Chocolate Chubbies

Chocolate Chubbies

6 (1-ounce) semisweet chocolate squares, chopped

2 (1-ounce) unsweetened chocolate squares, chopped

1/3 cup butter

3 large eggs

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate morsels

2 cups coarsely chopped pecans

2 cups coarsely chopped walnuts
Combine first 3 ingredients in a heavy saucepan; cook, stirring often, over low heat until chocolate melts. Remove from heat; cool slightly.
Beat eggs and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth; add chocolate mixture, beating well.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; add to chocolate mixture, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Fold in chocolate morsels, pecans, and walnuts.
Drop batter by tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake at 325° for 12 to 15 minutes or until done. Cool cookies on baking sheet 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool. Yield: 3 1/2 dozen

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

Here is a fun treat I wanted to try from Taste of Home. I thought I would be so prepared for Thanksgiving with a kid friendly goodie but ended up not using it this year. Hope you enjoy. Easy to make!

Pilgrim Hat Cookies
1 cup vanilla frosting
7 drops yellow food coloring
32 miniature peanut butter cups
1 package (11-1/2 ounces) fudge-striped cookies
32 pieces orange mini Chiclets gum or orange candy (Reese’s, orange part of candy corn, mini M& M’s, etc.)

In a small shallow bowl, combine frosting and food coloring and put in a ziploc bag with one corner cut. Remove paper liners from peanut butter cups. Holding the bottom of a peanut butter cup, squeeze out a quarter size amount of yellow frosting in the center of the cookie to create a hatband and add peanut butter cup to make the crown. Add a buckle of candy. Repeat with remaining cups and cookies. Yield: 32 cookies.

White Chocolate Macaroon Cookies

This to me is not a great name for these cookies. Macaroon. If you remember back, oh say, a few months ago I gave you a boring book report on Macaroons. Remember, how that they are not a cookie but rather a confection. That only in the United States do we put coconut in ours and other nations just throw together whatever they find or have on hand and call it a Macaroon. Okay, so I don’t like this name but we will go with it because today I do not feel rather witty or creative for some reason. Must be the weather, cause we have had every kind of weather today except for snow, but the day ain’t over yet.
Moving on quickly, so I made these cookies not once, but twice last week because they were loved by others so much. I personally think that they tasted like a Coconut Cream Pie in cookie form. Imagine with me, a pre-baked pastry crust, with a coconut cream filling, topped not with meringue, but rather whipped cream and toasted coconut on top. Yum. This was my favorite pie growing up. Now, there are too many to be a favorite.
The original recipe was from Betty Crocker and I decided to change it some. I did not put the melted white chocolate icing on top because IT DIDN'T NEED IT. That would have been so unbelievably sweet. Oh my, the center of a Valentine Chocolate comes to mind. You know the ones that have the pink or white creamy filling that you take one bite and if you are me you throw it away or some people put it back with a bite out of it. Never understood that. So, I skipped the icing and the sprinkles. The recipe itself was very easy since it used a packaged cookie mix as the base. Mine took about 11 minutes with 16 on each pan. Oh and I did not have to get out the mixer. Just elbow grease!
So go out there and make this cookie that I think needs a better name. If you think of one, just let me know. And if you need more sugar in your diet, you can find the original recipe here.

White Chocolate Macaroon Cookies

1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup white vanilla baking chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375°F. In large bowl, stir cookie mix, butter, egg, coconut, 1 cup of the baking chips and the extract until dough forms. Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown around edges. Cool 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet; cool completely, about 20 minutes.

Special Dark Chocolate Kisses

Yet another recipe from the cookie swap a few weeks ago. Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Kisses. There are lots of dark chocolate lovers in my family however; I am not one of them. Nope, milk chocolate for me. Dove milk chocolate. Mmmm, my favorite. I found a bag of Special Dark and a recipe out of the Better Homes and Gardens Cookie Magazine and decided to give this cookie a try. From what I have heard, Special Dark is hard to find. It must be seasonal. I have never looked for it before; so this was not a concern of mine. I say I found a bag, well the bag found me. I picked up the wrong one and with 90 kisses you have to do something with them.
This would be an excellent recipe for 2 children to do while being supervised. One child could dip the balls in milk, and the other could dip them into the sprinkles and place them on the pan. Now, I have no idea how you would work out the kisses on top. But, that would be for you to decide or find a random third child to step in at the end of the recipe.
Finally, another thing I have trouble with dark chocolate is how it “blooms” more often than not. You know, it turns somewhat gray with white running through it? Well, I did not think that it looked very pleasing to the eye so I took the time to wipe each piece with a paper towel before I put them in the center of the cookie. I prepared them in advance. You would not have time to wipe each one before the cookies cooled off. My husband thought that this was very unnecessary and that I was wasting my time. So I did a little test. His engineering brain is usually right, but not always when it comes to BAKING! That’s my area. I left 3 kisses gray and put them in the center of the cookies like all the rest. I was right! I did need to take the time to polish them if I wanted them to be picture perfect. Oh, sometimes it is hard being me.

Special Dark Chocolate Kisses
1-16 ½ oz. package refrigerated chocolate chip cookie dough (or half of the Toll House Recipe)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup chocolate flavor sprinkles
2 tab. Milk
40 Special Dark or dark chocolate kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 375. Lightly grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a large resealable plastic bag, combine cookie dough and cocoa powder. Seal bag; knead with your hands until dough is well mixed. Remove dough from bag.
Place chocolate sprinkles in a small bowl. Place milk in another small bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Dip balls in milk to moisten, then roll balls in chocolate sprinkles to coat. Place balls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake in a preheated oven for 8 minutes or until edges are firm. Immediately press a chocolate kiss into center of each cookie. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; let cool. Yields 40 cookies.

Chocolate Crinkles

Chocolate Crinkles
4 eggs
1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
½ cup cooking oil
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup powdered sugar

In a large bowl, combine eggs, sugar, melted chocolate, oil, baking powder, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until combined. Gradually beat in flour. Cover and chill dough for 2 -24 hours or until dough is easy to handle.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a large cookie sheet; set aside. Place powdered sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1 inch balls. Roll balls in powdered sugar. Place balls 1 inch apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake cookies in a preheat oven for about 10 minutes or until edges are set and tops are dry but not overbaked. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack. (Cookies will deflate slightly upon cooling.) Yields: 36 cookies (or more).

Triple Chocolate Cookies

I have been so caught up in the political hoopla that I forgot to bake! Well, not really.
Since it is Cookie Friday, I decided to make an easy one for today. I looked through many cookbooks and settled on this recipe. I loved the fact that I was able to use up some open packages of chips that had been staring at me for a few weeks. White chocolate chips are not my favorite. I think they have an odd taste to them, but they were necessary in this recipe for the color and to complete the name. I think peanut butter chips would have been good in the place of the white chocolate.
Unfortunately, I had to use a mixer for this one. But, I did get to use my new cookie scoop. I realized as I was using it for the first time that it was meant for a right-handed person. Being a lefty has no advantages. If you know of any, please comment.
This cookie is a lot like a brownie with a ton of add-ins. Mild chocolate flavor in the cookie's base with pops of different kinds of chocolate hitting you all at once. It is wonderful and so easy. I did have to bake mine for 12 minutes, but I think that my rounded tablespoons were a bit large. This is a good one!

Triple Chocolate Cookies
1 pkg Swiss Chocolate Cake Mix
½ cup butter, melted
1 egg
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup milk chocolate chips
½ cup white chocolate chips
½ cup chopped pecans
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine cake mix, melted butter and egg in large bowl with a mixer. Stir in all 3 chocolates and pecans. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 9-11 minutes. (Mine took 12 minutes.) Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet and remove to cooling rack.
Yields 3 ½ to 4 dozen

Grammy's Chocolate Cookies

I have been receiving requests for more chocolate lately, so here is one today to try. I wanted to make a simple, clean chocolate cookie; that was my goal.

I subscribe to too many magazines. Way more than I can read right now, but I quickly flipped through Martha’s magazine that came over the weekend and found something. Whenever I receive a new magazine in the mail I immediately go through it and take out all those insanely frustrating subscription cards, perfume samples, prescription drug cards, etc. They hinder you from flipping efficiently. However, on rare occasions they do make you stop at a good spot in the magazine. One card preformed such a function by pointing me to her Cookie of the Month; which was just what I was looking for to take care of my chocolate cookie needs. The prep was pretty simple and the recipe does make a lot of dough that smells great. Keep in mind that it is a Martha cookie so you must use lots of bowls, gadgets and spoons to get the job done.

The cookie has a crunchy sugar coating on the outside with a brownie like fudgey inside. Great combination, Grammy!

Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions
Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine.
Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll dough into 1 ¼ inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8-9 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Yields 3 1/2 dozen.

Double Chocolate Kisses Cookies

My Mom and Dad have taught a Children's Sunday School class for 40+ years. My mother is not a baker or a cook. At all. None whatsoever. It is amazing that I even like to bake. I think the baking bug skips a generation in my family. My grandmother was an excellent baker and cook therefore, that must be were I learned how and caught the bug. Plus, hours and hours of Food Network didn't hurt. This is all a round about way of saying why I baked this particular cookie for my parents. It was for their Sunday School class Valentine's Day party.
This recipe came straight from Hershey's site. I did use a hug instead of a kiss. The hug was much more interesting to me. The cookie itself tasted like a brownie. If I had more time I would have made my own icing. The canned icing tasted too "canned" for me. I did pipe the icing onto the cookie to make it easier to apply. It turned out great and was fun for kids of all ages.

Double Chocolate Kisses Cookies
Ingredients:
36 HERSHEY'S KISSES Brand Milk Chocolates or HERSHEY'S HUGS Brand Chocolates
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1 can (16 oz.) vanilla ready-to-spread frosting
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces.
2. Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt alternately with milk, beating until well blended. Cover; refrigerate dough about 1 hour or until firm enough to handle. Shape dough into 1-inch balls; place on ungreased cookie sheet.
3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Spread frosting onto cookies, leaving about 1/2-inch around outer edge unfrosted; place chocolate piece in center of each cookie. About 3 dozen cookies.

Mississippi Mud Cookies

I have noticed that I have been on a bar cookie kick this week and was almost going to do another one. However, it will have to wait for another day. I decided to throw in a chocolate cookie to spice things up. Today's selection came from the August 2007 issue of Southern Living. Mississippi Mud Cake is a lot like Coconut Cake in that if you like the main ingredient then you like the dessert. Meaning, you have to like marshmallows for today's dessert. Marshmallows were a staple in my family growing up. There was always a bag or a jar on hand to add to desserts or side dishes. So this was not a hard to decision in choosing this recipe because it brought me back to the days when my Mimi, my grandmother, would make Mississippi Mud Cakes in an enormous sheet cake pan and the marshmallows would peak out the sides of the frosting. Yum.
A few notes on this recipe. It is basically a nutty chocolate cookie with marshmallows on top. The cookie has a strong dark chocolate salty flavor that is balanced by the sweet marshmallows. Very tasty. I had to microwave the chocolate chips for 1 1/2 minutes on High and I used a cookie scoop to get the right amount of dough. Make sure you stick the marshmallows deep enough in the cookie so they don't fall out when they bake.

Mississippi Mud Cookies
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
½ cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped pecans
½ cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup + 2 tablespoons miniature marshmallows

Microwave semisweet chocolate morsels in a small microwave-safe glass bowl at high 1 minute or until smooth, stirring every 30 seconds. Beat butter and sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy; add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until blended after each new addition. Beat in vanilla and melted chocolate.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to chocolate mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in chopped pecans and 1/2 cup milk chocolate morsels.
Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets or foil lined pan. Press 3 marshmallows into each portion of dough.
Bake at 350° for 10 to 12 minutes or until set. (Mine baked in 11 minutes.) Remove to wire racks for cooling.