White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

My friend Jen and I had a conversation a while ago about white chocolate.  It's technically not real chocolate, it's just cocoa butter that's been sweetened, there are no cocoa solids within it.  I don't seek out white chocolate to eat, I will usually only use it when making chocolate covered strawberries, or in triple chocolate cookies.  However, one thing Jen and I both really enjoy that has white chocolate is white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.  You've all seen these large cookies being sold in little foil lined bags from a certain "farm," and they're fantastic!  It just so happens that my favorite chocolate chips make white chocolate varieties, and they also have a recipe for the cookies on the bag! 

Combine 2 sticks of room temperature butter with 1 1/2 cups white sugar and 1 cup brown.

Add 2 eggs one at a time with 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract and mix.

Add 1/2 tsp baking soda with 2 cups of flour to the mix, and beat to combine.

You'll notice that I didn't add salt.  That's because the only macadamia nuts I could find were dry roasted with salt. I didn't feel like soaking them over night, this was an immediate satisfaction type of situation.  I ground up one small jar (8 oz) and set aside to mix into the mixture with the white chocolate chips.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 11 minutes.

They came out perfect, and the taste was great too!  I was wise to omit the salt.  Yet another reason to stop buying baked goods fromt he store!

Enjoy!

Pudding Pops

I'm a sucker for ice cream, especially when it's super hot out, like it has been for the past few days.  Sometimes, I don't want a bowl of ice cream, sometimes I just want something more portable.  That's why I got these!

They are ice cream pop molds, with a handy straw for when the cold goodie begins to melt.  I decided to make chocolate pops!

So I used half a recipe of my chocolate ice cream, so 1 1/2 cups half and half

With 1/2 cup of heavy cream

And 1/4 cup of cocoa powder.

Whisk to combine and bring to a simmer.

In another bowl I whisked up 4 egg yolks with 1/2 cup of white sugar.

Combine and bring to a simmer until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.

Stash in the fridge overnight.

I made these the following morning so they could be ready when I got home from work.

It's as easy as pour

cap

and stash!

A few hours later I took them out to enjoy.

And it didn't work!

So I used drastic measures.


Good enough.

This could have turned out better.  Maybe if I churned it in the ice cream maker and then put it in molds it would be been better, or maybe if I didn't buy pop molds for $1 at the grocery store, but oh well.  They tasted good anyway!

Key Lime Coolers

Have you ever been in an airport in Florida? If you have, then you have seen little key lime cookies in tins.  These are coolers, and I love them.  They make them in coconut as well, but I find the key lime variety to be superior.  I went the the supermarket recently, and saw that key limes were on sale, so I bought two of them, with the plans of turning them into several baked goods, including key lime cup cakes and pie, but I found myself with left over limes, and decided to make these little cookies.

I went online and looked at a few recipes, and decided to combine a few ideas from different recipes, and came up with this.

Combine 1 1/2 sticks of softened butter with 1/3 cup of powdered sugar.

Beat in the zest of four small key limes, 2 Tbsp key lime juice, and 1 tsp of vanilla.

In a separate bowl, mix in 2 cups of flour, with 2 Tbsp of cornstarch (remove 2 Tbsp of flour before adding the cornstarch).

Beat in the dry ingredients.

Now it's time to make these into logs and refrigerate for an hour.

Once they're firm, cut them up into little rounds and place on a lined cookie sheet.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Let cool for 5 minutes, and then it's time to coat them in powdered sugar.

I put 2/3 of a cup of powdered sugar in a bag, and placed the cookies within it.

Shake, and remove.

They should still be warm to get total coverage.

These taste fantastic!  They practically melt in your mouth!  I really enjoyed making these, and I hope you try them out for yourselves!

Enjoy!