Hot Chocolate Cookies

Hot chocolate cookies? ... Yes hot chocolate cookies!

I was thinking of making a different type of cookie the other day, and I had just made the smore brownies so I thought it would be fun to make hot chocolate cookies with marshmallows in them! Because marshmallows and hot chocolate go very well together!

The cookies didn't turn out as great as I wanted them too, but they still tasted great. Even like hot chocolate. I would not bake them with a convection oven, as it dries them out and then they turn out more like little cakes. Not gooey cookies. Also don't over mix the batter or the cookies will become porous and on these cookies they won't look as delicious if they are over mixed.

Make sure you line your cookie sheets with parchment paper as the marshmallows like to stick really well to the pans. I learnt the hard way, so that is why I am telling you in advance :)


Yield: About 2 dozen

2 1/3 c. flour

1/4 c. cocoa

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

2 T. hot chocolate powder mixture

1 c. butter (room temp.)

3/4 c. sugar

3/4 c. brown sugar (packed)

3 eggs

1 T. vanilla

2 T. chocolate syrup

2 T. cream

3/4 c. chocolate chips

1 c. mini marshmallows

Pre-heat oven to 375*F

Mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and hot chocolate mixture in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla, chocolate syrup and cream. Mixing after each addition. Then add the flour mixture and mix until almost incorporated. Add chocolate chips and marshmallows.

Portion out and bake for about 8 minutes, 4 minutes on each side. You still want them to be gooey and a little bit under-baked.  They taste really good gooey. Like most cookies. They are really good the next day as well, just make sure to put them in an air tight container.




 I hope you enjoy this recipe, I think that it is very fun. I just love hot chocolate.

They are really good with a glass of milk and most likely great with hot chocolate. I didn't try that though. But if you do tell me how it is, I would love to hear!

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Pizza Pretzels

Yesterday in the late afternoon I went out with my sister. We had a great time together... Like always. And we went to Thrifty Foods to get some dinner, and in our selection we got a pizza pretzel!

I have always loved pizza pretzels and I never thought of making them before. The one we had was with a white dough but I wanted to make it a bit healthier so I decided to make mine whole wheat. I found a recipe that I used at VCC this past January. I never actually tried the bread that I made with this recipe but it has to be good if all the students are making it :) I made some adaptions and came up with this final recipe.


Yield: 14 pretzels (28 sun dried tom rolls) 
~ 10 pretzels (1 kg dough) and 8 sun dried tomato rolls (400g. dough) 


Time: (approx. with resting) 2 - 21/2 hours

14 g (1 T.) dry active yeast

435 g (2 c.) warm water

300 g (2 c.) all purpose flour

450 g (3 c.) whole wheat flour

35 g (2 T.) sugar

15 g (1 1/2 t.) salt

50 g (1/4 c.) butter, at room temperature

40 g (1/4 c.) parmesan cheese

3 g (1 T.) oregano

pizza sauce (1 213 ml can)

cheese, your choice

jalapeños, optional but delicious :) 

For this dough I used the straight dough method. Which is where you put all the ingredients into the mixer and you mix it together until the gluten is developed. I did mix the yeast, water and the sugar together in a small bowl first and then added it to all the other ingredients once it was foaming and had grown.

If you are going to make the sun dried tomato rolls then take the dough out now and fold in the sun dried tomatoes.

Rest dough in a greased bowl for 30 min. Pre heat oven to 205*C or 400*F. Punch down and rest an additional 10 minutes. Scale pretzels at 100 g. each or rolls at 50 g. each. Rest another 10 minutes. Make up and proof until about double in size.

To make up the pretzels roll out the portioned dough into long strips, kinda like a snake. Make into a pretzel shape. As shown above.

 Spread as much sauce on top as you desire, top with jalapeños if using. Add cheese let rest until about a half size bigger then bake.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes for the pretzels and about 10-15 minutes for the rolls.

Enjoy!

Bake at 205*C or 400*F

Variation: 

400 g dough (or a third of this recipe)

50 g (1/3 c.) sun dried tomatoes

Fold the sun dried tomatoes into the dough and use the same directions as for the whole wheat dough. Just round them into 50 g. buns instead of the pretzel shape :)

Opportunities to LOVE

Everyday we are faced with many opportunities. Choices to make. We usually pass them by or take them for granted. I often do too, I see different opportunities as things that take up my time, or I ask how much time will I have or how much time will this certain opportunity take me. I don't always see them as good things, or as opportunities to learn something new. To grow in different aspects of my life. I never really relax and let time go by with out me thinking, about the different things I can be doing or what I should be doing. I always seem to time my days, and I don't often have time to relax and read or to paint, or go out with a relaxing evening with a friend. It seems as if my life is always busy, and then come the weekends, when I do have time. I want to do things, I want to go places, see people. Why do I never just relax with a warm cup of tea and not worry about what I am going to miss if I stay home?


I am not always like that, and I do use opportunities that I see often. But why are people these days always stressed out about time and in a hurry everywhere they go? I often wonder why people are in such a big hurry for, or what their daily lives involve? Sometimes I wish that people could just calm down and notice the little things around them, like the flowers blooming, the trees turning green the baby lambs being born. The small children who stare when they see something new or odd to them. A babies laughter, or smile. A cold rainy day when you can cuddle up on the couch with hot chocolate and marshmallows!


I want to see people living as if every moment of everyday is a blessing! I want to be able to live like that. To see with eyes open, the love and hurt people are feeling and to act accordingly. Life isn't just about you! It is about everyone around you, how you can help them, love them and bless them daily.


LOVE is 

Patience
Kindness
It does not envy
It does not boast
Not proud 
Or rude
It does not insist in its own way
Not irritable or resentful

Love bares all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. 


True LOVE never fails.  


It is something to think about, eh? Are we loving towards the people around us? There are so many opportunities for us to love people, everyday, in every aspect of our lives. It is not always easy. But think of how much better this world would be if everyone loved with the love of our Lord Jesus Christ?

1 Corinthians 13 ~ LOVE

S'more Brownies!

Every Saturday I usually bake something as I hardly ever have plans, and if I do I usually bring along some baking. Saturdays are my days where I can be creative and bake whatever I want. It almost always consists of either a square, muffin or cookie. As I don't want to take a lot of time but I want to make something good. So this past Saturday I made S'more Brownies! And were they ever good! I only ate one because I sent them along with my sister as she went out for the afternoon for an excursion on the mountain. (She took them all... so I texted her and told her to make sure she saved one for me!) So I thought it would be fun to make something for her and the friends, and why not s'more brownies? ...

It is like a s'more without a campfire! 

If you are looking for an amazing, not normal brownie recipe. Then this is it. They even sound delicious let alone taste amazing! So take a couple minutes and whip up this great brownie recipe that everyone will enjoy, cause who doesn't like s'mores? 

1 c. (5 oz.) bittersweet chocolate

1 c. (5 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate (or you can do all bittersweet/semi-sweet, that is just what I did)

1 1/4 c. (10 oz.) butter cut in 1/2 inch pieces

1 c. (8 oz.) granulated sugar

1 c. (8 oz.) brown sugar firmly packed

5 large eggs (7.5 oz.) room temperature

1 c. (5 oz.) all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

2/3 c. (4 oz.) peanut butter chips (or milk chocolate) 

6 graham crackers. broken into large pieces

10 large marshmallows cut in half

Place rack in center of oven and preheat to 350*F. Have ready and ungreased 9x13 inch pan.

Bring a few inches of water to a gentle simmer in a saucepan. Combine chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl (not touching) and place over the simmering water. Heat slowly, stirring occasionally, until nearly melted, then remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Add the sugars and stir until blended. Add the eggs all at once and stir to combine. 

In a bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together. Using a whisk or rubber spatula, gently fold/whisk the flour into the chocolate mixture until just combined. Add the peanut butter chips, graham crackers and the marshmallows and stir to combine. Pour the batter into the pan and place the remaining marshmallows evenly on top. 

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until slightly souffléd but still wet in the center. Not too wet but wet :) if ya know what I mean. Marshmallows will puff up and be slightly browned and the chocolate surface will have some little cracks. Let cool in the pan for about 45 minutes or until completely cool. 

Cut into squares and eat! 

Will keep well up to two days if stored at room temperature in an airtight container, or tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. But they are very delicious so good luck keeping them that long :)

Enjoy

~ I am sad to say that I have no pictures for this recipe, they did look very delicious though and I wish I would have taken at least one. But I unfortunately did not have any time. 

Original recipe from "Demolition Desserts" - Elizabeth Falkner 

Blueberry Crumble Tarts ~ Mini

Makes 24 mini muffin-size pies
Prep: 25 minutes
Bake: 17-20 minutes

2 c. blueberries

2 t. cornstarch

1/4 c. granulated sugar + 2 t. for crumble

4 t. water

1/2 c. flour plus extra for dusting

grated rind of one lemon

3 T. butter, diced

325 g. favorite pie pastry dough

Preheat oven to 375*f or 400*f if your oven is cold. Do not grease the muffin tins as they come out just fine with out grease so why add it, if you don't need it? :) 

Put half of the blueberries into a small saucepan with half the water or med-low heat. Mix the cornstarch and remaining water together so there are no clumps in the final product. Once the berries are releasing juices, pour some of the juice into the cornstarch mixture and mix. Then add the whole mixture to the blueberries and stir until gently boiled, stirring consistently. Remove from heat and add the remaining blueberries. Set aside. 

For the crumble (streusel) mix the flour, sugar and diced butter together with fingers until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Don't work it to much or the heat from your hands will melt the butter. Set aside.

Roll the pastry dough out thinly onto a lightly floured work surface. About 3/8th an inch thick. Cut out 24 2 1/2 inch circles. Press gently into pans. Do not stretch the dough as it will shrink easier. Spoon blueberry filling into the shells and sprinkle the crumble on top of the filled tart shells. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes or until the topping is pale gold. Let stand for about 10 minutes to set the filling. Then loosen with an off-set metal spatula. Transfer to wire rack to cool. 

Store in an airtight container or eat fresh out of the oven. 

Enjoy.  

Strawberry Sour Cherry Tarts

Yield: 24 mini muffin-size pans
Prep: 30 minutes
Bake: 15-20 minutes

350 g strawberries

3 t. cornstarch

2 t. granulated sugar

2 T. sour cherry jelly

1 egg with a pinch of salt and sugar for wash

coarse sugar for sprinkling 

about 1/2 lb your favorite pie pastry dough ( I use the recipe on the back of the tender-flake shortening box, but if you like all butter then you can use yours :)) 

Preheat oven to 375*f -400*f if not browning enough. Do not grease the pans as the dough has enough fat in it already.

Mix the sugar and the corn starch together in a small bowl so that is doesn't clump when added to the strawberry mixture. Set aside.

Cut up the strawberries into small pieces. Add the jelly and the cornstarch mixture. Mix well.

Roll out the pastry about 1/8th to an 1/4 of an inch thick and cut out 24 circles, 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Place the prepared dough circles in the muffin tins and fill with filling. Not too full or the filling will bubble out of the tarts. I also placed hearts on the top of mine and they turned out well. If you use the hearts, cut 24 out of the same pastry dough and place on the filled shells. Egg wash the tops and sprinkle on the coarse sugar. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the tops are browned and you can see that the bottoms are also starting to brown. The filling should be bubbling as well.

Cool in pans for about 8 minutes, then using a pointed off-set metal spatula. Carefully remove, if they are too soft keep in the pans a little longer to set. Eat warm or cool and store in a air tight container.

Enjoy.