Chocolate Surprise Cookies

She has a mouth full of teeth now and she can brush them herself too. Then standing on the tip of her toes on top of the step stool, leaning towards the mirror she counts them every night before going to bed, in case there's one missing. She is embarrassed beyond belief if I ask her in front of "people" whether she wants to go pee pee. She has opinions when it comes to dressing her up or dressing me up for that matter. And she wants to "create food" in the kitchen (yes, that's what she calls it) just like maa does. "I do not want to watch, I want to HELP" she would demand when asked to stay away from the burner. Just letting her drop a couple spoonfuls of sugar or having her stir the pot doesn't work anymore. She wants to "create the food" from start to finish wearing an apron like maa. I wonder who she gets this from! *smirk*



So we decided to spend some good time in the kitchen together (which we are not getting a lot lately!) and create some food. On being asked what she wants to create the answer was "marshmallows.. No No..egg. No wait, marshmallows is fine!" Now creating marshmallows with a two year old might be little tricky so we decided to take the easy route and baked some cookies with marshmallows on them.  I had this recipe bookmarked in my computer which was very easy to put together and perfect to make while having fun, so I chose that. I made a few variations so that it gets easier for the two year old and also exciting to see what she could do all by herself.



I was surprised to see how well she measured the flour and broke the eggs. Well, when it came to measuring sugar and melting chocolate I could understand why she was a little sneaky but I was surprised to see how well she did. She patiently cut each marshmallow and waited in front of oven with arms closed and tapping her toes while the cookies were baking. And when the time came to drizzle molten chocolate on top of the cookies, the sparkle in her eyes and that smile on her face could tell how important it was for her to "create that food" all by herself. They came out perfect, soft chocolate cookies with gooey marshmallows and rich chocolate worked well together. Later, all three of us sat down to enjoy those warm cookies with a warm heart!



The recipe I used for these cookies was from the MarthaStewart.com. I tweaked it a little to make it easier for the little one to manage (under my constant supervision and with a little help of course). I omitted the whole frosting part completely and instead just melted some dark chocolate with some heavy cream and the little one drizzled it on top of the cookies when they cooled down.

Ingredients:  (Adapted from marthastewart.com)
Makes a little over 2 dozen (I made 28)

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (I used 3/4 cup whole wheat with 1 cup APF)
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (room temperature softened)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
12-15 marshmallows
1/2 cup semisweet/dark chocolate chips
2 tablespoon heavy cream

Method:

Preheat the oven at 375 deg. F (Mine burnt at 375 so baked the second batch at 350 for sharp 10 min.)
In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In an electric mixer cream butter and sugar together until they turn light and fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla. Beat together until they are well combined. Add flour slowly on low setting until they are combined.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and then using a spoon or ice cream scoop drop batter on the baking sheet about a couple inches apart from each other or when you bake the butter melts, cookie spreads and they stick to the ones next to them.
Let them bake for 10 minutes. They bake up fast so keep an eye. Mine burnt on the bottom when I baked them for 12 minutes at 375 deg. F.
In the meantime cut marshmallows horizontally into halves.
Take the cookies out of the oven, place one marshmallow half (cut side down) over each cookie. Put them back in the oven and bake for 3-4 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack and let them cool before frosting.
While the cookies cool melt chocolate chip cookies with cream in a double boiler. Once the chocolate melts whisk it thoroughly mixing cream and chocolate together making a think paste.
Now you can either transfer this ganache into a piping bag or using a spoon drizzle it over the cookies.
Enjoy!