Bad Little Chocolate Balls

Hi Blog Friends,

I LOVE Fall!!  It has cooled down here finally and the leaves are just starting to turn..and you know what that means.... it's BAKING time.  :D  Here's what I made:

There's a story behind these cookies:

I've never had an addictive personality (um.... art stuff, craft supplies, and fabric don't count because they're a "business expense", Lol) and I don't normally eat that much in the way of sweets.  But I have read that the first step to overcoming a problem is to admit you have a problem.  So here's the problem:

I made the mistake of buying some of these bad boys when we were in Hawaii (only they were the Milk Chocolate COCONUT Macadamias... waaaaayyyy better!).  I bought a LOT of them. (So much for the weight I managed to lose before we went there, shoot!) Anyway, I didn't realize they were such a hard commodity to come by. I guess it's good I didn't know that or I would have bought an extra suitcase, loaded it up and paid the extra fee to bring them home, Lol. Now that we're home, I find I'm having some major withdrawals.... maybe it's just Hawaii withdrawals.... but I find myself scanning store shelves looking for them everywhere I go. I was kind of glad I hadn't found them, but then someone told me Target carries them. (Augh, WHY did you tell me that Andrea, Lol...?!!) Well, Target carries the Chocolate covered Macadamias, but the highly addictive ones are the Chocolate COCONUT Macadamias.   Mmmm!!!!!!!!!  (Anyone know where you can get these... not that I'm going to buy any more, but just for future reference, of course ....). Fortunately for me, Target is 40 miles away from where I live.  I have, however, been coming up with excuses to go to that direction and decided to just pop into Target over the weekend. To get laundry soap, of course.  I wanted to develop a cookie recipe around these highly addictive balls of yumminess so I bought one bag.  Two would have been dangerous.  Only now I have a problem. Forty miles is a long time to be in a car alone with the bad little buggers.  Here's what arrived home:

Can you believe that?  I must have bought a defective bag ;).  So when I arrived home and didn't have the innards to my cookie recipe I wanted to create, I had to go back to the little grocery store closer to where I live and get these:

They look the same and they're good, but these will be safe in the house....they're not in the same league as the Mauna Loa ones.  

Here's a close up of the cookies shown above:  (I like this recipe because it holds it's shape well, I use it for sugar cookie cutouts.)

Here's what the inside looks like:

I used 2 stamps from my Clear Polymer Stamp Set #POL10 Flourish Pumpkin to make a tag.  (Another reason you need to enter the contest to WIN the FREE stamp set). I cut out the leaf, then punched a 1/4" round hole in it and slipped it on the pretzel stem.

Be sure to check the previous post for details on how you can win this FREE Clear Polymer Stamp Set.

Here's the recipe if you want to download it, it's in a printable pdf version.  You download it by clicking on the picture below or by clicking HERE.

Here are a few photos showing how to form the cookies, once the dough is prepared:

Place approximately 1 tablespoon of the dough in your palm.  Flatten it into a disc shape. 

Place a Chocolate Macadamia in the center of the dough disc.

Fold the dough around the Macadamia Nut.

Squeeze the dough tightly around the Chocolate Macadamia nut.  Gently roll into a ball shape, forming each cookie into a slightly different height and shape.

Use the back edge of a table knife to make lines in the side of the pumpkin cookie, rolling the knife along the edge of the cookie side.  Make 5 evenly spaced indentation lines around the sides of the cookie.

Press a piece of a stick pretzel into the top of the cookie.  Place the cookie on a parchment covered baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 - 12 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool several minutes before moving them.  When they are firm and fairly cool, transfer them to a wire rack to cool thoroughly.

If you can't find the Chocolate Macadamias, you could also use Peanut M & M's.... I tried the recipe with those also and they tasted good too.

OK, I hope you enjoy the recipe and I hope you fare better than I did with the bad little chocolate sin balls........  

On Thursday I'm going to post a cute little way to package the cookies using the same stamp set...

:) Darcie

Comments

[Debbie Fisher]

What a fun cookie! I have never heard of these, but love macadamias. I will have to look for these at Target (mine is 1.5 hours away, but so is pretty much everything else), so will have to wait til we *need* to go there. Ü

Thank you for sharing the recipe!

[Diane Jacobson]

The cookies look so fun and easy to make. Another great idea for me to try for my huby's work. Fortunatley, I live 1.2 miles from Target and there are many of them around. Looks lke something to put on my weekend shopping list. Rainy weekend, perfect for baking. I think you should take the bag back to Target, show them the results and either you will get two bags, or maybe....maybe not, they might ban you from the store and you will have none. Thanks for all of your great ideas! I'm in the process of making some really cute cards with one of your wood-mounted pumpkins. They are so cute!

[Darcie Heater]

Hi Jackie.... Thanks! I think I need to move to a bigger city.... I can't find anyone who knows what threading is here...shoot. Does it grow right back or does it last awhile? For anyone who wants to know what we're talking about, lol, check it out: http://inkyanticsrubberstamps.blogspot.com

[Jackie]

Defective bag, LOL. You crack me up, Darcie. ;-) And those cookies are absolutely adorable!

[Kathy JH]

Oh my gosh... you are going to absolutely ruin my diet! I have already made your blackberry cobbler twice! Oh well...