S'more Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is the second tray of cookies. The first ones, well I did not let them cool on the cookie sheet enough and they basically collapsed.  But I got to eat the cookie bits that fell onto the table, so it was all good.

   I was on a mission recently.  It involved trying to get out of cleaning up.  And this is the outcome.  You see I made something with crushed graham crackers and melted chocolate.  I will pretty much do anything, even create more mess, to get out of cleaning up another mess.  In my mind it totally made sense.

  Don't argue, I have no rational reason behind my thinking, so I don't have to explain it. So there!

And see Pork Chop wanted to help so had to wash his hands.  He used about 1/4 cup of soap before I noticed and had to tell him he probably had enough. And he won't use his stool, because he is big now. He is going to be bigger than me in a few years.  Sigh.

  Sorry, anyway, I had a bunch of left over graham cracker crumbs and I figured I might as well use them. I also had an almost full jar of these little marshmallow bits.  And I sort of wanted to use them before they got put in the cupboard and forgotten about.  I may have a few cupboards filled with baking supplies, and I may also forget about the things I have.  Don't judge me!

This was me getting started, Pork Chop lost interest in about 2 minutes, oh well at least his hands were really clean.

  What I was thinking was something that was S'more inspired.  Now I do not like to experiment too much, because if there is one thing I don't like, it's when my baking doesn't work.  Just makes me sad to use all those ingredients then not have anything yummy to show for it.  So this was a huge step!

  What I decided on was a S'more chocolate chip cookie.  I figured I would replace part of the flour with the graham cracker crumbs and add some marshmallows.  And to make it really fancy I used these swirled chocolate chips I got in the states. They are half white and half semi sweet chocolate, oh yeah!

This picture makes me so sad, those things right there, you cannot get them here.  Sigh.

 I used my favorite chocolate chip cookie base and altered it a bit.  If you want the basic recipe it's .HERE

 S'more Chocolate Chip Cookies
By me; sort of.

-1 1/2 cups butter
-1 1/4 cups sugar
-1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
-2 TSP vanilla
-3 eggs
-3 1/2 cups flour
-3/4 cups finely ground graham cracker crumbs
-2 TSP baking soda
-1/2 TSP salt
-1 cup marshmallow bits or mini marshmallows
-1 bag of chocolate chips of your choice

I think these chocolate chips are so pretty, I think I have peanut butter swirl ones too.  But then again, I have a whole bunch of baking things to get to in my pantries.  Yes I said pantries, plural. 

  Start by heating your oven to 350.  Then cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy.  Add the vanilla and eggs and mix until well blended.  Sift all the dry ingredient together and add them to the mixture.  At the end mix in your mix ins, I always use a dough mixer, I have a picture of it on the link above, it makes sure to get the flour that settles at the bottom of the bowl mixed in and ensures your chips and stuff don't get all broken and such.

Oh my gosh, how can you not want to just eat it like this.  Salmonella, I laugh at you, cookie dough all the way!

 Then use a cookie scoop to scoop them out onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  I used a 1 TBSP scoop, I think that was the size, and they needed just over 7 minutes.  You do not want them to be brown, take them out when you just start to see browning.  Then let them cool for at least 5 minutes before moving, you need that extra time for them to finish baking on the sheets.  Then remove to a cooling rack and you are all done.  I always use parchment, it helps give the cookies something to hold onto, so they don't spread out as much.  Makes for a chewier cookie.

I may have eaten a few, but there were plenty, like 4 dozen or more.

  I really liked them, the only thing was no one got that they were supposed to be S'more cookies.  They all liked them though.  I think that if I had replaced more of the flour with the crumbs it may have given it a bit more of a S'more flavor.  Also I think a tiny little pinch of cinnamon would have helped too.  So I will try these again for sure, as they were so good!

Valentines Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I guess chocolate chip cookies are not that photogenic, or I just take crappy pictures.  I choose to blame the cookie.

 Hey, so you may or may not be sick of Valentine's day themed foods, but I'm not.  I mean pink, red and chocolate just go together you know?  So I wanted to get in one last theme treat before the end of the holiday. Now I still have like 50 pounds of Valentines sprinkles ( I may be obsessed or something.) So I will be using them on a few things, that may be posted after.  So for those things, we will not call them Valentine themed, we will say they are baked with love.  Because that totally allows me to post things I made after the day right?

  I thought so.

Doesn't this just scream Valentines? Do smarties scream?  If a smartie screams in the woods, does it make a sound?  And if so, why are the smarties in the woods in the first place?  I am so confused!

  Anyway this is an easy but yummy treat, and I have posted the recipe before.  I call it the perfect chocolate chip cookie base recipe.  I should trademark that right?  Well you got it here first, so that is almost as good.

  So I used the recipe I listed before and just Valentined it up a bit.  I wanted to use M&M's but there were no bags of the just red colours here.  Or if there were I couldn't find them.  So I went with smarties, which are almost as good, I was still eating these cookies like they were going to be my last.  Wait I do that with all my cookies, so you know, never mind.

I hate that he is getting so big, he almost doesn't need his stool anymore.  And ignore the mess, I make him measure at the counter so he doesn't spill all over my dining room floor.

  So to get started I had Pork Chop all set to help me, he measured out everything, twice!  I had to make a double batch.  We had a few things to make.  I wanted jumbo cookies for his hockey team ( and they were huge!) I wanted small ones for work to share and then I wanted to try making deep dish ones for Hubby to eat with ice cream.  At this point I should let you know that he never really got one, I was a little too fast for him in that way.  But they freeze well and I did not make myself sick; much.

See that is how I do it, make the kid work and then start putting it all together.

  So after Pork Chop measured everything out, he lost interest and I was left to mix everything up. Which is fine really, but sometimes I wonder if that is how he is going to be in life. Starting then never finishing things.  I hope not, or his future spouse may kill me.

  For these I did half smarties then half chocolate chunks because I wanted the two textures in the cookie.  It worked great, just so you know.

The chocolate chunks I use are like little mini chocolate wafers, so cute.  And tasty.

  For the jumbo cookies I used my large ice cream scoop, it is like 1/2 cup I think.  I just scooped four onto a lined cookie sheet and baked them for about 11 minutes.  I really like chewy cookies so they need to be under baked a bit.  

See they are so big you can only get 4 on a tray.

And then let them set on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.  I used my smaller cookie scoop to do normal cookies and I used about 2 1/2 scoops of the dough to make my deep dish cookies.  I just used the silicon heart pan I had on hand.  Now just a word to the wise, not sure if it was the dough or the smarties but it sort of stained the mold with a white film, I have not really scrubbed it yet, but it may be the colour of the smarty, they do not bake as well as M&M's.

I just sort of mushed them in there, they were so good!  And I think they baked for about 11 minutes too.

  I put the jumbo cookies in some cookie bags I had and tied them with ribbon.  The kids were thrilled, and I felt like crap.  You know why?  When we were walking into the arena there was a bake sale set up.  I mean I had no idea, but then the team might have bought stuff if I had not brought the cookies.  So I felt bad and wanted to go say something about how horrible I am, but then they would probably think I was crazy.  Which I am, so I just gave out the cookies in the locker room and tried not to look at the kids selling stuff as we walked out.  Most of the cookies ended up being eaten as the kids left the arena, so you know, they were flaunting it, not me!

  For the little ones I packed a box for work, then froze the rest in bags of 6 to take out and eat as we liked.  And the deep dish ones, oh my word they were good.  If you freeze them you pop them in a bowl or plate and microwave for about 30 seconds and then top with ice cream.  If you don't freeze 15-20 seconds should do you.  

You can sort of see how thick this is, the center gets all gooey and chewy when you heat it up and it holds a scoop of ice cream on top just perfectly!

I am also linking up here:)