Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

Since becoming a mom, I have had little time to cook or bake.  Gone are the days where I would seek out new recipes for dinner or try using ingredients I never cooked with before.  Baking occurs mostly at night when the baby is asleep, if I have the energy, or when family is over to watch the baby while I bake.  The baby is almost 8 months old and I am slowly getting back into the groove of things.  I've told the hubby he has to cook dinner twice a week now.  I don't care if it's something easy like pasta or tacos, or if he wants to make breakfast or a sandwich for dinner, or even if he picks up something on the way home from work (which isn't preferred).  I just don't want to be super mom all the time take the baby to day care, working all day, picking the baby up from day care, feeding the baby dinner, cooking dinner while still holding, playing with and entertaining the baby, and then putting the baby to bed.  I was doing that 5 days a week for over 3 months now and it's only been 2 weeks that the baby is sleeping through the night.  Imagine doing all that while getting 7 hours of interrupted sleep.

Okay, baking has become a treat... Well, it's always a been treat.  It was always my comfort, something I did to cure the pain, let the mind go blank, and the body to be at ease.  Now, the "treat" is that I get to feel "normal" again.  I get to feel like I'm not a working mom and do something I love to do for me... kind of like yoga. :)

About a month ago, my girlfriend organized a bake sale for her future step daughter.  She asked friends on FB to make a dozen cookies to sell at the bake sale.  I decided to take an old recipe and make it new.  I added nutella to peanut butter cookies. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup peanut butter (recipes tend to call for smooth peanut butter but I only have chunky lying around and it does just fine)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup Nutella

1. Combine butter, peanut butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a separte bowl. Slowly mix into the peanut butter mixture.
3. Stir in Nutella.
4. Bake at 350 degrees, about 7 to 10 minutes.
5. Allow to cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

PB + Jelly = always a good combo

These have been on my "to try" list for quite a while.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars

The only changes I made were to use raspberry preserves instead of jelly (yuck), use 1/2 whole wheat flour, and a little less sugar.  Even though I had never made the recipe before, they tasted great to me!  I also did not line the pan with parchment and just used non-stick cooking spray.  The dough was easy to work with and I was able to spread it with my fingers.

I gave them all away and am now wishing I had some left!

2010 Holiday Goodies

Every year I bake cookies for The Wong Family + friends. This year was no exception. I usually spend hours perusing various sources (magazines, cookbooks, forums, blogs) for holiday worthy treats. If I were more organized, I would actually try some of these out ahead of time, but I'm not that organized. :) I trust most of the sources will yield deliciousness. If not, there is always the almond toffee I make yearly.

Here is what I made:

Espresso-Chocolate Shortbread
(Dorie Greenspan)

These were very popular on the internet. They are a sturdy shortbread cookie containing espresso powder that yields a "cookies and cream" appearance. The chunks of dark chocolate scattered into the dough give the cookie a good chocolate bite without the cookie tasting like a decidedly "chocolate cookie". They tasted great with coffee... or a latte.

Very easy to make. The idea of using a zip-loc bag to roll out the dough is brilliant. I couldn't get mine to look particular "pretty" but they still tasted great.

Ina Garten's Rugelach

I've made rugelach in the past and always swear it is the LAST time. It is time-consuming, the dough is always hard to work with, and mine always seem to break and/or look ugly. But they taste divine! I have made Lora Bordy's Rugelach many times in the past but this year I decided to try Ina Garten's wondering if it would be any easier.

I'm not sure if it was the recipe (they actually look very similar when you compare the two) or if I just resigned myself knowing it would take a long time and therefore had more patience this year, but the process of making them was "not bad." I did lots of chilling though... I chilled the dough after it had been divided into 4 parts... then chilled it again after it had been rolled out into 9" circles... then chilled the cookies themselves before baking. It saved some frustration with the dough falling apart while I tried rolling them up.

Mine still never come out as picture-perfect or pretty as I've seen elsewhere, but they taste divine. :)

Nutella Nutters
(St. Petersburg Times)

When I saw this recipe, I knew I was making this one. Nutella + Peanut Butter cannot equal anything but awesomeness. These cookies also contain no flour which make them a naturally gluten-free cookie. They were easy to make with all ingredients I had on hand. These are rich, sweet, chocolate-y and chewy -- tasting of all things good: nutella and peanut butter!

Curry Coriander Shorties

(Gourmet, September 2009)

These were my surprise favorite of the bunch. I had read about this cookie on an online forum thread about unusual Christmas cookies. These shortbread cookies use savory spices to make them taste different. They smelled lovely while baking and had a really different complex flavor to them. I'm wondering if anyone will guess what it is, since I didn't label the cookies this year. Definitely my favorite of the bunch, but we'll see what everyone else thinks...

Surprise-Filled Cookies (Jam Thumbprints)

(Mrs. Fields cookbook)

I wanted another fruity cookie to add to the assortment and settled on these. I had made one in the past with a cream cheese dough that wasn't very easy to work with and decided to try this recipe from Mrs. Field's instead. There is no cream cheese in the dough and the resulting cookie tastes somewhere between a sugar and butter cookie.

I didn't follow the directions to use a melon baller for depositing the jam and instead used my fingers as I would in a normal jam thumprint. I used a mixed-berry jam which contained raspberries, cherries, and boysenberries. The cookies looked pretty and tasted as one would have expected -- fruity and sweet -- but I wasn't wowed by them.  Still would like to find a good jam thumbprint...

Aunt Anne's Sesame Cookies

(allrecipes.com)

I have to admit I was a bit worried about these after I bought the anise extract. I wasn't quite sure what anise was and when I opened the bottle and took a whiff, I didn't think I liked it. The anise flavor is very subtle though. These are a slightly sweet, butter cookie with a very slight hint of anise and sesame seed flavor. They were easy to make and looked pretty when done. They're a nice addition to round out the sweetness of most holiday cookies.

Whew, that was one big baking extravaganza. No more cookies for a while...

Crispy Salted Oat Cookies

I wanted to like these. Really, I did. I normally like the combination of salty-sweet... eggs that accidentally touch the pancake syrup... maple bacon... salted caramels... mmmm... but something about these were just a little off for me.

I figured it out about halfway into my second cookie. OH. I don't like crispy cookies! Doh. I prefer chewy and soft cookies. These are not it. They're not hard so I wouldn't classify them as "crunchy" but they are "crispy" - thin with a bit of hard chew to them.

I did like the flavor combination of salty-sweet, but still found that the cookies themselves lacked something. Spices? Add-ins? Not sure. The coworkers I gave them too enjoyed them and said they were good, but I am not sure whether they were trying to be nice.

Recipe found here.

Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes and Molasses Cookies

The cool weather has brought me into the spirit of comfort, savoury foods.  Not really planning on making a meal with things that start with "M", I ended up with meatloaf and mashed potatoes with molasses cookies for dessert. 

Today, I started my holiday baking.  I try to bake 1-2 items each weekend, freeze them and then pull them out of the freezer when they're ready to give out.  I have 5 items on this year's bake list.  Hubby decided he wanted molasses cookies first.  (He's my taste tester.)  I used this recipe from The Whole Life Nutrition Kitchen.  It makes about 50 soft, chewy, molasses cookies that are both gluten free and vegan.  I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out just as she says "soft".  Hubby was surprised how well they turned out.  He thinks most of the gluten free things I bake taste grainy.  And when he finds out I took out or substituted butter or milk, he tells me its dry because there is no fat.  This time, he's not happy that I didn't leave enough for him to eat because they're going out to family and select few loved ones.  I guess this recipe is a keeper.

Next was dinner... Meatloaf... back to my comfort food... I looked at a few recipes and comments on All Recipes and ended up putting a whole bunch of stuff together to make a simple meatloaf

1.25 lbs of ground turkey
1 egg
1 onion, chopped
1 cup almond milk (there's that milk substitute)
1 cup gluten free bread crumbs (another substitute)
2 tbsp of Italian seasoning
splash of worcestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all that together in a big bowl.  Place in a lightly greased 9x5 pan.

2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1/3 cup ketchup

Mix well in a small bowl. Spread over meatloaf mixture.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Viola! 
 

Pecan-Raisin Drop Cookies

While searching for a simple non-chocolate cookie to make, I found these. I never would have put these two  together and I honestly wasn't sure how good they would turn out.  They have a 100% "would make again" and 4-star rating, but I was still skeptical.

They are great!  They are slightly buttery and light with crunchy bits of pecans and plump raisins.  The kosher salt doesn't get lost in the cookies either and waves "Hey, taste me!" in certain bites.  Some of the reviewers complained that their cookies were flat, but I made the recipe as written and mine looked just like the picture.

I doubled the recipe, because I was going to take 1 batch to work and 1 batch for camping.  I thought for sure 100 cookies would be enough.  The recipe makes SMALL cookies.  I was making mine bite-size and using rounded teaspoons of dough as instructed.  The cookies are about 1.5 - 2" in diameter.  Despite this, I still only got about 78 cookies out of a double batch.  Definitely could have made more!

King Arthur Flour's Fudge Brownies

My tried-and-true brownie recipe is usually the one by Ina Garten but I was looking for something with a bit different texture (more "classic brownie") and decided to try a new recipe from KAF. This one is "KAF Guaranteed" and had a lot of good reviews which was a positive sign. The guarantee promises:

These brownies, deep chocolate brown inside with a lighter-colored top crust, will be about 3/4" to 1" tall when cut. They'll be ultra-moist without crossing the line into gooey/underbaked.

I wasn't sure if it would measure up to my usual brownie recipe but it passed all expectations and then some.

It was also easier and faster to make - definite plusses.

My changes were to use normal Dutch process cocoa (not the Double Dutch process cocoa) they recommend, and to leave out the espresso powder. Some people in the group don't care for coffee. It was still excellent. I was hesitant to add chocolate chips into the batter because I don't normally like chunks of hard chocolate in the brownie. KAF says you have the choice of adding the chips right away to the warm batter so the chocolate melts and gets incorporated or waiting 20 minutes and adding the chocolate so that there are firm chunks after the brownie is baked. I opted for somewhere in between and added the chips when the batter was still slightly warm, but not warm enough to completely melt the chips.

My brownies took a bit longer than the recommended time - about 38 minutes. They looked beautiful! The crust was shiny as promised, and when I cut them, the chocolate bits melted, making the brownies just slightly moist.  These were fantastic right out of the oven. They have a good chocolate taste, without being overly sweet. The texture is perfect... slightly chewy and fudge-y but not too dense. I did not find them cakey.

I saved a few for a special "project" I want to make in the next week or two... stay tuned!

Rocky Road Crunch Bars

Did you know that Rocky Road is more than just an ice cream flavor? I didn't. Somehow I got it into my head that I wanted to make something with marshmallows (don't ask me how anything gets into my head). I don't even know why since I don't particularly care for marshmallows. But when the email came announcing a work potluck, the mission was clear:

What dessert can I make with marshmallows?

I did my usual searching online and found out that not only is rocky road more than just an ice cream flavor, but it is also a candy bar. Who knew?! You learn something new everyday! And totally not useless knowledge. Heh.

Rocky Road Crunch Bars

I mostly followed the recipe, except I doubled it and made it in a 9x13" pan. I lined the pan with wax paper to make them easier to cut. That didn't work so well. They were stuck in there, so it did take some knife squeezing to pry them out.

You could probably use any kind of crunchy cookie, but I used Nilla Wafers. I didn't dust them with powdered sugar at the end, though that would have been pretty.

They stayed crunchy for the first few days (about how long they lasted). They taste very rich and sweet and the crunch of the cookies is a nice contrast. Well-received by all!

Almond Butter and Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I used the classic peanut butter cookie recipe and mixed it up a wee bit using almond butter, oat flour (rolled oats in a food processor), and chocolate chunks from some almond Ghirardelli squares I had lying around the house. (I think that's a run-on sentence.)

Makes 64 cookies

Approximately 83 calories each

1 cup butter

1 cup almond butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups oat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

10 Ghirardelli squares, chunked into pieces

1) Beat together butter, almond butter, and sugars. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

2) Combine oat flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix into almond butter mixture.

3) Stir in chocolate chunks.

4) Bake 9 minutes at 350 degrees.

I chilled the dough for a few hours before working with it because it was very creamy. These cookies spread out quite a bit as well so make them small.

Caramel Apple Cookie Challenge

Today begins the baking week. Well, it's always baking week but since the hubby is out for 2 weeks, it's really baking week. I thought about doing some sort of silly challenge like in Julie and Julia. Then I thought about Maddie, and I didn't think it was feasible to bake one new thing every day. I have a list of things that I want to bake while hubby is out, so let's just see how far I get.

Day 1 started out with a Caramel Apple Cookie Challenge. I saw cookies in the store a few weeks ago for Caramel Apple Cookie. They sounded and looked delicious. After researching multiple recipes, I ended up with 2 that I liked. So I tried both Contender #1 and Contender #2 from 2 different food blogs.

Contender #1

For Contender #1, I used butter instead of shortening and added in a caramel syrup. It did not end up looking like the picture shown, as you can tell. My cookies ended up being much flatter. And I wouldn't really say these ended up being cookies. They taste more like a cake than a cookie. On top of that, I would call these cookies Cinnamon Apple "Cookies".

Contender #2

I followed this recipe exactly with the exception of the caramel baking bites (because I couldn't find them). I used regular chewy caramel that I cut into small squares. If I make this recipe again, I might use hard caramel. The chewy caramel got so softed while baking and made the cookies sticky. I could barely get the cookies off the silpat. The cookies were really chewy and soft. I think this recipe might be better as a bar.

Neither contender 1 or 2 photographed well. I think they both taste better than they look. But hands down, for taste, go with contender 2.

Monster Bars

I was in the mood for some baking and I was trying to decide amongst zucchini bread, blackberry oat muffins, caramel apple cookies, and magic bars. When I looked in my refrigerator, the choice was easy... I had no zucchini, no milk, and no apples - ingredients that the other three recipes called for. So magic bars it was. I changed the recipe for fun and tried to save a few calories but these definitely aren't good for the diet. Oh, and I renamed the bars to "Monster Bars" for Miss Monster Maddie.

Monster Bars
Makes 36 servings
120 calories per bar

1/2 cup of butter
1.5 cups of crushed graham cracker
1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup of unsweetened chocolate chunks
(This is a substitute. Feel free to change the 2 cups of chocolate chips to white, dark, or bittersweet chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, M&Ms, etc. Anything will work.)
1 1/3 cup of coconut flakes
1 cup chopped nuts (original recipe calls for walnuts but I used roasted puts)

1) Melt butter in 9x13 inch glass pan over 350 degrees in the oven. (Or melt the butter in the microwave and poor it into the pan.)
2) Sprinkle graham crackers into pan. Poor condensed milk evenly onto crackers. Layer the ingredients evenly in the order listed above. Press down firmly so the ingredients stay together when baking.
3) Bake for 25 minutes over 350 degrees. Completely cool bars and cut into pieces.
4) EAT WELL and Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

It's only been a week since I baked something and already I wanted to bake again... despite the "but you're making me faaaaaat!" laments.

I wanted to bake something as a thank-you to a friend who did something SUPER nice for me recently and since these would be put through the mail, I figured what travels better than bar cookies?

And what's better than classic chocolate chip cookies? But... in BAR FORM!

With nuts!

BTW, all you plain chocolate chip cookie lovers are crazy. Chocolate chip cookies WITH NUTS is where it's at.

And if it couldn't get better...

With m&ms!!!

What can I say - I get excited about baking...

Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

from King Arthur Flour

My only change was to use less chocolate chips (probably about 5 oz and handfuls of m&ms mixed in).  I also used toasted pecans for the nuts.

I baked for exactly 30 minutes and they are right, the cake tester isn't clean. They are DELICIOUS. Gooey, chocolate-y, and perfect. They are reminiscent of a chewy brownie in texture.

They are safely packed away for travel tomorrow morning and thankfully, I only saved some of the ugly edges for myself ... because they will be gone by tonight!

I hope she likes them!

Grand Prize Coconut-Caramel Bars

I missed the Girl Scout cookie sales window and was craving my favorite cookie, the mighty Samoa. Chocolate, caramel, coconut -- the entire tiny box is typically devoured in very little time. I have tried a couple of Samoa-type of cookies in the past: Baking Bite's Homemade Samoas and King Arthur Flour's Ginger's Coconut Caramel Candy Bars. Both were okay, with the Baking Bites recipe being closer to the real thing, but also too time-consuming for me.

While looking through recipes, I had noticed another one on the King Arthur Flour's website advertising Samoa-like flavors. The reviews were stellar, with one "gourmet" cook saying it would be too dangerous for her to make them again. With a review like that, I had to give this one a try.

Grand Prize Coconut-Caramel Bars

The verdict? Definite Samoa-like flavors, but I wouldn't ever confuse this with an actual Samoa cookie. It doesn't have the shortbread cookie bottom. The cookie itself is caramel-like and chewy. Though the recipe says not to line the pan and that it shouldn't stick, it did stick quite a bit to my pan! I used a glass Pyrex 9x13" pan. Maybe a metal pan would have been better?

Because of the problems I had removing the bars, the resulting cookies weren't quite pretty either. We ended up consuming quite a few "uglies." :)

I like this one the best of the 3 Samoa recipes I've tried so far because it's easy enough and the flavors are there. I'd still be willing to test a few more though...

Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Oatmeal Cookies

I was a little frustrated yesterday after the second week in a row I wasn't able to dance. Last week, the door was locked and I couldn't get into the classroom. No one cared that I knocked for 10 minutes... And then yesterday, the class was canceled or moved to a different classroom. I still don't know and there was no note on the door. I even went with another student to check out the other dance studios on campus and the class was no where to be found. Needless to say, I was a little irked. So what better than to come home and bake cookies...

I was looking for a healthier cookie since I didn't exactly workout and burn the 500 or so calories I expected to in the 90 minute dance class. This recipe came from my health magazine and is supposedly good for women. It has dark chocolate, walnuts and oats... yum, yum, and yum... But after calculating the calories on my trusty iPhone, it turns out that each cookie is 120 calories each. Wow! They taste good so here's the recipe...

1) Melt 6 tbsp unsalted butter. Remove from heat and add 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar; stirring until smooth.

2) Combine 1/3 cup all purpose flour, 1/3 cup whole-wheat flour (I just doubled the all purpose flour since I don't keep whole wheat flour on hand.), 3/4 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats, and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium bowl.

3) Combine butter misture with the dry ingredients. Add 1 egg, lightly beaten, and 1 tsp vanilla.

4) Fold in 1/2 cup walnuts and 3 oz of bittersweet, dark, or unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped.

5) Bake for 11 min at 350 degrees. Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!

Cereal in a cookie?

I read about these cookies in a reader's request column in an online newspaper. They were intriguing because they contained cereal... and not just any cereal, but Frosted Flakes! I had to try them.

Also interesting was the lack of eggs or any kind of leavener. Maybe this keeps them crunchy? The cookies looked slightly puffy when they came out of the oven but set up better after cooling. They have a crunchy and slightly crumbly texture, but are not hard enough to scrape your mouth. The slight addition of chocolate chips (only 1/2 cup for the entire recipe) gives just a hint of chocolate without making the cookie overly sweet. Thumbs up!



Frosted Flake Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 cups Frosted Flakes
2 sticks (1 cup) butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.

Crush frosted flakes lightly (until they compress to about 3 cups; don't make them too fine).

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add vanilla.

Combine flour and baking soda; gradually add to butter mixture and stir to combine. Fold in crushed frosted flakes and chocolate chips. Mixture will be crumbly. It's best to use your hands to make sure ingredients combine evenly. Roll 2-tablespoon portions of dough into balls and place on cookie sheet. Flatten slightly.

Bake about 20 minutes, until lightly brown. Cookies will be soft but will firm up as they cool. Don't overbake or cookies will become very hard. Makes about 2 dozen.

Lemon Berry Squares

These were supposed to be Lemon Blueberry Squares but I didn't have enough blueberries. So instead I used blueberries, cherries, and blackberry jam. I'll send them your way to try and review. Definitely something I'd make again...

In the pan

The toppings

The finished product!

Recipe

CRUST
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
7 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

FILLING
3 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon peel
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons light cream
Salt
2 cups (10 ounces) berries
4 tablespoons berry jam, melted

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a buttered 8-inch square glass pan with
two 18-by-6-inch sheets of foil, overlapping in opposite directions with
overhang on all sides.
2. To prepare the crust, place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse
until mixture resembles coarse meal. Press onto the bottom and 1 inch up
the sides of the pan. Bake on the middle oven rack for 20 minutes, or until
golden brown.
3. To prepare the filling, whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and grated peel.
Whisk in lemon juice, cream and a pinch of salt. Pour immediately into
the hot crust. Bake until just set, about 17 minutes.
4. Toss berries with jam; gently spoon over the top and bake 2 minutes
longer. Let cool in the pan on a rack. Chill,covered,overnight (8 hours). Lift
dessert out of the pan and cut into squares.

Banana Carrot Cookies

This recipe came from Angela off Facebook. I had 2 very ripe bananas so I decided to try her little creation. It’s just 2 ripe bananas, 2 carrots (I just used a bunch of baby carrot that I had), and 2 cups of flour in a food processor. 350 degrees for 12 minutes. They’re ORANGE cookies so a bit fun! Makes me want to make orange chocolate chip cookies! They are healthy, chewy, moist and taste like sweet potato. I’d make them again but I wouldn’t sell them at my bakery.

Malted Milk Ball cookies

Because I couldn't get enough of Dorie Greenspan, I chose to make another of her recipes... this time it was Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops. There was a potluck at work and who can resist a childhood favorite like Whoppers?!

I lived on the dangerous side again, not testing the recipe before presenting it, but I wasn't too worried even if they turned out badly. I work with a bunch of fast food-eating, non-foodie guys so they're generally happy with anything I make.

It's a good thing there was no need to impress because I didn't feel that this recipe lived up to my expectations. It's quite possible that there was some operator error involved as I did tweak a few things, but I'm not sure that I would have liked the original version either.

The recipe called for 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips, which was the same amount of Whoppers added to the mix. I didn't want the chocolate to overpower the malt flavor so I used less. What I should have done is increased the amount of Whoppers at the same time. Doh. I also couldn't find malted milk powder so I ended up Ovaltine. Other bloggers did this as well, but I felt it didn't give the dough a good malt flavor. Maybe because it was chocolate-flavored Ovaltine? These cookies had a cakey texture, which am I not overly fond of. The dough tasted like chocolate cake, with bits of caramelized sweetened candy dispersed randomly.

The work crowd liked them well enough, but they couldn't quite figure out the "mystery" ingredient. Someone guessed Honeycomb cereal. Really?! Um yeaaaah... more malt flavor next time!

If I make them again, this is what I'd do differently:

• I'd use more Whoppers and less chocolate... probably close to a ratio of 4:1 (Whoppers : chocolate chips).


• I'd try harder to find Carnation malted milk powder.


• I'd bake them for slightly less. Mine were done around 11 minutes, but maybe next time I'd try 9-10 for a chewier texture.
  

At last, World Peace is mine!

I had been wanting to make these cookies for quite some time, after reading about them on several blogs. Who can forget a name like "World Peace Cookies"? When a friend's birthday came up and he requested "anything chocolate", I knew we had a winner!

I'm always reluctant to give away treats without a "test run" first, but with so many positive reviews, I didn't think it would be a problem. I'm glad I was right. These were a big hit at the party and with the birthday boy. I only wish I had made more...

They have a rich, dark chocolate taste. I found them sandy in texture -- not quite cakey, chewy or even fudgy (I was reminded of pecan sandies). I used 72% dark chocolate from Trader Joe's and normal sea salt because I couldn't find fleur de sel. The dough does have a tendency to crumble a bit when slicing but no fear, it was easy enough to push back together.

You can find the recipe here.