Day 23: Hot Cocoa Cookies

There are a few things you must have before making these Hot Cocoa Cookies.
1. A chilly evening in the forecast.
2. A quiet evening in that same forecast
3. A roaring fire
4. Some Peppermint Mocha Coffee
or and it also doesn't hurt if you have a fine chocolatier sponsoring you.

This is another one of Rachael Ray's Holiday Cookie Recipes, but beware, they are a little costly to make. the recipe calls for 7 bars of semi sweet chocolate. 7 bars!!! I have been putting off making these just for that reason. But this morning at the grocery store, Ghiradelli 4 oz. semi sweet bars were on sale for 2 for $5.00. I bought two, convincing myself I read the recipe wrong and maybe it actually was only calling for 7 oz. No such luck. But then I read the recipe a little more carefully and I noticed that the first 12oz. of chocolate used is chopped and melted with butter. Hmmm....12 oz of chopped chocolate. Have you ever noticed the weight on a bag of chocolate chips? Yep, 12oz. Rachael was trying to tell me something! The chocolate chips (Safeway brand even) worked great, but I did use the good chocolate in the rest of the recipe.
The dough for this cookie looks more like a brownie batter. I thought for sure I would be ending my relationship with Rachael after this and I just could not handle another failure after yesterday's Butterscotch Blondie Blowup. However, after chilling the dough/batter for at least 30 minutes as directed it magical firms into a dough that can be rolled into a ball. From there is was smooth sailing and cookies are absolutley delicious!

Day 18: Fantasy Fudge and Gidget

Believe it or not, I am not a professional baker...I know, hard to grasp right? I actually have a job/career, I am a catering manager for a national BBQ chain, Famous Dave's BBQ to be exact. If there is anything to know about my profession it is that the busiest time of year for me is...you guessed it...The Holiday Season!!!! This is something I apparently did not consider when I had the bright idea to challenge myself to make a batch of cookies every day. But I am hanging in there.
Fudge is not a cookie. I know that. But yesterday my oldest decided to separate one of my side mirrors from my car, I had to meet with the dean at the high school my youngest attends, both boys had dentist appts and my cute little company issued Blackberry rang it's little heart out, all day. Needless to say I did not make it to the store and I am almost completley out of all ingredients. Oh, did I mention I am not only a catering manager but a multi-store catering manager. What does that mean? I am so glad you asked. It means in a few hours I will need to drive 2 hours to visit my other restaurant, spend the night, and do some marketing and sales calls there.
At 5am I stood in the kitchen and thought about everything I mentioned above and asked myself "WWGD"?-you know What Would Gidget Do?- Make fudge of course. Whenever Gidget was stressed or Moondoggie treated her like a kid, she would call up LaRue to come over, they would put their hair in rollers, slap on a homemade facial and in their house coats, they would make fudge.
No LaRue, house coat, facial or rollers for me, but I did have just what I needed to make fudge. Pink long johns, sweatshirt, hair almost standing on end and yesterdays marcara smeared on my face.(Sorry no picture to show right now, of me or the fudge, it's still setting in the fridge.)

I opted to make the Fantasy Fudge version, rather than the traditional, again...didn't make it to the store yesterday...it is 5am. I did not have any marshmallow cream (used it all yesterday on the whoopie pies) so I substituted jumbo marshmallows. Not sure how it will turn out but I did find using the jumbo marshmallows a little easier than the cream. They do not dissolve as quickly, giving you a little more time to stir everything together. I just hope it sets...guess I will find out tomorrow night, and so will you : ).