Monday, December 17, 2012

Cookie Monster!

My kitchen is exhausted, my oven is revolting against me, my baking pans are staging a protest, and my KitchenAid mixer is boycotting.  That's right, December = Almost Christmas = Cookie Exchange time at work! 

I'd asked around a bit and learned there weren't too many people signed up to bring chocolate-type stuff.  I wasn't about to let you-know-what freeze over, so I did a little Google searching.  I stumbled upon a Paula Dean recipe (yes, we are definitely going for healthy here people, bahaha!), was lacking a few ingredients here and there, so I improvised a wee bit.  Give it a shot!

Here's what you're gonna need.

Beat the first four ingredients until creamy.


Add the egg.  

You may or may not notice there's two eggs in this shot.  That's cause I doubled this for the Cookie Exchange.  6 dozen baby!!

Next, add baking mix (which is just a glorified term for homemade Bisquic--2 c. flour, 1 Tbs. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 c. shortening) stir until just blended.


Next, stir in you're chopped up nuts and chocolate chips.  



Spoon the tasty lil boogers onto a greased baking sheet and flatten 'em out.  (It helps to make an indent in the middle of each cookie w/ your thumb...you'll thank me later!)

Bake these at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  


While they're in the oven, combine the vanilla extract and caramel chips and nuke 'em in the microwave (start at 30 seconds and go from there) until nice and melty.

Once the turtle goodness is out of the oven, let 'em cool for about a minute-ish, then spoon the caramel deliciousness over top of the turtle cookies.  Hence the whole thumb indent thing.  I skipped that part on my first batch...caramel was EVERYWHERE!

 

At this point, I'm pretty sure most every surface in my kitchen was covered in cookie.  I'd told myself I was gonna be good, not do a whole lot of "quality assurance" testing (if you know what I mean!) so I warmed up a cup of coffee in the middle of the afternoon (yes, like an old lady), and loaded it down with creamer, sugar, the works.  The intent was to drink the coffee, and not do so much "quality assurance" testing.  Anyway, by the time we got to the cookie covering every surface stage, I'd pretty much chucked the coffee out the window and was thoroughly making sure everything was up to code (bahaha!).

While you're waiting for everything to continue cooling/caramel to harden a bit, melt some chocolate chips and milk in the microwave and when it's all nice and liquidy, drizzle this over the top of the turtles.  It's delicious.  You'll be smacking that devilishly handsome man you married's hand with a spoon the moment he walks in the door! 

Enjoy! : )
 Here's the breakdown:
1/2 c. softened butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2/3 c. peanut butter
1 egg
2 c. baking mix
2/3 c. chopped pecans/nut of choice
2/3 c. chocolate chips
10 oz. caramel chips
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2/3 c. additional chocolate chips.

Beat together the first four ingredients until creamy, add egg baking mix, beat until just combined.  Stir in chopped pecans and chocolate chips.  Spoon the mixture onto a greased baking sheet, flatten with a spoon, and create an indent with your thumb.  Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.  Melt the caramel chips (with a little bit of milk) and vanilla and spoon over cookies.  Melt additional chocolate chips and drizzle over cookies. 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment