Milk & Cookies

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

I can has cheezburger?

I really owe this recipe to my soccer teammate Corby.  He made little cheeseburger cookies like this for one of our soccer bbq’s a couple of years ago, and I have never forgotten them.  Don’t they just look amazing?  Anyways, in tribute to the usual culinary treats associated with the 4th o’ July, this week’s treat is fresh off of the grill.

These cookies are great for a few reasons.  First, did I mention that they look amazing?  Second, they require no cooking. Third, they taste surprisingly good for a cookie mash-up.  So go make some already!

INGREDIENTS (makes 20 burgerz)

• 40 Nilla Wafers
• 20 Grasshoppers (or thin mints)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes
• 1 tblspn sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup vanilla frosting
• Red, Yellow, Green food coloring

DIRECTIONS

Start off by setting up your buns (aka the nilla wafers). Put half of them face up and half of them face down in two separate areas. The face up ones will be the tops. Bust open the egg and keep just the whites in a bowl. Using a small brush (or a papertowel all folded up if you don’t have one), coat the tops of the top buns with the egg whites. This will make them temporarily sticky. Before they have a chance to dry, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top, and press them down to set them. Set these buns aside to dry.

Now take your coconut flakes and shake them around in a baggie with a couple drops of green food coloring. The goal is for them to look like little shredded lettuce. Set these aside for now also.

In another bowl mix your vanilla frosting with a few drops of red food coloring and about 4X as many drops of yellow. Feel free to tweak the color to your desired cheese coloring. This frosting will act as both cheese on the burger, as well as the glue that holds the various pieces together. Once this is mixed up, grab your first grasshopper and put a dab of frosting on the bottom. The goal is to put enough to hold the bottom bun on, but not enough that the frosting visibly squirts out the sides. Press the grasshopper onto the bottom bun. Now add a much thicker layer of frosting on top of the grasshopper. This will be the cheese and it should be enough to be visible once the top bun is put on. Sprinkle some of the green coconut onto the cheese. Lastly, before you put the top bun on, add another small glue dollop onto the bottom of the top bun and press it into place. Repeat this assembly line for all of your cheezburgers.

Where is the cow this week? Who eats cheeseburgers with a glass of milk?