Milk & Cookies

Gourmet Smores? ... yes.

Super easy, no bake cookies! And see how fancy they look? These are some time consuming cookies to make, but honestly, most of that time is your refrigerator doing the work. It’s really only a little time up front and then some more time on the back end (if you plan on wrapping them up). Overall these are some of the easiest cookies I have made, and they’re already on my top 5 favorite list.

cookie credit: Joy the Baker (yet again)

Without further adu:

INGREDIENTS (makes 18-24 cookies)

• 1 box of graham crackers (14 oz)
• 3 handfuls of mini marshmallows
• 3 sticks and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup light corn syrup
• pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS

Get out a large bowl and crumble the graham crackers into it. Break them into medium sized peices (about 1/8 of a cracker). Then toss in 2 handfuls of marshmallows. Set this bowl aside for now.

In a medium sauce pan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt. Warm it on the stove until all of the ingredients are melted and mixed smooth. Now turn off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.

While waiting, prepare a 9 x 13 pan with a parchment paper to line it. When the time is up, pour the chocolate into the bowl with the crackers and marshmallows. Stir this mixture up until all the graham crackers are coated in chocolate. Then pour it all into the pan. Spread the dough around and press it down with your fingers using a second piece of parchment paper. Once its well spread out, sprinkle another handful of marshmallows on the top and press them in.

Now you should have a flat tray full of cookie mash. Set it aside for 30 minutes before placing the tray in the fridge for at least a few hours (preferably over night). Once cooled, cut the cookies into bars and serve them up.

Keep any uneaten cookies individually wrapped in the fridge.

I was inspired to make these cookies because there’s this place I sometimes go to on campus to get hot chocolate, and they have these very chocolatey cookies with green mint M&M’s. Somehow I always eye these cookies but never buy them. Sorry cookies, for always being my second choice!

Today I honor these second-place cookies by trying to reproduce them. Sadly, things didn’t work out as planned. I couldn’t find mint M&M’s! I had to substitute mint chips. Well… the switcheroo served me well because I think they turned out great!

I basically followed a “Chewy White Chocolate Chocolate cookie” recipe (found here), but replaced the white chocolate chips with a 2:1 mix of mint chips and regular chocolate chips. You guys all know how I feel about white chocolate… grrr. But this recipe was fixed right up with mint chips!

Here’s the recipe:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/4 cups cocoa powder
• 1 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tsps. baking soda
• 1 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 1/3 cups mint chips
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

The directions go like pretty much any other cookie you make… cream butter and sugar, then add eggs, then mix dry ingredients together and combine them with the butter-egg-sugar mixture. Finally, add the chips and mix. Ho hum. Except, oh wait, you replace about a cup of flour with 1 1/4 cups of cocoa powder! Holy cow! Okay, so here’s the thing. When I started adding the dry ingredients to the creamy ingredients things didn’t really seem right. It seemed too dry and tough. I was pretty concerned that I had done something wrong, but everything turned out fine in the end (minus some sore mixing muscles). So don’t sweat it.

Set oven to 350 degrees and bake about 10 minutes (I did about 13 minutes but my cookies were quite large). Let cool on tray for longer than usual, maybe another 10 minutes, before moving to a wire rack. These guys are pretty smushable.

Professional Cookie Image courtesy of Donald Chan

Moonie, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs ... ok, just Moonie

Good things are a-brewin’. First of all, Switzerland was awesome! A giant thanks to Jan and Kim. I am still living on a little bit of a high from that trip, so I am taking all of life’s little annoyances in stride. I am also getting very close to making a large shift in my career path. Just knowing what is on the horizon is giving me daily energy and a better outlook on life. Last, and certainly not least… look at those cookies! I think these are the most amazing cookies I have made to date. I absolutely do not want to wait to eat one! The marshmallow filling is perfect. These cookies are a pretty large time commitment since they are completely from scratch, but man, is it worth it. Seriously…. these cookies will make you a star.

Big thanks to Nan Slaughter @ Pots and Pins for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12-15 cookies)

Cookies:

• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tbls butter, softened
• 1 tspn vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 tbls unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tspn salt
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 cup buttermilk

Filling:

• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light-colored corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 375ºF.

First thing to make will be the cookies. In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat it together until blended. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat it together until it is fluffy. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk it together until its all nice and mixed.

Now go back to your first bowl with the wet ingredients and start adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk a little bit at a time. Do this while mixing the batter, and alternating buttermilk and dry ingredients as you go. Scrape down the bowl a few times and make sure that the batter is well mixed.

On a parchment lined cookie tray, start spooning heaping tablespoon sized cookie batter. Leave a couple of inches between the cookies so that they don’t touch while cooking. Bake each tray for 9-10 minutes until fully cooked (use a toothpick to test). Let the cookies cool for a few minutes and then move them to a cooling rack. Keep baking until all the batter is used up. (should be about 30 cookies)

The filling is the fun part of these cookie sandwiches. First put the 1/2 cup of water in medium to large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin powder into the bowl and set it aside.

In a small saucepan put the other 1/4 cup of water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla. Heat it on the stove until it reaches 244ºF. Apparently some people have a thermometer in their kitchen, so use that if you got it. I just waited for it to just start to simmer and then called it a success (my filling turned out great). Pour the hot liquid into the gelatin bowl and start mixing. Start by mixing on low for a little bit and then turn up the speed to max. The mixture will start to froth a bit and eventually will work itself into a thick foam. It supposedly takes anywhere from 6-10 minutes for the filling to get thick enough to use, but for me it took a little bit longer.


I think it has to do with the temperature… it needs to cool adequately before it will start to set. Anyways, you’ll get there. Now start spooning giant blobs of fluff onto the bottom of your cookies, using a second cookie on top to make a heavenly sandwich. Let the cookies set for an hour (or less if you are impatient).

Now pour a glass of milk and eat up!