Fancy Chocolate-Dipped Oreos

One of my very favorite food blogs is The Italian Dish. I love her photos and the stories she tells about her travels, her family, and they food they enjoy. Her Classic Pumpkin Roll was a huge hit at Thanksgiving, and it was her post about meat grinding that prompted me to ask for a meat grinder for Christmas.

Elaine, the blogger at The Italian Dish, details everything about these dipped cookies right here on her site. She includes step by step photos, as well as links to purchase the mold and the transfers. The girls and I gave them a shot on cookie day, and they were fun and easy to make. There are a ton of different transfer designs that would be fun for different holidays and birthdays.

The Christmas transfers are super cute - we used the gingerbread men, snowflakes, and Santa hats.  I also did some with just Christmas sprinkles, which turned out well, too.

"Famous" Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not a big baker. I love to cook, but find baking to be way too precise and picky. All that measuring and mixing is just too tedious for me.  I don't even do a lot of baking at my annual Christmas Cookie Day with my nieces - they measure and sift and stir...and I "supervise." I didn't even have a "baking" label until I entered this post, my 68th.

This is why my mom's Kookie Klown, which she kept filled with homemade cookies, now houses dog treats. On the up side, since our dogs are a little spoiled, I use her cookie jar every single day (sometimes more often than that....don't tell Brian) and think of her each time.

I've had this recipe for a while. I've never had a chocolate chip cookie at Nieman Marcus and have no idea if this is really the authentic recipe.  Regardless, it makes a delicous cookie. With espresso powder, lots of vanilla, chopped nuts, and bittersweet chocolate, it's a "grown up" chocolate chip cookie. Not overly sweet, a little crunchy, it's nice with a glass of cold milk or a cup of hot coffee.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso, slightly crushed
• 1-1/2 cups (8 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup toasted, chopped pecans

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Place the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in the work bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds, until the mixture is fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and vanilla for 30 seconds longer, until well combined.
4. In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to the mixer, while beating on slow speed. Beat for about 15 seconds. Stir in the nuts, chocolate chips and espresso powder, and mix for 15 seconds longer.
5. Prepare a cookie sheet with about 2 tablespoons of shortening (or use a non-stick spray).
6. Drop the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet in 2-tablespoon dollops about 3 inches apart.
7. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into 2-inch circles; there should be room on the sheet for six or eight cookies at a time.
8. Bake for about 18 minutes or until the cookies are nicely browned around the edges. Bake for a little longer for crisper cookies.

Source: About.com home cooking