You won’t miss the sugar, I promise. Use pure butter if you can. Margarine will make the cookies not so yummy. These cookies go fast as soon as I bake them. They are eaten up within the next day. Enjoy this low sugar treat!

Makes about 45 cookies

2 1/8 cups unbleached white flour or whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter – melt in microwave then cool until warm
1/2 cup organic evaporated cane sugar or light brown sugar
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (don’t use imitation!)
1/2 bag of 12 oz semisweet chocolate chips or white chocolate chips
(I like to use less chocolate chips. Use as many as you want! My favorite brand is Ghiradelli chocolate chips.)

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Then set aside.

2. Mix melted butter, agave nectar, and sugar until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry indredients. Mix until just combined. Stir in desired amount of chips.

3.  Using a cookie scooper or spoon, place dough onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. I put 12 balls per cookie sheet.

3. Bake until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and slightly puffy, 10 minutes.  Move parchment with cookies onto a cooling rack. Let cookies cool and enjoy!

Fresh baked chocolate cookies keep well in a tin. I like to store them in my Hello Kitty cookie tin. Mooncake tins, snack tins, and coffee tins work really well to keep the flavor of the cookies fresh and delicious as the day you baked them.

You can find Double Fudge Chocolate Brownie, Semi Sweet Chocolate Walnut, Grandma Daisy’s Shortbread, Chocolate Shortbread with Chocolate Chips, White Chocolate Almond, Ginger Spice, and more! If that doesn’t make your mouth water… I don’t know what will!

My husband always buys a bunch of Choc-a-lot cookies, which is dark, milk, and white chocolate chips together in a cookie. What a cookie! I’ve never seen this kind of cookie anywhere. So get your cookie fix here. You can order off of the Mendocino Cookie Company website, if you can’t get to Fort Bragg. I might get a tin for my husband for Christmas. Shhhh…. don’t tell him!

Also, they feature Peerless coffee, espresso drinks, tea, and chai, and they have wi-fi.

Special Note: They offer Pumpkin Pie cookies from October to December! Locals eat enjoy them heated with ice cream for Thanksgiving instead for pumpkin pie. Also, if you want to order cookies that are not featured on their site (like Choc-a-lot), just select a cookie, scroll down to special instructions, and ask to substitute.

I had the pleasure of meeting Judy Creighton at the show. She is an instructor at The Cheese School of San Francisco, which is dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of cheese. Fondue, Cheese of Italy, and The Art of the Cheese Tray are just some of the classes offered by The Cheese School.

What a treat it was that the owners of these companies were there, the ones who started it all with an idea that blossomed into something amazing. This is Alice Larse (left) of the award winning Alice’s Stick Cookies. (She started Alice’s Stick Cookies in 1999, when she was 70 years old!) I had a misconception that these were biscottis because they are always placed next to the biscottis in the gourmet food stores. But these are shortbread cookies, shaped long and thin like biscottis. I sampled the vanilla flavor and it was delicious!

Last but not least, is Sukhi’s Indian cooking products. I love her heat-and-serve Masala Noodles that I found in the prepared foods section of Mollie Stone’s. She now has a line of one step cooking products. Just add meat, cream, and water, then simmer and serve. Nice! I like things that are easy and quick.