Twix Gone Wrong

For Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be fun for Matt and I to make a homemade version of one of his favorite candies, Twix Bars.  I’d seen a ton of great-looking recipes around the blog world and thought it would be a good idea to take ideas from them but make my own version.  You can see different examples of homemade Twix Bars on Mangio Da Sola, Hoosier Homemade, Chocolate and Carrots, and Not Without Salt.

I started with the Mangio Da Sola shortbread crust, easy enough

I thought that using packaged caramels would be a really easy shortcut for the middle layer; I guess I forgot how hard they get so quickly

Topped the caramel with salt, because I am kind of obsessed with that combination

And then melted milk chocolate; here you really can’t go wrong

 

The first problem was getting the bars out of the pan; the shortbread was too crumbly and cutting through the caramel was tough

I think a foil-lined pan would have been better

These would have been so much better with a layer of caramel sauce or filling, instead of melted caramel candies (unless breaking a tooth is your goal)

We tried to eat them but it just wasn’t worth it, I may have eaten the entire layer of milk chocolate off the top… wasting chocolate is just wrong!

Have you had any desserts gone wrong recently?

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For the Chocoholics

Every time I visit my parents, my mom and I email constantly the week before about what we will bake.  There are always too many things for us to try, so it’s usually a pretty fattening special looking recipe that makes the cut.  Last weekend we made Picky Palate’s Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookie Sandwiches and Candy Bar Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches.  They were amazing.

This weekend I couldn’t help but be inspired by those delicious cookies.  As if a chocolate chip cookie stuffed with a Snickers Bar or Oreo Cookie wasn’t enough, I had to take it a step further for all of the chocoholics out there.  Why not take one of my favorite chocolate cookie recipes and stuff it with chocolate candy?  I made Stuffed Triple Chocolate Cookies.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t tasted them yet.  I am on my 6th day of a week-long deprivation vegan challenge and baking these was an extreme form of torture.  Luckily, I have the Husband to do my taste testing for me in a time like this.  If the number of Hershey Kiss stuffed cookies he ate is any reflection of the verdict, I’d say these are a winner.  Trust me, though, when vegan week is over, I’ll be inhaling a dozen cookies doing my own “quality control”.  (More on Vegan week in an upcoming post!)

The Triple Chocolate Cookie dough is adapted from Jill O’Connor’s Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey.  I’ve made the cookies using her exact recipe as a standalone cookie and they never disappoint.  You may remember my Gooey Caramel Butter Bars were also from that cookbook.

To begin, you take semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate along with a stick of butter and place them in a microwave-safe bowl

Microwave the ingredients for a minute and stir; microwave again for 30-second increments until everything is almost melted; stir the remaining lumps until smooth and do not overheat.  Set aside

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and set aside

In your mixer, combine eggs, sugars and vanilla

Beat on high speed for about 5 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy

Reduce the speed of your mixer and add in melted chocolate and butter

When that is well-combined, stir in flour mixture but do not over-mix

Stir in chocolate chips

Refrigerate cookie dough for an hour or more prior to making the cookies

Choose any chocolate candies of your preference.  Smaller candies will yield more cookies.  I selected these chocolate meltaway Kisses  because, well, why not make these as intensely chocolate as possible?

Other candy included dark chocolate Peanut Butter cups and Peppermint Patties.  Once dough is chilled, pre-heat oven and unwrap your chocolates

Use a cookie dough scoop to form balls of dough; place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place candy on top of dough mound and then push down

Gently form cookie dough around the candy until it is completely covered; it might be easier if you freeze your Peppermint Patties first because they can break if you push too hard with the cookie dough

Repeat process

Use just enough cookie dough to cover the candy; size will be about 50% larger than candy alone

Make sure your candy is completely covered with dough or you may end up with some oozing like my Peppermint Patty cookies experienced

Bake the cookies for about 9 minutes and set aside on a cooling rack to cool

This is the deliciousness you will experience when you bite into the different cookies:

Stuffed Triple Chocolate Cookies

Inspired by Picky Palate and adapted from Jill O’Connor

Makes ~50 cookies (more cookies with small candy, but less with large)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

7 ounces unsweetened chocolate

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 large eggs at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Place semi-sweet and unsweetened chocolate with butter in a microwave-safe bowl

Microwave the ingredients for a minute and stir; microwave again for 30-second increments until everything is almost melted; stir the remaining lumps until smooth.  Set aside

Whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, and salt) and set aside

In your mixer, combine eggs, sugars and vanilla; beat on high speed for about 5 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy

Reduce the speed of your mixer and add in melted chocolate and butter

When that is well-combined, stir in flour mixture but do not over-mix

Stir in chocolate chips

Refrigerate cookie dough for an hour or more prior to making the cookies

Once dough is chilled, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and unwrap your chocolates

Use a cookie dough scoop to form balls of dough; place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place candy on top of dough mound and then push down

Gently form cookie dough around the candy until it is completely covered; repeat (make sure your candy is completely covered with dough)

Bake the cookies for 9-10 minutes and set aside on a cooling rack to cool

[Edited to add] Note:  The Peppermint Patty and Hershey Kiss versions were the most popular.  I think the larger Reeses Cups would be better so that the candy is in every bite.

What candy would you put in your cookies?

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How do You Define the Perfect Cookie?

Who doesn’t like a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie?  No one I know.  At the same time, if you put 100 people together in a room and had them each describe their perfect chocolate chip cookie, you would get 100 different answers.  My dad, for one, LOVES crispy cookies.  He likes to bite into a chocolate chip cookie and have it crunch and crumble inside his mouth.  My mom would take half-baked if you had them.  Who needs to wait for cookies to bake and cool when you can take them out of the oven after a few minutes when they are gooey, warm and delicious?  My sister will take her cookie and eat around the chocolate chips (who is she?).  And the Husband, he is happy as long as you give him a glass of milk to dunk into.

I am somewhere in between.  While I don’t love extra crispy cookies, I can recognize their appeal.  And really, who can resist warm and melty cookie dough?!  There is a time and a place for all forms of chocolate chip cookies, and yes that includes a plain old Chips Ahoy in times of desperation.

However, right now, I am on a quest to reinvent the most delicious chocolate chip cookie I have ever had.  Every year someone sends the most amazing cookies to our office, and let me tell you, I don’t eat office treats unless I think they are really worth it.  These cookies, worth it.  They are dense and chewy with the perfect hint of salt and a lot of chocolate chips.  Something about them is so addicting.  I’ll go into the kitchen and grab one, because look at me, I can eat just one cookie.  But about two seconds after I take that last bite, I am back for more, because who am I kidding, I can’t eat just one cookie.

On my way to figuring out a recipe to recreate this “perfect” cookie, I found something quite different, but quite tasty.  These Doughy Chocolate Chunk Cookies are about as addicting.  To me, they exemplify the flavors of freshly mixed cookie dough in baked cookie form.  Moist, chewy, doughy and slightly underbaked with the perfect amount of big chocolate chunks.  I used Christmas colored dark chocolate M&M’s to give them a festive appeal and chunks of milk chocolate Hershey’s Kisses for the sweet contrast.  Any form of chocolate chip would work just as well.

To begin, lightly chop your Kisses and set aside

Combine flour with the other dry ingredients

Whisk together and set aside

Next, combine the butter and sugars until light and fluffy

Then, add your eggs and vanilla and combine well

Reduce the speed of your mixer to low and gradually add in the dry ingredients

Scrape your bowl a couple of times to make sure flour is fully mixed in

Stir chocolate pieces into your batter

Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight

Use a cookie dough scoop or tablespoon for cookies

Lay them out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper

Once done, allow cookies to cool on a cooling rack

Doughy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Makes 3 1/2 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup dark chocolate M&M’s

1 cup milk Hershey’s Kisses, lightly chopped

Directions:

Lightly chop Hershey’s Kisses; set aside

Combine flour with the other dry ingredients and whisk together; set aside

Next, combine the butter and sugars; beat well until light and fluffy

Then, add your eggs and vanilla and combine well

Reduce the speed of your mixer to low and gradually add in the dry ingredients

Stir chocolate pieces into your batter

Chill your dough in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight

Once ready to bake, pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Scoop heaping tablespoons of cookie dough onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper

Bake in the oven for 9-10 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges; cookies will not change color much

Set the cookies aside on cooling racks

Any tips for me on making this “perfect” cookie? I am having trouble finding that dense chewy texture that was so enjoyable.

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