Rocky Road Cookies

Since being out of school and on a job hunt, the past two months have allowed me to try my hand at new hobbies and put more effort into old ones. This blog has been a window into one of them - baking, cooking, eating (is that a hobby?) - and based on the feedback I've gotten from some Facebook pictures, a few people have noticed the increased amount of time I've spent on this hobby. I was talking to a friend the other day and he asked why I haven't been baking as much - a simple observation based on my lack of picture uploads. I assured him I have and promised to bake something in his honor this week. His only request that it be shark shaped. These cookies are clearly not shark shaped, not even really shark inspired. I originally had bought a few ingredients to try a new biscotti recipe - I was thinking it was similar to a shark shape and could justify it - but that recipe was a bust. They just didn't turn out nearly as well as I would have liked. After a quick search on Pinterest I decided to make rocky road cookies adapted from this recipe - such a yummy treat that definitely made up for my biscotti fail.

Ingredients

1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 stick unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup pecans, chopped

1/4 cup mini marshmallows

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt. Melt the semi-sweet chocolate chips with the butter (I did this for 30-45 seconds in the microwave). With an electric mixer on low speed, combine the melted chocolate, sugar, egg and vanilla. Gradually add in the flour mixture.  Using a rubber spatula mix in the pecans, marshmallows and dark chocolate chips. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the tops began to crack. Get a cup of tea or glass of milk and cozy on up with these chocolatey goodies!

Makes 1 dozen cookies.

Note: Be careful with the marshmallows, if they are near the sides or bottom of the cookies before baking, they can ooze out and become a burnt, sugary mess. Also, feel free to use other types of chocolate chips or nuts - maybe swapping them for broken up graham crackers (apparently I'm really into making things S'mores flavoured re: this post)!

Chocolate Cupcakes with Toasted Coconut Frosting

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!). After just coming home from a last minute vacation, there wasn't much time to pick up a birthday gift. That being said I am all about anything homemade. It adds a personal touch that can't be store bought, and more often than not is much more delicious. So as my Mom was out for the morning, I did my best to make a tasty birthday treat with what was in our cupboards. I didn't have time to run out and pick up other ingredients if I wanted the treat to be complete and all cleaned up by the time she got home, so I browsed through various recipes that included chocolate and coconut. The result was combining a couple different ones to create chocolate cupcakes with a toasted coconut frosting. I followed this recipe for the chocolate cake,  however I divided it in half and split it into a dozen cupcakes - sometimes an entire cake can be a little overwhelming to eat.

Ingredients 

1/2 cup boiling water

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 

1 cup sugar, heaping

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper muffin cups. In a small bowl dissolve the cocoa powder in the boiling water, and add the vanilla when cooled. With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time until well combined. In a separate bowl combine the remaining dry ingredients. With your mixer on low, gradually add the cocoa mixture and flour mixture to the butter, eggs and sugar. Mix until everything is blended. Evenly distribute the cake mixture into the 12 muffin cups and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow the cupcakes to completely cool before icing.

For the frosting I used this recipe. It is more similar to marshmallow fluff than buttercream but I found it to be the perfect topping - not too sweet or heavy. Though next time to add more coconut flavour, I would substitute the vanilla extract with coconut. I toasted half a bag of sweetened, shredded coconut, and after icing the cupcakes, sprinkled it on and shook off any excess. The result couldn't have been better! After a nice dinner at home, these moist, chocolatey with just a hint of coconut cupcakes were a great alternative to any store-bought birthday cake.

If you're not a fan of coconut, try sprinkling graham cracker crumbs on top instead of coconut for a s'mores flavoured cupcake!