Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

My Mother-in-law wanted to move up Christmas this year.

Yes, the whole end-of-the-world thing.

Being the good DIL i am, and for a dreamer, rather grounded in reality, i had to poke a little fun at her. It's my job, right? Keep everyone real. Because, honestly, i prefer my flights of fancy as solo trips, or at least i want to bring a good friend with a good sense of humour along.

Originally, i had a whole menu of desserts and appetizers planned. But as the family dinner approached, i lost steam. Part of it might have been guilt. Because i love my MIL and would never hurt her feelings on purpose. To be fair, i ran the idea past her first. I asked her how she felt about it, and she didn't seem to care, but she wondered if anyone would have the appetite for all that after a big Christmas dinner. I also figured this into my plans and i decided that it was a bit overkill, but i had to do something, because it's not every day your family holiday gatherings get moved around for possible cosmic calamity.

Martha always has some good ideas. My Google-fu skills take me to her page quite often. She intrigues me and makes me try new things. She's like my crack dealer, but my crack comes in the form of recipes and food and decor tricks.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies (From Martha Stewart)

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon chile powder (optional)
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down side of bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture and beat until combined.
• In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, and chile powder (if using). Using heaping tablespoons, form balls of dough and roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place, about 3 inches apart, on two parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until cookies are set in center and begin to crack, about 10 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Let cookies cool on sheets on wire racks 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to racks to cool completely. (Store in an airtight container, up to 1 week.)

(Note: I used ground Chipotle powder as the chile pepper for my cookies, because i was trying to be Mayan-authentic. You can probably use whatever chile powder floats your boat, but this has a nice heat to it without being an overpowering taste.)

Just roll your cookie dough around and get it coated.

They are very similar to Crackle cookies, and were firm. I let them cool on the tray for a couple minute and them removed them to a rack to cool the rest of the way.

Even though my MIL didn't think she'd like them, she asked me to leave her a bag of them when we left.

I also made a batch of Alton Brown's hot cocoa mix. I brought a canister with me so i could have a little hot cocoa bar. I kind of made i up as i went along with what i had in my kitchen. I brought marshmallows (of course), whipped cream (in a can), peppermint and vanilla extracts, Christmas nonpariel sprinkles, ground chipotle pepper, candy canes, and Hershey's chocolate syrup.

My cocoa pictures aren't the greatest, because for some reason i was trying to take pictures on my phone instead of my camera. But it was delicious, no matter how you chose to have it.

This one you can see that we were decadent and had marshmallows under the whipped cream, which was interesting. The girls had to have sprinkles, of course.

My husband went for the more exotic cocoa sprinkled with chipotle powder drizzled with chocolate syrup. Yum!

Me personally, i added a few drops of vanilla extract, added a few marshmallows and a dollop of whipped cream, plus sprinkles.

I have a cute idea for a Hot Cocoa bar for Christmas, when things are going to be quiet and we can spend all day in our jammies playing with presents. The kids will love it, and maybe we'll make the adult cocoa Irish.

Hopefully it helped take the weird out of having Christmas almost 2 weeks early at Grandma's house.

I hope to have more posts coming soon as i complete more of my Holiday treats list.

Bake Sale Magic

For years now, i have struggled with making the "perfect" chocolate chip cookie. Once in a great while, they'd come out just right.


"Just right" to me means a lot of things combined. I don't want cookies that are too dark. My old oven was notorious for uneven baking. Maybe because it was a piece of crap. I want my cookies to have just the right shape across the top. I don't want everything except the chips or nuts to be flat because they spread too much. I would even refrigerate my dough and still get them. I also don't want my cookies to be too cakey. I want just the right amount of chew, substance, and moistness. This is a very difficult combination for me to get.


You know how Soft Batch™ cookies look so perfect? Well, i wanted to get something close to that, visually, but without all the corn syrup and preservatives.


In fact, baking chocolate chip cookies has become such a frustrating endeavor for me, that i had almost given up.


My son came home earlier in the week and said his Art Club was having a bake sale this weekend, and he'd like to contribute. He asked if he could borrow my baking stuff. I asked him if he even thought he could bake. He said "Well, i thought i'd borrow you, too. You're part of the baking supplies! I can't do this on my own!"


Isn't he cute how he "asks" me for things? Teenagers are so much fun.


I thought all week about what i could bake. I thought about shortbread, but when i think bake sale, i always think about things with chocolate. I just so happened to have several bags of chocolate chip varieties in my freezer. I didn't quite bake as much through the holidays as i expected. He had already asked about Heath bar cookies. So i thought i would give chocolate chip cookies a whirl again and if i had to be up all night with a backup plan, so be it.


Wouldn't you know it... my cookies came out PERFECT. Of course, since i don't get to eat them, they would be. That's how the universe works.


I made Heath Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies for my first batch, and the second bath were what i will just call Chocolate Chip Combo Cookies. I added both white and semi-sweet chips into them.


Now for pictures. So you can drool.

Heath Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Chocolate Chip Combo Cookies!

All packaged and ready for the bake sale!

Now, for the recipe.

I did adapt the recipe for chocolate chip cookies from my Better Homes & Gardens cook book.

This is not my base recipe. I didn't invent it. I just tweaked it. I'll write the recipe out as written in the book, but add my 2 cents in parenthesis.

1/2 butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening or veg. oil (i adapted this to use 1/2 cup applesauce instead)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

The recipe calls for 1 12-ounce package of chocolate chips and 1 1/2 cups chopped and toasted (optional) nuts. But i think that's a lot. And i didn't want nuts. So i added approximately:


For the Heath cookies i added:
1/2 bag (or about 3/4 cup) of Heath Bits
1/2 - 3/4 bag of chocolate chips (i had a partial bag and i just dumped it all in)


For the Chocolate Chip Combos i added:
1/2 - 3/4 bag of chocolate chips
Approximately 1/2 bag of white baking chips


Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and shortening (applesauce for me) with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Beat until mixture is combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour. Stir in chocolate chips and, if desired nuts. (I beat in everything with my stand mixer. Best small kitchen appliance ever.)


Drop dough by rounded teaspoons (i used a small sized ice cream scoop which i read estimates about 2 Tablespoons but i didn't fill it all the way) 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. (I advise against using ungreased cookie sheets. I prefer to line all my cookie pans with parchment paper. It will save you mega amounts of frustration. Seriously.) Bake for 8 or 9 minutes or until the edges are light brown (i took mine promptly out at 8 minutes but ovens vary). Cool on cookie sheets for 2 minutes then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.


We taste tested them (of course) and my husband was over the moon, my daughters were begging for another, and my son will probably buy some of our own cookies at the bake sale. I have to admit, i was rather impressed with them myself.


I think i will make a whole new batch of the Heath cookies today. Not that i need them. But i want them.

Easter Basket Cookies (Or Bird Nests. Whatev.)

Now that the Easter hoopla is over and the kids are back in school (finally!), i can get this ship underway!


I recently spent 2 months in a splint and brace due to a broken wrist and surgery. For those long weeks, i realized how terrible it is to have your mobility cut down. Unfortunately, it was my dominant hand, so i did a lot of ordering pizza and drive-thru. It sucked big-time.


As Easter approached, i was very eager to get back to feeling like my old self again. I spent a lot of time on Pinterest while laying broken on the couch. While diddling my time away re-pinning really neat things, i got some inspiration of my own.


I decided to make some cookies. I had seen some links on Pinterest where they made ice cream bowls using the bottom of a muffin tin and cookie dough.


I grabbed my mini pan and made some of Alton Brown's sugar cookie dough. I used a round cookie cutter and cut my dough out, and draped and shaped the dough around my muffin tin cups. I went every other cup around the edge, because otherwise the cookies would have touched and welded together as they baked. Also, I advise against using any of the inside cups, as the finished cookies pop off easier around the edges.


I did not grease my pan. I thought about it. But i baked 3 test cookies on my dark nonstick pan to see how it was going to work out first. All pans are not created equal, so test yours before you fill a whole pan full of cookie dough.

It worked well. I used a butter knife to pop the cookies off my pan. I held it flat under the bottom of my cookie and gently lifted until they came off.

I made some royal icing and a grass tip for the first cookie. I wondered if the icing was going to be too soft, and it really was. It wanted to meld back together  bit. You know how royal icing is. So i made a batch of buttercream icing for the rest of them.


The grass tip was kind of a pain in the butt. I had never used it before, and it kept getting clogged. I used a toothpick to poke into the holes when it got bound up, but by the time i was done, i was pretty annoyed. I don't know if there's a secret to using this tip or not. I guess practice makes perfect.


I will say that PMS and baking do not go well together. For my first baking project out of my brace, it was a rather frustrating endeavor.


But they were cute! I used little mini Cadbury eggs (my favorite Easter candy). I call them Easter baskets, but they kind of look like bird nests to me. I wasn't about to attempt putting handles on them or anything.

For something i kind of came up with on my own, i think they came out very cute. I was pleased.


You can find Alton Brown's cookie recipe here. I used the butter icing recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cook book. I don't know why it calls it butter icing when most websites call the same icing buttercream. It's the same basic recipe you can find anywhere. I think the cookie dough was perfect. It baked up very firm and solid instead of crumbly. I always worry about crumbly cookies if i am going to do more to them than bake them. It's impossible to ice a crumbling cookie.


Enjoy!