Reese's Pieces Cookies

Look at my cute turtle.  :-)

One of these days I will get these posts done closer to the date of baking but for now here is my last weekend summary. It turned out to be another busy baking weekend. First off I signed myself up for another cake.  My friend who I completed the Baptism cake for had referred me to her friend for her son's first birthday party.   She was looking for a fairly simple cake with an additional  "destroy" cake  for her son, the only stipulation was a request for a turtle somewhere.   I think that was what sold me on the cake in the first place, I am a huge turtle fan so putting a cute little turtle on top sounded great for me.   It also worked out well because she wanted to keep similar colours to the baptism cake.   I had a few issues when putting together the destroy cake but managed to recover and hide any imperfections, a trick I rather like.  I was quite pleased with it in the end.   Simple and Cute.







The main attraction...

Next on my agenda -  something I can eat!   I am not a big fan of Halloween, my sister and I like to chalk it up to several childhood years of dealing with a haunted house in our house but I am a big fan of the day after Halloween for 50% off mini chocolate bars.   So the question soon becomes what to do with all these little chocolate bars.   I picked up several bags which included, Reese's, Twix and Mars.   My first baking use will be the Reese's Pieces, seriously who doesn't love chocolate and peanut butter (other than those people that are sadly allergic).

The recipe : Double Chocolate Cookies - Adapted from Quinoa 365.
The trick : replace chocolate chips with the Reese's Pieces.  Pretty simply, I think.

Now I know what your thinking, you got this recipe from a Quinoa cookbook?  Yes,  I love the opportunity to use different grains or flours so a cookbook based on just that,  is perfect!




INGREDIENTS: 

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups granulated or cane sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups quinoa flour (or 1 cup quinoa flour/1 cup all purpose)  - I used the 1 of each approach.
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips  - This is where I used the pieces.

INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
1) Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Blend in the eggs and vanilla and stir until the mixture has a smooth consistency.
2) In a separate bowl, combine the flour,cocoa, baking soda and salt.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and blend well.   Stir in REESE'S!

3) Roll into 1/4 inch balls (if the dough is too soft, place in freezer for about 20 min).  Place the balls 2 inches apart on a large, ungreased baking sheet (I use silpats) and flatten slightly with your palm.  Bake on the center rake for 8-10 minutes.   The cookies will be puffy and soft when removed from the oven but will flatten when cool.   Allow cookies to set 1 minute on baking sheet and then allow to cool on a rack.

The recipe also says store in a sealed container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1 month.   I am telling you this just in case,  but I highly doubt you will not be able to eat these sitting in your freezer for a month.     You can also freeze rolled unbaked cookies in a sealed container or plastic bag until needed, thaw before baking.

I was actually quite impressed with this recipe.   The cookies had good chocolate flavour, came out soft and chewy and the Reese pieces bites were heaven!     This gave me high hopes for the rest of the recipes in the book so now I am quite interested to try more recipes with quinoa and other flours.   The cookies did end up making it to work but didn't really last that long once they got there.

Meg's Rating : D-EEEE-LICIOUS!