Snickers cookies

April made these for my birthday and Ashlyn still thinks these are called "birthday cookies."

Here's the link to the recipe we got; it's from Annalisa's blog.

Chocolate Parfait Cookies

here's the recipe as best as we can get it. the original calls for about 13 lbs. of flour and 11 lbs. of butter, and you mix it in a mixer that's literally almost as big as you. so we've tried to dumb it down, but be aware if you really want the best outcome you should use original measurements. :)

• 1 lb. butter, softened (1 1/2 c. veg. oil)
• 2 c. sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 T. vanilla
• 3 1/2 c. flour (1/2 c. more if you use oil since it's runnier)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 1/2 c. large chocolate chips

Cream together butter, sugar and eggs. Stir together all ingredients, making a very stiff dough. Drop large scoops onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 for 8-10 min.

Oh, how we love to be reminded of Jacob Lake.

please, sir, i want s'more

i made these when we had the missionaries over for dinner and they were a surprisingly big hit with them. and if you're missing the mountains, these s'mores are like a piece from home. now all i need is to figure out how to build a campfire in our living room.

***note: these are really easy but a bit time consuming, and you have to plan ahead to have time for all the steps. so keep that in mind if you're going to make these***

graham cracker base:

• 1 1/2 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 c. ww flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. almost-room-temperature butter
• 1/3 c. packed brown sugar
• 3 T. granulated sugar
• 2 T. honey
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 large egg

in a large bowl whisk together flours, baking soda and salt. set aside. next, in a food processor cream together butter, sugars and honey for about 30 seconds. add vanilla and the egg and process until combined. add the flour mixture and pulse until just combined. cover and refrigerate for an hour.

when done chilling, line cookie sheets with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350.

roll the chilled dough into 1/8th inch thickness. with a cookie cutter (or child's cup!) cut into about 2-inch rounds. place on the cookie sheets and bake 12-14 min. until the cookies are lightly browned around the edges. remove from the oven and immediately place a large marshmallow on top of the cookie and put back in the oven for 3-4 min. until the marshmallow is soft but not melted.

wait about 3 min. and push the marshmallow flat across the cookie (i'd spray your hand a bit first). move cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. repeat with remaining cookies.

i'm going to copy and paste the recipe and directions for the chocolate coating. it's supposed to cover the entire cookie, but i couldn't get it to work (you can see the 2 cookies that had the attempted chocolate-covering in the left side of the top picture), plus i was getting tired of making these. so i just whipped up some chocolate frosting and slapped it on top. it was so much less work and still plenty of chocolate. i think i'll just always do them that way.

but here it is if you want it:

Chocolate Ganache Coating
12 ounces of your favorite dark or milk chocolate, chopped
1 ½ cups of heavy cream
2 Tablespoons of light corn syrup
2 Tablespoons of Honey
Very hot water as needed for thinning

Place a tea kettle of water to boil and set aside. Next, place the chopped chocolate in a food processor and process until fine. In a small sauce pan over low-heat warm the heavy cream, corn syrup, and honey until it comes to a simmer. Remove from heat, add the cream mixture to the chocolate, and process until smooth. Add water in small amounts as you need to make a slightly thin pourable chocolate. Put the chocolate in a deep small bowl. Dip each cookie and swirl until coated. Place on a wire rack to dry for several hours or overnight.

like i said, these were a big hit with the missionaries and also our next door neighbor. i halved the recipe and it still made plenty. somehow ours all ended up being eaten. no evidence found yet as to who stole the cookie from the cookie jar . . . who ashlyn? couldn't be.

Tongas

Here's the recipe for Samoas knockoffs:


Ingredients:
1 box shortbread cookies (or you can make your own, about 20-30 cookies)
6 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/2 cups toasted coconut (Caution: sweetened coconut is easier to find than unsweetened, but burns quickly in the oven; either is fine, but keep a good eye on it lest it burns, baby)
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

Melt 3/4 cup chocolate chips in a double boiler (I use my makeshift pot-in-a-pot-o'-water) and pour a thin layer of the melted chocolate chips in the bottom of the cups of silicone muffin pans. (You can try greasing a metal pan but it's harder to get the cookies out later and makes for a pain of a cleaning job.) Place each shortbread cookie in a muffin pan cup, pressing down gently so that it's imbedded in the chocolate. In 2-quart saucepan over medium-low heat, combine butter, sugar and corn syrup. Heat to a full boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Boil 3 minutes, stirring constantly.

Slowly pour in sweetened condensed milk, stirring constantly. Continue cooking over low heat until candy thermometer reaches 220-228 degrees (I didn't have one, so I just watched until it looked caramel-y). Remove from heat.

Stir in vanilla. Beat until creamy. Immediately stir in toasted coconut and mix well.

Spoon mixture by teaspoonfuls over shortbread cookies. Cool completely. Remove cooled cookies from muffin pan onto waxed paper.

Melt remaining chocolate chips and drizzle thinly in stripes over cookies. Add a tablespoon of oil if it's not drizzly enough. Let chocolate harden at room temperature, or refrigerate for 15 minutes if you're in a hurry. Enjoy!