Wandering around the Manhattan street, blocks after blocks, soaking wet with two munchkins in the winter rain…, not a romantic scene you can imagine before the Valentine’s day but we had a great time
The show was great. It was “SuperCaliFragiListicExpiAliDocious”. My 7 year old boy screamed at the end of the show, when Ms. Poppins was ascending to the theater ceiling holding her umbrella, “ I love you, Mary Poppins!”
Time Square, NYC
I like to bake with my kids. They are good at it. This is how I tame my kids… well, should I say how I domesticate them? You know, with any kids, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, medicine go down and medicine go down…
Sounds like complicated recipe but quite easier than you would imagine. If my wild munchkins can make them, anybody can.
*****
Gather up your WILD THINGS to help you out!
Wild thing #1 Wild thing #2
You can use other types of candies that can melt, but I think Rolos works the best.
Sift the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda happily together. Set aside.
Beat butter and sugars until they call the police for domestic violence.
(I mean until they transform into nice and fluffy… Uh, you know that, right?)
Add vanilla and eggs, one at a time.
Beat, beat, beat…
Slowly add the happy cocoa-flour mixture,
(make sure to lower the speed of your mixer)
combine until they turn into dark side of the force.
Don’t you beat them anymore!
You can chill them for 30 minutes if you want.
Meanwhile, peel the Rolo wrappers to reveal their flesh.
My wild things will do anything if sugar is involved in their diet.
You go and chop some pecans and mix with sugar in a bowl.
Take about 1 Tbsp of dough and squish it.
Put 1 Rolo in the middle,
and cover the Rolo with the dough.
Have your wild things to play around with the dough to make a ball shape.
Press on to the pecans,
and have them place the balls exactly 2″ apart evenly on the the baking sheet.
Teach them a sense of space and distance.
Wild thing #2 is ready to put his sheet into hot oven.
“I will eat you up!”
Bake at 375ºF (190ºC) for 7-10 minutes.
This made my wild things to become mischievous of one kind…
I think it just made their life happier.
They are simple creatures, sometimes…
The night when my wild things put these cookies in their mouth,
but when they came back,
well…, the dinner was NOT still hot.
But they, still, will be my Valentines
Happy Valentine’s day!
Chocolate Caramel Cookies (adapted from Pillsbury recipe)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa I used dutch processed
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 cup 2 sticks butter, softened
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup pecans finely chopped
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 48 Rolo chewy caramels unwrapped
- For the icing optional:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- about 2 Tbsp milk more or less
Instructions
- Sift flour, cocoa, soda, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Beat butter and sugars until fluffy, add vanilla and eggs one at a time; beat well.
- Add the flour mixture and blend well until it gets incorporated. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat oven to 375º F (190º C)
- Mix pecans and sugar in a bowl. Take 1 Tbsp of dough and flatten. Place 1 Rolo in the center and cover it completely with the dough making a ball. Press the ball into pecan sugar mixture.
- Place the balls onto parchment papered cookie sheet, 2" apart. Bake for 7-10 minutes. Remove them from the sheet and cool on the wired rack.
- Combine powdered sugar and milk until you get the desired consistency, drizzle icing over the cookies.
I LOVE rolo! and with your recipe, I might even love it more… thanks for sharing, I love your sense of humor and telling the story as if you are there in person 🙂
Thank you! I am a visual person as well. I am a kind of person who buys cookbooks with lots of pictures in it. Pictures do help understand the dishes or the process.
Thanks. Comments like yours do motivate me to keep my blog alive.
Thanks, Jen.
Oh wow wow wow! The caramel dripping from within! Great idea! I am not sure if we have the same chocolates here but I reckon I can make my own caramel and use it forbthis…:)
They look oh so good!
I know. They taste goooood!