Nutella Mint Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies

Aka "OH-MY-GOD CHRISTMAS!!!!" Cookies :)

Sorry Santa, I'm not sure I'm sharing :)

This recipe was inspired by the Double White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel cookies that I sometimes make (P.S. you should try them. They're amazing!)... And the fact that I accidentally bought mint chocolate chips instead of regular ones. Oops. What do you mean they were clearly marked? I declare shenanigans, or the dangers of shopping while tired.

This actually brings up an interesting side point.  If you ever see Bourbon Vanilla, you should buy it. I found this at Loblaw's (President's Choice Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract).  It makes way more of a difference than you would expect!

So anyway, I wanted to make something similar to the peanut butter pretzel cookies, but with candy canes and lost of chocolate.  I majorly lucked out on Google with a recipe based off of the Ghiradelli Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which is pretty similar to the recipe my grandmother taught me, come to think of it.

Anyway, so here's what I found and why I want all new clothes for Christmas!

Nutella Mint Chocolate Chip Candy Cane Cookies
from: Oh Joy blog: http://ohjoy.blogs.com/my_weblog/2012/12/chocolate-chip-nutella-candy-cane-cookies.html
Makes ~3 dozen cookies
2 1/4 cups all-purpose, unsifted flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t fine salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1/2 cup Nutella (or similar chocolate hazelnut spread, if you must)
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp (bourbon) vanilla extract
2 large eggs (preferably also at room temperature)
1 cup semi-sweet mint chocolate chips
~8 regular sized candy canes (or 1/2 cup crushed)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Mix together dry ingredients  (flour, salt and baking soda) in a medium bowl and set aside.
3. Using your mixers (this is not a fun recipe to do by hand), cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and Nutella on medium speed
4. Add eggs (one at a time) and vanilla. Mix until combined.
5. Gradually add dry ingredients and mix at low speed until well combined.
6. In a plastic bag, mortar and pestle, or whatever you come up with, smash your candy canes into little itty bitty pieces.  If you planned ahead, you could try crushing them in your food processor, but I thought it might turn into dust.
7. Add crushed candy canes and (mint) chocolate chips, stir to combine.
8. Using a tablespoon, put cookies on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for ~10 minutes.*
9. Let cool slightly on baking tray (~1 minute?), and then transfer to wire rack.

*PS: I baked a dozen of these delicious cookies, and then I had to leave the house, so I put cling wrap on top of the bowl of leftover dough and put it in the fridge for a few hours.  The second batch of cookies was delicious and a little less flat than the first.  So that's always a good idea, if you plan ahead.

Don't you just want to eat that dough with a spoon? 'cause I did. Also - never eat cookie dough raw because it contains raw eggs which are a common source of Salmonella food poisoning and that's bad (and the subject of my PhD Thesis!)

Itty bitty bits of candy cane deliciousness. I used an empty wine bottle to smash the candy cane in a freezer safe Ziploc bag.  I haven't unpacked my rolling pin yet.

Is it strange that no matter what type of cookies I'm making, or what size of baking tray, I always put a dozen cookies on each tray?

I can't even describe how amazing these are to you. You have to try then for yourself!

Chocolate-Filled Biscuits

So I was at Costco a few weeks ago, and if you bought a box of 4 bottles of Wyndham Estates red wine (which is delicious) it came with a free Donna Hay Simple Essentials cookbook. And I love cookbooks. And wine. So, yay!

And since I try to bring a new and different baked good to the office every week, this week I tried something new out of the cookbook.  These are tiny cookies though. It's hard to see it... but they're SOOOOO tiny. And delicious.

Chocolate-Filled Biscuits
Biscuits
65g (2 1/4 oz) cold butter, chopped
1/4 cup (40g, 1 1/2 oz) icing (confectioner's) sugar -- sifted
1/2 cup (75g, 2 1/2 oz) plain (all-purpose) flour
2 1/2 t cornflour (cornstarch)
1 T cocoa powder
1 egg yolk

Chocolate Ganache (make half this recipe, and you'll have plenty leftovers)
1 1/2 cups (375 mL, 12 fl oz) cream (single or pouring)
340 g (12 oz) finely chopped dark chocolate


Chocolate Ganache (Make this first)

1. Heat cream in small saucepan over medium heat and bring to boil.
2. Remove from heat and stir in dark chocolate.
3. Let melt, then stir until glossy and smooth (and delicious!).
4. Set aside to cool.

Biscuits

1. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
2. Put butter, icing sugar, flour, cornflour, cocoa and egg yolk in food processor (I used hand blenders, would have been better in a food processor). Mix until soft dough forms
3. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
4. Roll teaspoons of mixture into balls, place on baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper and flatten slightly.
5. Bake 5-7 minutes until bases are lightly cooked.
6. Cool on trays.
7. Sandwich biscuits with chocolate ganache.

(makes 22)

My thoughts on this recipe:

Firstly, I have never actually sifted ingredients. Apparently you need to own a sieve to do this, and I don't. Generally I don't notice a difference, however with the icing sugar it does make a difference. My icing sugar was a bit hard so even after mixing it was a bit chunky and I ended up with biscuits that had little white 'chunks' in it of icing sugar.  Tasted good - looked nasty. 

Secondly, even with the halving of the recipe, I still have a bowl with most of the ganache leftover sitting in my fridge, I'm still not sure what to do with it.  

Third,  I'd highly recommend doubling the biscuit recipe - I ended up with only like... 15 cookies?  I think mine were a bit bigger than they were supposed to be, even though I actually used a teaspoon to measure them out. I think it was a combination of my butter not being cold enough and my oven not heating evenly. 

Anyways, these were delicious, and my office mates had many compliments :D