Monday Matchup

Please forgive us for our lack of posting last week. As Erica mentioned we were very busy taking care of our Grandpa's funeral arrangements, helping where we could, and just being with family. It is such a joy being together but sad also because of the circumstances. We lost our Grandmother a year ago and was expecting losing Grandpa. We are so happy they are together again.

Anyway, we are back at it this week excited to share more with you. I love cookbooks. Love them. At the library or book store you will most likely find me in the cookbook section. I would be a collector if I had the space to accommodate. Someday. Right now I check out cookbooks and take them back usually unwillingly.

Well this week I chose for Monday Matchup to make a new cookie we've never made before. I headed to the library and picked up The Best of The Pillsbury Bake-Off Cookies and Bars. I actually like these types of cookbooks because the recipes come from every day cooks like you and I. You can find great recipes in these books and you can find some doozies. So, I was a bit worried how these would turn out. I chose the cover recipe (you can't go wrong there!) which was Caramel-filled Chocolate Cookies and got to baking. Basically they are a chocolate cookie with pecans and a Rolo or 2 Milk Duds in my case pressed in the center. They are topped with a pecan/sugar mixture and a white chocolate drizzle. All in all I enjoyed these. I'm not a nut lover but tolerate them. My kids don't care as long as it has sugar. I will definately put this in my own recipe book.

You can find the book here. Thanks!

Caramel-filled Chocolate Cookies

2.5 cups of flour

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 t. baking soda

1 c. sugar

1 c. packed brown sugar

1 c. butter softened

2 t. vanilla
2 eggs
1 c. chopped pecans
1 Tbls. sugar
48 Rolos or Milk Duds
4 oz. white choc. or Vanilla Almond Bark

In small bowl, stir together flour, cocoa, and baking soda; set aside. In mixer cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs and mix. On low speed at flour/cocoa mixture until blended then add 1/2 cup of chopped pecans. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes for easier handling.

Heat oven to 375. In small bowl mix remaining 1/2 cup of pecans and 1 Tbls. of sugar. With floured hands, shape about 1 Tbls of dough around each caramel, covering completely. Press one side of each ball into pecan mixture. Place nut side up on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 7-10 minutes or until set and slightly cracked. Cool completely, about 15 minutes.

Melt white chocolate or Almond Bark and drizzle over cookies. Enjoy!

Hi! Erica here.  I decided to do a Heath Bar Cookie.  I found the recipe here. 

It was fun doing something different.  My norm are chocolate chip, peanut butter, and sugar cookies.  I think I found a new favorite.  I needed to get some cookies baked for our neighbor who had earlier purchased my daughters 4H sheep.  And I think these were quite the treat!  I loved how the toffee melted on the bottom of the cookie and got crunchy again once the cookie had cooled.  Yummy!  You have the option to use the full candy bar or just the bag of toffee bits.  I did the full candy bar, because the bag of toffee bits didn't have the chocolate in with it.  Gotta have the chocolate.  To crumble the candy bar I used my marble rolling pin and rolled over them a few times.
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Here's the recipe
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped Heath Bar pieces (Eight 1.4 ounce bars)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine Heath Bar pieces and chopped walnuts. Set aside.


Beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs one at a time, and vanilla.

Alternatively mix in the Heath Bar mixture and the flour mixture, a third at a time, until well blended. Chill cookie dough for at least 30 minutes (better an hour).

Preheat oven to 350°F. On cookie sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat, spoon out the cookie dough in small 1-inch diameter balls (size of a large marble). Place dough balls 3 inches away from each other on the cookie sheets.

Good stuff!  I didn't do my cookies as small as it suggested.  I did them a normal cookie scoop and I thought they were perfect.  I got about 3 dozen. 

:o)