Candy Bar Chocolate Chip Cookies

I recently started following The Picky Palate and she posted a recipe for these cookies last week and I knew I had to make them.  It's no secret that Reese's PBC are my favorite candy, so how could these cookies not be the most delicious cookies?!  Luckily, I was not disappointed - these cookies are awesome (and huge!) and super easy to make.

pure heaven

Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter, softened (I used margarine)

1 C granulated sugar

3/4 C light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 Tbsp pure vanilla 

3½ c all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

10 oz bag of chocolate chips (I could only find 6 and 12 oz bags, so I just didn't use all of the 12oz bag.  And I used milk chocolate chips instead of semi-sweet)

variety of fun sized candy bars (I used Reese's and Snickers)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer, combine sugars and butter.  Add eggs and vanilla.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.  Gradually mix flour mixture into sugar mixture.  At some point, you will have to mix by hand so as not to put a lot of strain on your mixer's motor.  I got about 3/4 through adding the flour before I had to mix by hand.  The batter will seem a little dry, but that's ok.  Add in chocolate chips.

4. Using a cookie scoop (or spoon for those of us that don't have a cookie scoop), place one scoop on top of your candy bar and one scoop on bottom like this:

photo courtesy of The Picky Palate

5. Seal the dough around the candy by pressing and shaping the dough until the candy bar is completely enclosed.  Place onto cookie sheet and bake 9-13 minutes or until edges are firm.  Cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 24 cookies (LARGE cookies)

One thing I would change is the size of the Reese's I used.  I bought the small ones because I was worried about how big the cookie would be if I used a regular sized one, but next time I will definitely use regular sized ones (more peanut butter!), but the same amount of dough now that I know how easy it is to make these cookies exactly how you want them.

She also makes this recipe using Oreos instead of candy bars, those are on my list as well!

first house project of 2011

After almost 3 years in our house, we are finally nearing the end of our major renovation projects.  All we have left is the kitchen and the room next to it (we call it the breezeway) that will end up being a den/playroom area with a small mud "room" area as well.

The first step to this project was replacing the door from the garage.  When we had our home inspection, one of the major things found was that the (former) door was not fire-rated (it was wood - so more like fire-inviting) and it also opened the wrong way (opened into the garage instead of into the house.  this wasn't a concern of the inspector, just a pain to us).

MrT installed the new door yesterday and also rearranged/added some electrical work.  There's now a new recessed light inside the door and the light switches have been moved to the other side of the door.

old door:

you can see the (black) light switches on the left of the door

also notice the cardboard in the bottom left pane - the glass fell out quite a while ago and we've had cardboard there ever since - not really insulating or secure!

 

new door:

it now opens INTO the house and no more cardboard window panes.  

here you can see the new light in the ceiling - there's a second one just out of sight by the windows - it's so bright there now!

Next up is knocking down the mini-closet (seen to the left of the door) and building a new closet.  Not sure when MrT plans on doing that, but hopefully soon!

so much snow

Happy 2011!

Living in New England, we're accustomed to getting a lot of snow each winter.  This winter has been no exception so far.  Today we dealt with blizzard #2 of this winter (the first hit the day after Christmas).  By the time we woke up this morning, we had probably 8 inches.  By 10am when MrT went outside to clear the driveway, we had a foot and it was still coming down like crazy.  It's stopped snowing, we have probably 18", and it's drifting all over the place.