Tuesdays with Dorie: Granola Grabbers

The name of these cookies keeps making me giggle because it reminds me of an episode of Arrested Development where GOB creates the characters of Mr. Banana-Grabber and Baby Banana-Grabber, but gives away the animation rights. I can only imagine that these Granola Grabbers are also on the little cartoon that this idea spans. Grabber. You just don't get many funnier words. Heh. Grabber.

Anyhow, this assignment turned out far more involved than I'd planned, as I (of course) decided at the last minute that I'd rather make my own granola, using condensed milk and maple syrup for sweetener, and almonds, cinnamon, and ras al hanout for seasoning. I turned out a good batch (though a little sweet), and from there things went downhill. I must not have been too careful with exact amounts (it seemed like an improv cookie if there ever was one, because the first batch baked just didn't quite work. The dough around the granola and nuts never really solidified around the fillings, and seemed to have too much butter. I also left out the coconut. Here is the original recipe, with which I then played fast and loose.
For the second batch, after I had let them rest for an hour in the refrigerator, I experimented with adding in more flour and sugar. This seemed to have a good effect, and they came out ok. In fact, I bet they'll be better today, 24 hours later. Still though, not a cookie I'd go out of my way for without a lot of tweaking. I'd rather just eat the granola.
Just to prove once and for all that I'm a hippy (hippie? how are we spelling this word these days?), I wound up almost instantly with granola in my hair. By association, I'd have to assume it's also colonized my soul.