Cookie Dough Truffles

To all those who avoid cookie dough because of salmonella, fear no more! Here is a delectable and eggless cookie dough treat that my friends and I decided to make last week!

What you'll need:

•  
• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
• chocolate bark, to melt for dipping
• additional chocolate chips, sprinkles, etc., optional for topping the truffles

I was stupid enough to double the batch... One batch of these makes 3-4 dozen. I think I need to be a bit more careful about reading recipes.

To Make:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add in vanilla. Beat in flour one cup at a time. My friend Sky kinda freaked out with me, because the batter begins to look rather powdery. Once you add the condensed milk, and combine all was well in our world once again! Once that is all mixed, fold in chocolate chips.
2. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour, or until the dough is firm.
3. Use a small spoon (or if you're adventurous like I am, just use your clean hands!) to form dough into small inch sized balls. Once rolled, place on a waxed paper-lined cookie sheet and place back in fridge until you're ready to dip them.
4. Melt choclate in glass bowl according to the directions on the packaging. Using a spoon, dip the balls and place on wax paper. Decorate in any way your heart desires!

I used both vanilla and chocolate almond bark. Personally I liked the chocolate better. Since they were so sweet, I decided to top some of the chocolate cookie dough balls with a little bit of sea salt. I love that combination and they turned out very well!


Oh and we also had some left over almond bark... I really hate to waste that stuff, so we made some almond bark pretzels too :)

Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, Toasted Marshmallow Cupcakes-Minus the Marshmallow.

I can't believe I already made these about two weeks ago. I feel bad that I've become rather lazy with this whole blogging thing, and rather quickly too. But anyways I decided to meet up with my friends Chelsea and Nicole (the one I made Nutella Cupcakes for!) to make these delicious things. Unfortunately, we got a little lazy and left out the last part of these deadly cupakes: the toasted marshmallow. I got this recipe from Joy the Baker. If you haven't spent time on her blog, I really encourage that you do. I drool over practically everything she posts.

But on to the recipe!

For the Cupcakes:

• 2 1/4 cups  all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 teaspoons white vinegar
• 2 cups cold water

While she used basically all organic ingredients, I decided not to.... Only because I didn't want to make a trip to the store. Either way, the cupcakes were heavenly :D

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pans then set aside
2. In a large bowl, sift the dry ingredients together. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, water, vanilla extract and vinegar.
4. Slowly whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients but please be careful not to overmix! The batter will be very wet (and that did scare me at first) but it's supposed to be that way, so no worries!
5. Pour batter into cupcake liners until they are two thirds full and place in the oven for 20-24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.
6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then place on a wire rack until completely cool before topping with cookie dough ball.

My picture didn't turn out too well- but the cupcakes themselves were absolutely gorgeous.


For the Cookie Dough Balls:

• 1 stick (1/2 cup)  unsalted butter at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (although they're not being baked, she said it was for flavor)
• 3/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2-3 tablespoons natural peanut butter-2 tablespoons of yogurt can also work as a binder.
• 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate chips, since they were the only ones Nicole had on hand)

1. In a bowl cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy
2. Beat in peanut butter (or yogurt) along with the vanilla and beat until combined.
3. Whisk together dry ingredients in separate bowl.
4. Add all at once to sugar combination and stir in until incorporated. Then fold in chocolate chips.
5. Roll a small amount of dough in your hand into a ball. Make 24 balls for the cupcakes and place on a cookie sheet to refrigerate until ready to top the cupcakes.

For the Meringue:

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• large pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

In a large pot, bring about 2 inches of water to a simmer.
In a large, heat-proof bowl, whisk together egg whites, sugar, corn syrup and salt. The mixture will be grainy, because of the sugar.
Place bowl over simmering water and whisk as it heats. The sugar will dissolve after about 5 minutes. Keep and eye on the mixture, it shouldn’t get warm enough to cook the eggs. Yucky.
Transfer the egg white and sugar mixture to the bowl of an electric stand mixer. With a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites, on high, until stiff peaks form (about 5 minutes) The mixture will be fluffy and glossy and look like melted marshmallows. It’ll be sticky too. Beat in the vanilla extract last. Cover, and set aside until ready to frost cupcakes.

^ Now that part I just copied and pasted, because I didn't do it and didn't know how to word it. Sorry!

To put together cupcakes:

• Use a pairing knife to cut out a small part of the top of the cupcake, just large enough for you to place the ball of cookie dough without it rolling off
• Place cookie dough balls on top of cupcakes.

Place meringue frosting in a pastry bag (or large Ziplock bag) fitted with a medium-large tip. Use your instincts for the size of the tip. Any size (star or round) medium tip will do for frosting these cupcakes. Pipe frosting around the edges of the cupcake and over the dough ball in a circular motion. Frost all cupcakes.

Turn on oven broiler. Yea… it’s about to get real.

Place 12 cupcakes on a baking sheet. Place cupcakes under the broiler for about 1 minute. Don’t even close the broiler door. Keep an eye on them as they toast. You may need to remove the cupcakes and rotate the pan to ensure that they cook evenly. Once toasted, remove cupcakes, and toast the remaining 12 in the same fashion.

In the end, without the yummy meringue this is what my cucakes looked like.

I hope you decide to try them! Enjoy :)

Since I forgot to post pictures of these...

I somehow managed to forget about my blog for a few weeks. And I don't currently have the recipes for the two things that I made in one day... All I can say was that they were delicious and I hope that you will find a recipe for them. Yeah, in one day I decided to make Key Lime Pie along with Sugar Cookies (which ended up looking like peanut butter cookies...)

^Trust me, those were really yummy. Especially dipped in Nutella. I must tell you, I now have a problem with that Hazlenut chocolately goodness. If I could worship it, I think I would.

^My key lime pie without topping. I know, it doesn't exactly look very pretty, but it was delicious!

At the end, I kinda gave up on taking pretty pictures... I'm sorry, I couldn't wait to try the pie! I'll definitely be making it again.