl constantly until smooth. Stir in remaining ingredients.
3. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake until set and light brown around edges (surfaces of cookies will appear shiny), 7 to 9 minutes. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes before removing from cookie sheet, then remove with metal spatula onto a wire rack.
Makes 36 cookies

Honey-Bran cookies: Stir 1 cup of shreds of bran cereal into batter.
Honey-Cinnamon Cookies: Mix 2 Tbsp of sugar and 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon; sprinkle on cookies immediately after removing from oven.
Honey-Coconut Cookies: Stir 1 cup of shredded coconut into batter.


*Recipe taken from Gold Medal Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook. Ordering info can be found on original Little Chefs post (A is for Apple Crisp).