Category: Candy

Double Chocolate Cookies ‘n’ Creme

I don’t know about you, but I’m not into celebrating the new year. I’m over it.

My work colleague said to me last week that it’s her least favourite holiday because you’re practically forced to have fun. There’s so much pressure to do something sexy and exciting, to ‘ring in the new year’ in an epic way (as if that will ensure the entire year to come will be epic as well).

I couldn’t agree more.

So, last night, I played Monopoly. Me, my husband, his brother-in-law and his partner sat around for 3 hours and played Nintendo Monopoly. And I couldn’t be happier about it. For starters, I won Monopoly (for the first time ever!) but also because we had food, we had laughter, and we had great company. What better way to end off an incredible year than with incredible people and plates of melty brie and freshly baked cookies.

Yesterday I had a bit of a break from my post-Christmas detox and bought a bag of Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Kisses. I wanted to bake something for our Monopoly night and thought these would be a nice change from all the Christmas-y baking I’ve been doing.

These double chocolate cookies were originally meant to have chunks of milk chocolate in them, but I’ve found you can add almost anything to this cookie base and they’re phenomenal. I’ve added nuts, dark chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate chips, dried cranberries, leftover Kit Kat etc. etc.

So, without further ado, the recipe (credit: Inspired Taste) [Any purple text is how I’ve deviated from this recipe.]

Makes about 28 regular-sized cookies.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons salted butter at room temperature
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 cup light brown sugar (not packed)
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground or instant coffee (I used the coffee from a Nespresso pod) <– optional
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • About 20-25 Hershey’s Cookies ‘n’ Creme Kisses
IMG_4629
The flour and sugar got cut off, but you get the idea

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Then, line two baking sheets with parchment paper (or use non-stick baking sheets)
  • Add butter and sugars to a large bowl, turn your mixer to medium speed and beat until creamy.
  • Add one egg, then turn mixer to medium and beat until well incorporated. Add the second egg as well as the vanilla extract and beat until they are well incorporated.
  • Chop up your Hershey’s Kisses. It doesn’t matter if they’re all the same size – in fact, the more odd the sizes the better.
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Try not to eat them as you chop them. The struggle is real.
  • In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and the salt.
  • Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients (slowly, or else you’ll get a cloud of flour in your face)
  • Mix until everything is just blended (as in, when everything is a uniform shade of brown) The dough will be REALLY thick, so it’s best to mix this by hand instead of blowing out the engine of your mixer.

  • IMG_4633
    This is the batter after I’ve added the Kisses
  • Add these to the dough and mix until more or less evenly distributed. Add in any other chocolate or ingredients you like (I found half an Aero bar that I chopped up and added as well).
  • Roll the dough into balls – I chose to make smaller cookies, so they were about an inch diameter.
  • Place the balls on your cookie sheet and bake for about 6-13 minutes (my oven runs hot and the cookies were small so mine only took about 6-7 mins to bake)
  • Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes. Slightly underbake for chewier cookies.
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When the chocolate melts and creates the sugar crust…*drool*

And voila! Double Chocolate Cookies ‘n’ Creme cookies!

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Note that this WAS a round dozen…until I tried one for “quality control”

 

by Butter Greatness