Hershey’s Mint Chocolate Thumbprints

Help! Too many cookies! I need a salad stat! Unfortunately there are no salads to talk about in the near future because if I don’t share a couple more treats it’ll be next year before I get them to you.

As you can tell, I’m a bit behind. A way bit behind and I might be sharing holiday recipes until mid January. (You think I’m kidding don’t you?) Tis the season though and that has to be ok. Besides, I’m counting on you to be a bit behind too so I can feel better about my failure as a human to get my thousand item list accomplished.

I hope you’ll forgive another cookie recipe. This one I shared a year or so ago with a few MySpace friends (most of us are long gone from poor old MySpace now). Spastically, when I deleted the account I lost many of those recipes I’d shared. Though lucky for me, my friend Marina was on the ball and was able to give me back a copy of this one.

I’m so glad to have organized friends. Now if only they could get me organized!

Hershey’s Mint Chocolate Thumbprints


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1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg, separated
2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt
Hershey’s Mint Kisses
Wilton’s Mint Brownie Drizzle (Found at Michaels)

1. Beat butter, sugar, egg yolk, milk and vanilla in medium bowl until fluffy. Stir together flour, cocoa and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until blended. Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour or until firm enough to handle. 



2. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease cookie sheet. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on prepared cookie sheet. Press thumb gently in center of each cookie. 



3. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until set. Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces. Remove cookies from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool 3 to 5 minutes. Gently press chocolate piece in center of each cookie. Cool completely.

4. Warm mint drizzle as directed if needed and zigzag over cookies. Let set and enjoy.

Recipe adapted from Hershey.com. Photograph by Laura Flowers.



Butterfinger Peanut Butter Chip Fudge Cookies

Think fudge brownies mixed with Butterfinger Candy Bar chunks and smooth, creamy Reese's Peanut Butter Chips. A cookie like this is much to sinful to enjoy. So don't. Enjoy three instead. That'll help the guilt, right? It seemed to help mine.

Is it me, or are my pants fitting a bit tighter?

Butterfinger Peanut Butter Chip Fudge Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened slightly

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

2/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 Nestle Butterfinger (2.1 ounce) candy bars, roughly chopped

1 cup Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a mixer bowl beat butter, sugar and salt together. Add eggs and vanilla and beat to combine. Add cocoa powder and baking soda and mix. Add flour a cup at a time just until incorporated. On low speed mix in candy bar pieces and peanut butter chips.

3. Scoop with a standard (size 50) cookie scoop onto parchment 2 inches apart. Push back in any candy bar pieces sticking out of the sides.

4. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes. Cool slightly, then move cookies to a cooling rack.

Recipe & photograph by Laura Flowers.

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Mom’s Chocolate Waffle Cookies

I had a dream about a month ago. Clear as day I had a vision of my mother in a hospital after surgery and I was taking care of her. I woke Jesse to tell him about my dream. Unlike normal dreams, this is one I refer to as a preparation dream. During the dream I felt strong and calm. As if I understood this is supposed to be, or planned rather.

A week later my mother called telling me about a mouse-sized growth in her throat, and that she was making an appointment to get it checked out. The biopsy was benign, and a five-hour surgery took place yesterday. Everything turned out well, but she has some recovery ahead of her.

As I sit in the hospital keeping vigil, these cookies remind me of her and of my own childhood. Every Christmas she would pull out the waffle iron as far back as I can remember, and make these magical cookies. Magical to me at least. To a little foodie, cookies in a waffle iron were something special, and much different than the Toll House Chocolate Chip ones she would make on other occasions.

These cookies provide me with visual reminders of our kitchen in our split-level orange home in College Place, Washington. There was a chocolate brown refrigerator that I often yanked open to peer inside for snacks when I was bored or hungry. Attached to the kitchen was the main dining area where Mom kept a bookcase stuffed full of her many cookbooks. I would pull them down, rummaging through 1960s and 1970s Better Homes and Gardens looking at the pictures even before I could read. Maybe this is where my passion for food and photography began now that I think about it.

In college I realized that I wanted to someday be good enough to copy historical images. I needed to understand the concepts of art as well as master the technical side of photography before I could even think of trying. I also realized that I would have to work differently with light, composition, and Photoshop to come close to producing the same qualities that certain films created. I wasn’t sure I could do this, but I did try.

Somehow, the top shot has the qualities of a dying Andy Warholesque time; ridged, uncomfortable, structured. Too shiny, and not screaming out that this is food. More art than not, it needs a macramé plant holder to accompany it. Or maybe a few random figurines! The bottom shot is a more modern look; warm, casual, unstructured, and much like you wouldn’t disrupt the scene if you snatched a cookie for yourself.

I remember my mother always used canned frosting. She loves canned frosting. I myself am not so fond of the stuff, unless it’s on these cookies, as the canned version somehow magically stays soft, probably from all the chemicals in it. Although, I have been known to make my own chocolate frosting to smear over the top.

My mom will get better, and I realize there are moments where she will need me, as I needed her when I was younger and will likely need her again. It’s all part of this pretty darn wonderful life, and I feel strong, protective, and brave enough to face forward.

Mom’s Chocolate Waffle Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 ½ cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

4 eggs

¾ cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 to 2 containers of canned chocolate frosting

1. Preheat Belgian waffle maker.

2. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together butter, sugar and salt. Then beat in eggs until well incorporated. Mix in cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Then add the flour and mix until just combined.

3. With a standard (size 50) cookie scoop, scoop the dough and drop onto the hot waffle iron onto the sections. Cook 90 seconds per waffle. Carefully remove the hot waffle from the iron with a spatula to a cooling rack.

4. Once cooled, frost with chocolate frosting as desired. Or as I do, eat them sans frosting.

Recipe from Linda Komberec. Pictures by Laura Flowers.

Easy Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cookies for Chaotic June Days

It's a crazy hectic busy time of the year for me. I’m traveling frequently, prepping fresh fruit for storage, enjoying the weather outside, and heading off to Boston Thursday for the International Food Photography Conference. To say I’m a little behind is an understatement!

My poor blog is suffering as a result of my frenzied life. I’ll do my best to write as I go, and hope you’ll forgive my lack of appearance a bit around foodie blogland. Come fall I’ll be trapped inside due to the Northern Idaho frigid weather and be my old self again.

I want to say thank-you to my Dad for the first class ride to Boston and back! I have no idea what it’s like to be in first class, but I’m guessing I’ll enjoy it. I really appreciate the help.

Since everything is going at high speed I’ve streamlined my cooking and baking. Nothing complicated has come out of my kitchen lately and this cookie is an example of that. I used my standard chocolate cookie batter and added a fun food product I found in the baking aisle: Dark Chocolate Raspberry Crème baking pieces by Hershey’s.

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cookies
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon real vanilla extract
½ teaspoon white vinegar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 package Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Raspberry Crème Baking Pieces

1. Melt 1 stick of the butter in a skillet over medium heat until deep golden. Set aside and cool for 10 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

3. In a stand mixer, cream together the melted butter, softened butter, and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and vinegar and beat until well combined. Next, add the cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until combined. Add the flour and beat on low speed just until incorporated, be careful not to over mix.

4. Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and stir in the baking pieces.

5. With a standard (size 50) cookie scoop or 1 Tablespoon, scoop the dough onto the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until no longer wet looking. Remove from the oven and let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 3 minutes. Move to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Notes: Melting half the butter in a skillet is optional. The cookies turn out well with 1 cup of softened butter too.

Recipe by Laura Flowers

Bird’s Nest Cookies

Moist coconut macaroons that look like little nests with an egg inside. The instructions may look a bit long, but this is an easy cookie to make.

2 egg whites, at room temperature
2 squares (2 ounces) unsweetened baking chocolate
1/3 cup hazelnuts
1/4th teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract
½ cup powdered sugar
½ cup sweetened condensed milk
1 (14 ounce) bag sweetened coconut flakes. (I used Mounds)

16 to 18 white chocolate Lindt Lindor balls (2 bags)

1. Move the oven racks to the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 275 degrees. Cover two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Separate eggs, put the egg whites in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl. Save the yolks for something else. Set aside.

3. Microwave hazelnuts on high in a small bowl two times for 30 seconds each time. Stir in between cooking times. Immediately rub together in a paper towel to remove a little of the excess skin. Leave most of the skin on. Chop coarsely and set aside.

4. Melt baking chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave on high 30 seconds at a time. Stir after each stop until melted. Set aside.

5. With a hand mixer or stand mixer beat the egg whites on high until stiff and glossy. Add the salt, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and chocolate. Beat until mixed. Stir in the coconut and hazelnuts.

6. Scoop into mounds with a small (size 24) ice-cream scoop or a 1/4th cup dry measuring cup. Place on cookie sheets and make an indent in the middle with your thumb.

7. Place both cookie sheets in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Switch the cookies to the opposite shelf halfway through baking. This will prevent overbrowning. Meanwhile unwrap the candy.

8. Immediately move cookies to a cooling rack and set a timer for exactly 5 minutes (and see notes). Working quickly, set the Lindt balls on top of the cookies. Let cool completely. The Lindt balls may drip a little so you may want to place a sheet of parchment underneath the cookies.


Notes: These cookies need to be just warm enough for the Lindt balls to stick, but if the cookies are too warm the white chocolate will melt into goo. Check and place the Lindt balls on the cookies when they are just slightly warm to the touch, but not hot.

Makes 16 to 18 large cookies.

Recipe & photograph by Laura Flowers.

Mocha Cookies

I happen to consider these breakfast cookies. Think of them as a Mocha Latte you can eat! These cookies will turn out chewy and flat if you bake them right away, or tender and a bit thicker if you chill the dough for a few hours. The choice is yours. Maybe bake half now and half later and decide which way you prefer!

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3rd cup cocoa powder
1 ½ Tablespoons instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 (6 ounce) boxes Mocha Flavored Premium M&Ms

Directions:
Heat oven to 375°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs and beat well. Add cocoa powder and baking soda and beat until combined. Add flour and beat until just mixed. Add 1 box of the M&M’s and beat until crunched a good bit.

Scoop with a cookie scoop onto parchment. Top with three M&M’s each. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Cool for a couple of minutes on the baking pan and remove to a wire rack.

Makes about 50 cookies.

Recipe by Laura Flowers