Marzipan Chocolate Chip Cookies

So desserts are not really my thing. Generally, I feel like dessert recipes are overly complicated (this one requires THREE types of sugar) and they take too long and use fifty bowls and then once you're done you can only have a little bit of whatever sugar-filled item you painstakingly labored over.   

So why am I sharing a cookie recipe today? Because, it's Christmas darlings.

...and because its also law school exam season and the boyfriend has banned all things merry and bright until after exams are over ON THE 19TH! That baaaaaarely leaves any time for Christmas cheer.

[insert overly dramatic sigh here]

Luckily, this ban does not apply to food so I am cooking and baking my heart out. So far, I've made my 10 step breakfast bread, two batches of pop tarts - one batch the boyfriend stress ate so I had to make a second batch, which I forgot to take pictures of, so I'll be making a third batch soon - then I had extra pie crust so I made super yummy chicken pot pie from scratch, and then I got tired of baking/all of my pans and mixing bowls were dirty so I made a huge batch of my favorite momofuku soy sauce eggs (I'll be sharing my paleo version soon) which I then proceeded to eat on everything and anything, and finally, I ran out of pop tarts and needed to get my sugar fix elsewhere. 

Enter cookies.

These cookies are delicious. They are salty and sweet and have the best sugary-almond surprise. The recipe is kind of a pain in the ass, but only if you plan on baking alone. Grab some friends (preferably one who has a kitchen aid stand mixer), a bottle or three of wine, and gather in the kitchen. That's what the holidays are about.  

Chocolate Chip & Marzipan Cookies

adapted slightly from i am a food blog 

• 100 grams marzipan (i buy this marzipan found in most grocery stores and use half of the package in this recipe)

• 1.75 cups all purpose flour

• 0.75 teaspoon baking soda

• 0.5 teaspoon salt

• 1 stick butter

• 2 tablespoons white sugar

• 2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 large egg

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 bag milk chocolate chips (the bag I used was 12 oz)

• flaky sea salt

Preheat the oven to 360°F.

Roll marzipan (100 g) into little balls, roughly the same size as the chocolate chips you are using. 

Whisk together the dry ingredients (1.75 cups flour, 0.75 tsp baking soda, 0.5 tsp salt) in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, use a stand or handheld electric mixer to cream butter (1 stick), white sugar (2 tbsp), turbinado sugar (2 tbsp), and brown sugar (1 cup). Once the butter/sugar is light & fluffy, add 1 large egg and vanilla (1 tsp) & mix until combined.

On a low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients, chocolate chips (12 oz bag), and marzipan balls until all the ingredients are is just barely incorporated.

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and flatten oh so very slightly.  Place the balls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You'll want them to be about 2 inches apart. 

Sprinkle with flaky salt and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, check on the cookies. You want to remove them from the oven once the edges are golden, but before they turn golden brown.

Once you've reached (or surpassed.. it happens) the perfect golden edges, remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for five or so minutes.

Enjoy with red wine or whatever bottle is open by the time you finish the recipe.

Happy holidaze! 

The Sweetest Valentine

Valentine's Day is just a few days away, and that means it is the appropriate time to binge on all things sugar (as long as they are chemically dyed red or pink, that is).

There are lots of ways to get your Valentine's Day candy fix: you can incorporate it into cookies/brownies, melt it down to make edible shot glasses, toss it in some popcorn, or even carry around a bag of candy wherever you go. 

My favorite way to get my sugar fix is milkshakes, and I'm obsessed with the epic, overloaded milkshakes that have been popping up everywhere! I know it's 29 degrees out (on a good day), but milkshakes are oh so satisfying!

My first Valentines Day milkshake is cherry (with bits of real cherry). Cherry is easily the best milkshake flavor in existence. Its a fact that cannot be disproven. I've had enough milkshakes to know. For Valentine's Day, this shake was appropriately pink and extra sugary!

The second milkshake isn't actually a milkshake, it's a float. A CHEERWINE FLOAT! I discovered this magical combination when I moved to Virgina and was introduced to Cookout by my mom and brother who love frequenting the one in Greenville. I thought it was going to be more red, but the vanilla ice cream turned it pink. I'm okay with it. 

The key to getting the candy to stick is using a ton of extra cold whipped cream! Like way more than you think. The worse that can happen is you have to eat extra whipped cream. You can also make candy kebabs using tooth picks, or hell, go the extra mile and use full-size skewers.

After some research in the seasonal candy aisle at WalMart (aka, seeing how much candy I could fit in one basket), I decided to top my milkshakes with ring pops, peanut m&ms, and Valentine's-themed sprinkles. I also used strawberry marshmallows, smarties, and sour worm hearts.

Now that I've written this and uploaded the pictures, I should probably go drink the rest of these shakes before they melt or before the Dixie monster gets them!

Update: I was too late to save the whipped cream, but the milkshakes are safe!

Happy Valentine's darlings! Indulge your sweet tooth! 

Nutella Truffles

I have been incredibly lazy about cooking lately. I went to Sam's Club at the beginning of this month and bought a ridiculous amount of prepared food. My fridge is stocked with breakfast sandwiches, turkey and veggie burgers, country fried steaks, brown rice, and random assortments of vegetables. AND IT ALL CAN BE MADE IN THE MICROWAVE! ...Except the rice. When I tried to cook rice in the microwave I caused a small kitchen fire that fill the house with smoke, twice.

After such a long affair with the microwave, I knew there was only one ingredient that could make my oven forgive me. It had to be the patron saint of all things delicious, Nutella.

I know I just posted Nutella Bites, and these aren't really truffles, more like cake balls really, but I'm still writing about them because they are that good.

Don't take my word for it, go and make them yourself!

What you need 1 box of brownie mix and whatever the box says you need to make the brownies 1 jar Nutella 1 box confectioners sugar Assorted sized chocolate chips (optional)

Preparation

Preheat oven to the temperature suggested on the box

Follow the box to make the brownie batter. Mix in as many chocolate chips as you'd like (I put in maybe a full bag)

Bake the brownies until a tooth pick comes out almost clean. You want it to still be gooey, but not so gooey that it still has the consistency of batter.

Let the half-baked brownies cool, at least until you can comfortably touch them. You can let them cool down all the way, but I'm not patient enough for that.

Remove the brownies from the pan and place in a large bowl. Crumble up the brownies until you have a bowl and delicious chocolate-y crumbs.

Start adding Nutella to the bowl and mix in into the brownies. You are going to be rolling these into balls, so you want enough Nutella that the truffles are dense, but not enough that they can not hold their shape.

Once the Nutella and brownie crumbs are mixed, start rolling the mixture into balls and set on a seperate tray to cool (if you didn't let the brownies cool earlier).

This part gets messy... Roll the balls in confectioners sugar so they are completely covered. I poured the sugar into a medium bowl to make it easier to coat the Nutella balls. Before you put the sugar coated truffle back of the tray shake off any excess sugar. If you didn't let the balls cool before coating them, the sugar may start to dissolve. If this happens, just roll them in the sugar again to add another coat.

Cake Mix Cookies

Finally, we are getting some snow in Baltimore. I think it is the perfect excuse to start a fire and bake all the things that I pinned and then forgot about. The first thing I want to make is cake mix cookies. I tried making red velvet cookies last year for valentines day, but my friends and I got impatient waiting for the oven to heat up and we ate the batter instead. The only thing I have to do today is sit by the fire and watch every episode of 30 Rock before the season finale next week; that should keep me entertained and relaxed enough to resist the glorious cookie dough.

Okay, these  cookies are totally worth waiting for. Not only are they colorful bites of joy, but they taste exactly like cake batter. What could be better! Now I am going to go back to sitting by the fire and enjoying this cold weather before the temperature gets back into the 50s. Mother Nature is one crazy betch.

Ingredients

• 1 box yellow cake mix

• 1.5 teaspoon baking powder

• 2 large eggs

• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup sprinkles

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix together dry ingredients (minus the sprinkles) and the wet ingredients in separate bowls by hand. Once each bowl is mixed separately, add the wet ingredients to the bowl with the flour and baking powder. Stir together until all the dry clumps of cake mix are broken up and the dough is mixed thoroughly. Fold in the sprinkles. Do not stir the sprinkles in, or they will dye the dough. Roll small balls of dough (1 inch think) on the baking sheet about 1 - 2 inches apart. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. Remove parchment from pan and let cool. Put a new piece of parchment paper on the pan and bake another batch until dough is gone. Enjoy!