Michelle Obama Chocolate Festival Dream Cookies
Oh, poor abandoned blog. Life is so full of busy, and sadly, if it comes down to having twenty minutes in the evening to read a novel or time to blog…. poor abandoned blog, you lose to the novel. But I can’t quite let it go, so I’m going to try to go for some weekly posts and see if I can get back on track.
So here’s a random post that I started to write… around Christmas. Hence this illustration of sibling love. Yes, this is how someone chose to spend their “make a holiday card for your family” at school time. But my picture of the cookies referenced in this post was so awful, even by my minimal food photography standards, that I leave you with this sweet and extraordinarily belated holiday greeting, instead.
During the 2008 election, I had a dream. A very vivid dream in which Michelle Obama and I attended a fabulous chocolate festival together. It was awesome. I was hanging out with Michelle Obama and eating some really good chocolate. The last thing we ate before I woke up was the best cookie, ever. The next morning at breakfast I was trying to describe the cookies and just couldn’t. “A salted caramel crispy sandwich thing with chocolate in the middle.” But it was the best ever salted caramel sandwich thing. I looked around and couldn’t find a cookie that seemed just right. I think my mistake was looking for a salted caramel cookie….
I forgot about the cookie…. sort of. The 2012 election came and went and still, no recipe for the Michelle Obama Chocolate Festival Dream Cookie. But then I was poking around on the Brown Eyed Baker’s website and saw a lacey looking cookie and thought– that seems sort of like the Dream Cookie! But it wasn’t quite right. I was sure that Michelle Obama and I had not eaten a cookie containing oatmeal. When I looked through the comments, though, I found this recipe– and there it was–the Michelle Obama Dream Cookie. I changed it up a little bit– I used salted butter, and slapped chocolate on both cookies in each sandwich. Before sealing them together, I drizzled salted caramel sauce in between the layers. This was totally messy but worth it.
I was not completely positive the Dream Cookies had pecans– so on the third batch I used hazelnuts, even though it is a pain to get their skins off. Yes. The chocolate festival dream cookie definitely involved hazelnuts. And here they are.
Michelle Obama Chocolate Festival Dream Cookies
Recipe very slightly modified from Fran’s Favs
1/2 stick salted butter
1/3 c. sugar
2 T. light corn syrup
Combine in saucepan, bring to a boil (stir!).
Remove from heat. Add:
1/3 c. flour
4 oz nuts (pecans or hazelnuts), ground (I ground them finely, which makes a less “lacey” cookie…. but that’s how it was in my dream, so there.)
2 t. vanilla
Stir. Drop in tiny, well-spaced teaspoonfuls onto a lined cookie sheet (cookies will spread. I used less than a teaspoon to make some tinier cookies). Bake at 350 for about 8 min. until golden and bubbly. Let cool on sheet for a bit, then carefully remove to a rack. Cool completely.
Melt:
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate; 1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
Let chocolate stand for a few minutes.
Spread a wafer with melted chocolate, drizzle with salted caramel sauce (I used this recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker which I had on hand from Thanksgiving. It made up easily and well.) I used about a half-teaspoon of sauce per cookie sandwich, but a bit more would have been good, too.
Cool cookies (I put them in the mudroom). Eat. Invite your neighbor over so you don’t eat them all.
this moment
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via soulemama
this moment
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via soulemama
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via soulemama
Not from last week, but from a long time ago. Remembering my grandmother who died this week.
this moment
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via soulemama
This moment
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via soulemama
This moment
{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Via soulemama
from the brochure of “Mr. Plow,” Adam’s shoveling service.
