December 13th, 2011

Double Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

As with everything else I do in life, I’m posting the recipe for my Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap cookies a day late.

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Oops.

I sent out my packages a day late too, but I sent them via Xpresspost so they probably arrived way before regular post would have gotten them there. When Canada Post says “3-7 days”, they really mean “at least 7 days”. I think guaranteed 1-3 day shipping is for people like me.

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At least they were made with love, right?

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Double Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies

makes 36 cookies

adapted from here

Ingredients

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 7 candy canes

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325*F.
  2. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
  3. Melt half (3/4 cup) of the chocolate chips over a double boiler.
  4. In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add melted chocolate, eggs and vanilla extract and mix well.
  5. Combine dry and wet ingredients.
  6. Chop or crush candy canes into small pieces, and add with other half of chocolate chips to dough.
  7. Scoop with a 1″ cookie scoop, rolling into balls and placing on a lined cookie sheet.
  8. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until cookies flatten and crack.
  9. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack, then let cool fully.

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Get together your dry ingredients.

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Mix!

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Melt half of your chocolate chips over a double boiler, or use this super-awesome easy shortcut. Just place the chocolate in a pot over whichever burner lets the heat escape from your preheating oven, and watch it melt your chocolate perfectly with absolutely zero additional effort from you. Someone else has probably thought of this before, but I

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Whip together your wet ingredients.

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And combine dry + wet.

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Chop up (or crush) your candy canes however small you prefer them.

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Add remaining chocolate chips and crush candy canes to dough, stirring in.

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I always use my trusty melon baller to scoop cookie dough onto the sheet, because it helps make mostly uniform cookies.

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This is what the dough looks like right out of the scoop…

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…and this is what it looks like after it was lightly handrolled.

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Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cookies are flat and slightly cracked.

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The packaging is optional, but I think it turned out really cute! I hope it made it through the mail intact, because it was my first and only success at adorable cookie packaging, haha.

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The cookies turned out a mix of crispy and chewy, with crunchy little bites of candy cane throughout. Chocolate and peppermint is by far my favourite flavour combination, and the rejects that didn’t get send to my cookie swap matches were gone pretty quickly.

My three boxes went out to Stephanie at One Gorgeous Girl, Clarissa at Thought Provoked Creation, and Eri at It All Tastes Greek to Me. Hopefully the packages all made it safe and sound to their destinations!

I received delicious boxes of cookies from Anna at Hidden Ponies, Kristy at Gastronomical Sovereignty, and Kim at Strawberry Ginger. They each made absolutely amazing cookies, and I meant to snap pictures of all of them… but they might have disappeared a little too quickly.

Even though my pants are of a different opinion, I had a lot of fun participating in the blogger cookie swap, and can’t wait to try my hand at making some new recipes!

December 6th, 2011

Shit Happens

So tonight I was just minding my own business, driving home from work like every other day. Sounds normal, right?

That was until a car hit me on the left while pulling into my lane with no warning… and then drove away.

I was completely stunned when it happened, having never been hit before, so I put on my four-ways and went to pull over to the side of the road… only nobody followed suit. I sure as hell didn’t hit myself, and I was pretty sure the white car that had driven by me right after was the one at fault. I got their license plate and tried to keep up behind them as they drove on, but they eventually lost me by changing lanes a few times through the heavy traffic.

I got off the highway, called my mom, and bawled my eyes out.

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The damage wasn’t too bad when I finally got a look at it – just a few scratches and some paint transfer – but I couldn’t believe someone hit me and then just drove right off!

Even though there was laughably little damage, we still had to go to the collision centre to report it, although that proved difficult when the regional police station said that highway was provincial territory and directed us to the nearest provincial station, and that station said that where the accident happened was in another provincial station’s territory, and we had to drive halfway across town to that station.

I told my story and gave my info, and even though I couldn’t press any kind of charges because I wasn’t completely sure of the vehicle that hit me, at least I’ve already reported it so if someone else shows up with some kind of story about me, I’ve done all that I rightfully should.

Needless to say, it was a long night, and my plans of cuddling in bed with my Kindle were kind of ruined.

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Definitely a night for McDonald’s.

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My mom and I stopped for big macs + fries between station #2 and station #3, and they were absolutely delicious.

The other bright light at the end of the tunnel was the box that was awaiting me at home.

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Love my monthly Chobani shipments from The Great Fundraising Act <3

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And I got new flavours this month too! Pineapple, vanilla, 2% plain, strawberry-banana and mango. I used to get more of the plain and vanilla, but I’ve started eating the fruity ones as snacks at work, and now they’re my favourite :)

Anyway, I’m still pissed and wish my night had more napping and less police-reporting, but at least it was just a few minor scratches on my car and not any major scratches on me. Things could have ended waaaay worse, and I’m lucky that no serious damage was done, and that I have a loving mom that’s willing to drive to three different police stations with me late on a Tuesday night.

Drive safe tomorrow!