Chocolate-Covered Oreos

This recipe requires no baking, little prep time and just a few ingredients. They are one of the first cookies to be snatched from the cookie tray. By adding seasonal sprinkles, you can decorate them in about 30 seconds! If you keep Oreos and chocolate chips on hand. these are a quick dessert to take to a potluck or to serve with an after-dinner cup of coffee. The only way I can keep Oreos in this house is to hide them, and even then I don't always succeed in foiling the cookie thieves!

CHOCOLATE-COVERED OREOS

1 bag of Oreo Double-Stuf or Vanilla Oreo cookies
1-1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips or white chocolate chips
1-1/2 TBS. solid shortening.
Seasonal or varied-color sprinkles (optional)

In a microwave-safe bowl with steep sides (the Pampered Chef batter bowls are perfect for this) melt the chips, stirring often. Add shortening (the bars of Crisco make it easy to measure amounts) and stir until it's completely melted into the chocolate, microwaving for short periods if necessary. Use a fork to drop one Oreo at a time into the melted chocolate, and turn to coat the entire cookie. Use the fork to remove the cookie, scraping the bottom of the fork across the edge of the bowl to remove excess chocolate. Place cookies on waxed paper to dry. If you use sprinkles, stop after every dozen or so cookies and sprinkle them on. If the coating in the bowl starts to harden, microwave it briefly.  The cookies take a while to solidify; allow them to set up for at least 3 hours before packing into an airtight container. Cookies can be frozen up to 3 months.

NOTES:

1.) Chocolate and water don't mix. Chocolate that has been exposed to water will show "bloom", a whitish cast that spoils the look of the cookie, although it will taste fine and is completely safe to eat. I ruined one batch this weekend. They developed whitish pockmarks, and it took me a while to track down the cause - the steam from the dishwasher had wafted over them while the dishes dried. I made another batch, and the family made short work of the" ugly ones".

2.) You can very easily adjust the recipe to make a larger or smaller batch of the coating. Just keep the number of cups of chips is equal to the number of tablespoons of shortening.

3.) Be especially careful with white chips, stirring often. The white chocolate seems to have a very thin line between 'melted' and 'hardened'!

Triple Layer Brownies

Last night I made a double batch of Triple Layer Brownies, one batch with Creme de Menthe flavoring in the center and the other with Triple Sec. You can make a non-alcoholic version using a drop or two of peppermint extract or orange extract in their place. I tint the icing to "match" the flavor (althought if you use green Creme de Menthe, the alcohol with take care of the coloring too.) You can use just about any flavorful alcohol in the middle layer - Kirshwasser (red tint), Chambord (pink/purple). I haven't tried coconut or coffee flavors yet, but I plan to try them. Really - what doesn't go with chocolate?

 TRIPLE LAYER BROWNIES

Brownie Layer

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup. sugar

1 cup flour

1-16 oz. can of Hershey's syrup (NOT the kind in the squeeze bottle)

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix in the order given. Line a 13" x 9" pan with foil, preferably non-stick and pour in batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. When the brownie is cool, remove it from the pan , keeping it on the foil.

Filling Layer

2 cups confectioners' sugar

2 TBS. Creme de Menthe or other flavored liqueur

1/2 cup butter, softened

Food dye (optional; gel types work best)

Mix thoroughly and spread evenly on the cooled brownie

Topping Layer

6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate bits

6 TBS. butter

Microwave until melted, stirring every 30 seconds (chips hold their shape and can look deceptively firm when they are actually melted). Pour the topping evenly over the filling and cool.

The chocolate sets up about as firmly as a ganache, so it's difficult to cut this into bars that will look nice. I score the topping layer first, then cut one row at a time with a non-serrated knife, wiping the blade clean after cutting each row. Try to press through the cookie, rather than sawing or dragging, which will pull the topping along with the blade. 

 

Pea-nut, Peanut Butter - and Cookies!

Peanut Butter Blossoms are your basic peanut butter cookie, with a Hershey's Kiss pressed into the warm cookie and baked again, just enough to glue them together. I usually make a double batch of the Blossoms, and use half in the traditional way and half to make Peanut Butter Cup Cookies. For PB Cup Cookies, instead of placing the balls of dough on a baking sheet, put them into the cups of a tassie pan. When they are baked and ready for the addition of candy, push a mini peanut butter cup down into the dough instead of a Kiss. Yum - Casey's favorite!

PEANUT BUTTER BLOSSOMS

Sift together:
1 tsp. baking soda
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Cream together:
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)

Add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 TBS. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Blend with dry ingredients. Shape dough into balls the size of a walnut, then roll in sugar and place on ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, unwrap kisses. Remove cookies from oven and quickly top each with the candy. Return to oven for two to three minutes.

P.S. - If you make Peanut Butter Cup Cookies, use milk chocolate cups. The dark chocolate doesn't seem to melt as well.

Let's Start Cookin'!

Every Christmas, I continue a tradition of my mother's - making delicious cookie trays to share with friends and family. I have worked my way up to preparing about 20 different types of cookies, and I only stop then because I have generally run out of both freezer space and time. My husband, Casey, has been urging me for a while to counter the bad recipes I share at frightening-food.blogspot.com with some of the goodies you will see on my cookie trays. So, here we go!

If you intend to build toward a Christmas tray, plan ahead! Unless you have absolutely nothing else to do with your days, you will need to start in October to get so many types of cookies prepared. And you will need plenty of freezer space. Of course, you can just make a batch of any of these cookies without the excuse of a holiday - you really should test them first, right?

I'll start with a recipe that is easy to make and that holds up well for a long time in the freezer. It's also a good recipe for cooking with kids, who seem to enjoy the job of using their [clean, we hope] hands to squish all the ingedients together. Ohioans call these cookies Buckeyes, but in Pittsburgh, we call them:

CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER SURPRISES

2 sticks margarine
1 c. flaked, sweetened coconut (optional)
2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Melt margarine and add all other ingredients. Mix with hands. Roll into walnut-size balls and coat with chocolate glaze.

Glaze: 1/2 bar paraffin wax, 1 12-ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips. You can use white chocolate chips, if you prefer, but white chocolate is more difficult to keep smooth and liquid. The paraffin is needed to give the chocolate a gloss and to help it set up firmly.

Melt chocolate and wax together in the top of a double boiler, or microwave by first melting wax and then adding chips. If you microwave, two cautions: 1) it takes a while for the wax to melt, and the container you are melting it in may get very hot, and 2) the chocolate chips melt quickly, but retain their shape, so stir frequently to avoid overcooking. Dip the balls in the melted chocolate glaze, re-warming periodically if the chocolate begins to stiffen. I put my chocolate in a deep, narrow bowl, because it is easier to coat the cookies when they are completely covered just by dropping them into the chocolate. Remove the cookies using a fork, allowing excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl, then place on wax paper to cool and harden. Allow at least 4 hours for the glaze to set up before packaging the cookies for freezing.