Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls

While us SoFlo girls were off exploring the Mediterranean, my boyfriend Charlie rolled his ankle during a basketball game and possibly broke it :o Obviously, he was pretty upset after so I decided to make him smile by making a "broken ankle blues" kit with some of his favorite treats, which includes some of my freshly baked gooooods! So, with the help of one of my bestest friends Janie, we found the perfect recipe for some Chocolate Chip Cookie Balls from Sally's Baking Addiction. Just a little moment to chit-chat about the amazing Sally: her website is a little piece of sprinkled "fun and adventure" and her recipes are tooo dieee forrrr! She even has a cookbook, one of my dreamssss! So before I go all girl-crush on Ms. Sally and take up this whole post talking about her... Check out her website! Right Here :) I couldn't not share this yummy recipe with you! So without further adeau here is the worlds most delicious chocolate chip cookie ballllssss.

Ingredients

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl for 1 minute on medium speed until completely smooth and creamy. Add in the brown sugar and granulated sugar and mix on medium speed. Next mix in the egg and vanilla, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. In a separate bowl combine the rest of the dry ingredients and then on a low speed mix into the wet ingredients. The dough should be pretty thick! Add in the chocolate chips and continue mixing the dough {I went overboard on the chocolate chips. True Life Im A Choco-holic}. Cover the dough for with tin foil and allow to chill. 

2. Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and allow to cool to room temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside

3. The dough, once chilled, will be a little crumbly but once you work the dough it will come together. Roll the dough into little individual balls and set onto the baking sheet {if you want cookies don't make the balls so high and allow room to spread, if you want little balls make the balls higher and you can fit more on a baking sheet} Bake for 6-9 minutes depending on how doughy you want them.

4. EAT THEM ALL!

and there ya go some delicious little chocolate chip cookie balls! so delicious :)

Macaroons

Happy Sunday! 

If any of y'all saw our instagram post this is what we told you to stay tuned for! While in Paris during Christmas, I was impressed by all the little french pastry shops and I prommmmised myself I would look into attempting to bake some of the things I saw! 

So here is one of my attempts: Macaroons.

 I have been working on the recipe awhile to perfect it and I think I have finally done it {all my friends have loved getting the macaroons for lunch!}.

 So here is my recipe for yummy yummmy macaroons!

Ingredients:

Icing Sugar 1/2 Cup

Almond Flour 6 tbsp + 2 2/3 tsp

Egg White 1

Granulated Sugar 4 1/4 tsp

Frosting {your choice!}

Method:

1. Beat the egg white stiff. A stiff egg white means that when you hold the bowl upside down, the egg while will not fall out. {pretty cool! it almost looks like icing}

2. Add granulated sugar and beat again until stiff and glossy. {basically till the sugar is all the way mixed in}

3. Add almond flour and icing sugar and beat again

4. Preheat the oven to 280 degrees F.

5. Pipe small circles of the dough onto parchment paper and let sit for 30 minutes {the tops will be crusted slightly} {sometimes I just skip the sitting, it doesn't really matter that much!}

6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the tops of the macaroons bounce up when touched lightly with a fork

7. Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes before pealing off the parchment paper

8. Once cooled, frost with frosting. Fill each cookie with frosting and then sandwich with other cookie.

Some people like to add food coloring to the dough and it always adds a nice touch in my opinion. 

SO go get your French on and go make some delicious macaroons! :) mmmmmmmm so yummy.

Mama's famous chocolate torte

A holiday favorite in our house is our mama's chocolate torte! This easy to make dessert is always a hit at any holiday party & is VERY easy to make.

Ingredients:

• Graham crackers
• 1/2 pound of semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 pound of dark chocolate chips
• 5 tablespoons of rum {optional}
• 5 tablespoons of liquid glucose 
• 32 oz of heavy whipping cream
• Spring loaded pie tin {pictured below}

This easy to make dessert is always a hit at any holiday party & is VERY easy to make.

Begin by crushing the graham crackers in a zip lock bag to create the crust. 

Next, sprinkle the graham crackers in the spring loaded pie tin.

Combine chocolate, rum, and glucose into a bowl and melt the chocolate {be careful it doesn't burn!}

Whip the cream to a point where it is stiff, but not as fluffy as whipped cream.

Fold the melted ingredients and the cream together and then pour into the tin on top of the graham cracker crust.

Then freeze for 48 hours!

Bon Appétit

xo

Mini Apple Pies

This recipe makes 12 deliciously adorable apple pies in about 40 minutes!

In a bowl, mix together the cinnamon, flour, sugar, lemon & salt

Peel, core, and cut the apples. Make sure when you cut that the apples are in small pieces {because the pies are mini!}

Now add the cut apples with the mixed dry ingredients and mix. Make sure to mix well so that all the apples are covered evenly.

Cut circles out of your pastry and line your cupcake tins with the dough. Make sure the bottom layer of pastry is larger than the top so you can squish the edges together.

Next, pile the apple filling onto the dough. Make piles in the middle of the dough so that when the pies cook, the apple filling doesn't sink and cause depressions.

Cut out more circles of pastry for the top of your pies and paint on a small amount of whipped egg to the perimeter of the circle {this will make the top and bottom stick together}

Use a fork to create the edge detail {this assures that the pie is closed}. Then cut two small holes into the top of the pies so they can breath while cooking.

Dust the top of the pies with brown sugar and the whipped egg. The egg provides a glossy look and the brown sugar glazes the pies.

Cover the pies with aluminum foil for 15 mins and then cook uncovered for the last 5. This will allows the apples to cook through while not burning the pastry. Our house smelled DELICIOUS while they were cooking!

If you like your pies EXTRA full of apples we suggest preparing 9 apples {instead of 6} and warming the diced apples on the stove. After preparing the apples we put them into a pot to cook on low heat for about 15 minutes. We wanted them to get softer {but not completely soft} so when we put them into the pastry we could fit more into the pies. Remember not to cook the apples to much because they will still bake once in the over. Once you have cooked your apples {and tasted to see how soft they are} strain the water from them and combine them with the dry ingredients as usual!

Thanks for reading & happy baking

xo