vacation - part 2

food

yeah so you know i ate everything on vacation that i had missed so dearly. chick-fil-a, wendys, mcdonalds, white castle (3 times but two of those times were onion rings only and i still haven't had a milkshake), some other stuff i had no business eating. but it's cool i'm back on track with my regularly scheduled healthy living program. i feel like i've gotten it out of my system.

i made my cookies but i didn't send any out. here's the recipe (courtesy of 101cookbooks.com):


chocolate peppermint bark cookies

4 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups chopped peppermint bark

Place the chocolate and butter in the top of a double boiler placed over but not touching barely simmering water in the bottom of the pan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the chocolate and butter begin to melt. Remove from over the water and set aside to cool slightly.

In a bowl, stir together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the eggs, granulated sugar and vanilla. Beat on medium speed until light in color and thick, about three minutes. Reduce speed to low, add the melted chocolate mixture and beat until blended. Add the flour mixture and beat until incorporated.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the dough is firm enough to roll into balls, about 2 hours.

Preheat an oven to 325. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

To form each cookie, roll a rounded tablespoon of dough between your palms. Place the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press 2 or 3 pieces of peppermint bark into each cookie (hs note: more!). Using the bottom of a water glass, flatten the cookies slightly. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time, until the tops are puffed and firm, 13 to 17 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer the cookies to the racks and let cool completely. Dust the cookies with confectioners' sugar. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. Makes 30 cookies.

now, between the time i found this recipe and actually made the cookies, the website updated the recipe. maybe i should've gone with the new one because this dough was not easy to roll. i left it in the fridge for more than two hours and while i was able to roll it, a lot of it was wasted sticking to my hands. maybe my hands were too warm, maybe i should've used a frozen ice cream scoop...i dunno. but i think the next time i make these i'll use my own chocolate cookie recipe. these were quite delicious though and were a hit at home.

i made my own bark too, which was pretty simple. i used a bag of semisweet chips, a bag of white chocolate chips, and peppermints. the chocolate layer spread smoothly but the white chocolate not so much. probably because i added the crushed mints to the white chocolate before spreading. next time i'll crush the peppermints a bit finer and sprinkle them on top. there was leftover bark and i was going to try regular chocolate chip cookies with it but we kinda got to just eating the bark by itself. YUMMERS!