Chocolate Meringue Swirls for the Chicago Food Blogger Bake Sale

This weekend, Share our Strength has organized a massive food blogger bake sale across the country, a national effort to end childhood hunger in America. In Chicago, our Chicago Food Blogger Bake Sale will be on Saturday from 12 to 3 at the Poison Cup Wine and Art Boutique. Last year's national bake sale raised over $1 Million!

If you're in the area, plan to stop by and treat yourself to goodies baked by over 20 Chicago food bloggers including:

• Maris from In Good Taste 
• Emily from West of the Loop 
• Kelly from the Pink Apron 
• Joelen from What's Cookin' Chicago who I have the pleasure of editing on BlogCritics Tastes 
• and, of course, yours truly.

I always have a tough time choosing just one cookie to bake for an occasion. My favorite are these elegant yet deceptively fudgy chocolate meringue swirl cookies. Their delicate shell yields to a moist chocolatey center, and they're surprisingly easy to make, easy to whip up in under an hour.

I have a few other ideas and I may end up making more than one cookie. Stay tuned for tomorrow's dulce de leche sandwich cookies, as I continue my love affair with making batches of dulce de leche on the stove.

Chocolate Meringue Swirl Cookies 
(Makes 50)
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30-35 minutes
Ingredients
4 oz semisweet chocolate (chopped) (about ½ cup)
4 large egg whites
1 cup of sugar

1. Preheat oven to 275°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or silpat; set aside. 
2. In a medium saucepan, bring 1-2 inches water to a simmer. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Melt, stirring occasionally. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. In a bowl, combine egg whites and sugar. Place over simmering water and whisk until mixture is hot, 4-5 minutes. Transfer bowl to mixer; beat on high speed until stiff peaks form and mixture is lukewarm, 4-5 minutes.
4. Remove bowl from mixer and drizzle melted chocolate over egg whites, folding in with a rubber spatula until just marbled. Barely mix it! The more you stir, the less interesting these meringues will be.
5. With a soup spoon, drop batter in large mounds spaced 1 ½ - 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Bake until crunchy outside and still chewy inside, 35-40 minutes. 
6. Transfer pans to wire rack to cool completely before removing cookies from parchment. Store in airtight container.

Oreo Truffles Even a Kid Will Love

Do you remember the first time you bit into a truffle as a child? Those perfect little balls dusted with golden cocoa in their fancy gift boxes just looked so irresistible. Each time the soft chocolate yielded to my baby teeth, my taste buds were assaulted by the intense flavor of pure cocoa, and I cried out in betrayal and disappointment. But every year, I tried again, lured in by the beauty of truffles.

Now that I'm a grown-up (most of the time), I love the rich bitterness of chocolate truffles, but I still appreciate the kind of chocolate that wouldn't make a little kid cry. These Oreo Balls are the truffles I wish I'd reached for as a child. They're also the type of treat that will be the talk of your cookie exchange and the perfect little something to give to your neighbors.

They're incredibly easy to make as they require no baking. It's a recipe I love to make with my kids, part of our Christmas tradition. Crushing the Oreos to smithereens is a great way to use up a little of that trapped boy energy on a cold winter day.

Chocolate Oreo Balls
Makes 3 dozen balls
1 16.6 oz package Oreo Cookies (Do not use double stuffed! Save those for eating)
1 8 oz brick of cream cheese
3 4 oz bars of semi-sweet chocolate (340 grams)
Any sprinkles or decorations you want to add

1. Pour the Oreos in a bowl and crush with a meat cleaver. Alternatively, you could put them in two ziplock bags (one inside the other) and tell your kids to go nuts on them. Once the Oreos are in coarse chunks, place them in the food processor and pulse them a few times.
2. Add the cream cheese to food processor and pulse until well blended. This is tough work for your mixer, and should make you pause and appreciate the conveniences of modern life! You will have to open the lid and move the contents around many times until you get the right consistency. You'll know when you're done. The mixture will be glistening, dark, and smooth.
3. Roll mixture into small balls and place on wax paper on a cookie sheet.
4. Chill in fridge for ½ hour.
5. Melt chocolate bars in double boiler until smooth and beautiful.
6. Dip oreo balls in chocolate. This can be messy if you don't use a spoon. Resist the temptation to use your fingers or you will have unappetizing fingerprints on your Oreo balls. I prefer to dump the balls one by one in the melted chocolate and scoop them out with a spoon onto a wax paper covered cookie sheet.
7. Decorate the balls with sprinkles if desired. I prefer a smoother coating.
8. Chill again in the fridge for 30 minutes.
9. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve. Dust with cocoa or powdered sugar before serving.

Grown-Up Rice Krispie Treats and a $100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

I was ten years old when I tasted my first Rice Krispie Treat.

It was Kathy Duffy, our favorite babysitter, who taught me how to make them one winter evening. Kathy was a rockstar babysitter, the type my sisters and I waited for in our pajamas eagerly by the door, wondering what new game or craft she would pull out of her giant floppy purse. One night she surprised me by pulling out something edible, a bag of cereal and some marshmallows, and with the addition of a little butter from our fridge, she showed us Frenchies how those three ingredients come together magically.

I gorged myself on that first batch of Rice Krispie treats. Hot from the pan, I licked them off my fingers, amazed that something so good hadn't come out of a boulangerie.

Now my kids are the ones eating the Rice Krispie treats straight from the pan, making magic by bringing together marshmallows, butter, and Rice Krispies with a little heat. But this holiday season, I wanted to make Rice Krispie Treats my own again, by turning them into a grown-up treat.

I started with Smitten Kitchen's salted brown butter version, as recommended to me by my friend Alma. Without this amazing recipe as a base, the ratios would have been all wrong. Then I added coconut and dark chocolate, two of my favorite dessert treats.

The result: a decadent grown-up Rice Krispie Treat. More gooey than traditional Rice Krispie treats. Every bite filled with rich caramel and dark chocolate overtones. I just wish I had a cookie exchange to attend this year to dazzle everyone with my creation!

$100 VISA GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY
I'm working with Kellogg's Rice Krispies this December to inspire home cooks everywhere to create their own version of Rice Krispie treats this holiday season. To help spread the word, Kellogg's has given me a $100 Visa gift card to give away to one of my readers.

To enter to win, please leave me a comment about how you like your Rice Krispie Treats or do one of the actions below. ONLY ONE ENTRY PER PERSON. Other actions to qualify you for your one entry:

• Follow @Frenchfoodiemom on Twitter
• Tweet about this contest using either this tweet, "Win a $100 Visa Gift Card in the @FrenchFoodieMom #RiceKrispie giveaway. www.chefdruck.com"
• Like the Chefdruck Musings Fan Page
• Post about this contest on your Facebook page.
• Post about this contest on your blog.
• Subscribe to Chefdruck Musings.

I'll select the winner at random using Random.org after midnight on Tuesday, December 21. The winner will have 48 hours to respond, or their entry will be void and I will select another winner. There are 30 different Rice Krispie Treats $100 Gift Card Giveaways being coordinated by The Motherhood this December. You may only win one gift card across the 30 blogs.

THE MOTHERHOOD HOLIDAY RICE KRISPIES TREATS EXCHANGE BLOGGER GIVEAWAY
Abbreviated Rules. No Purchase Necessary. Begins no earlier than 12:00:00 AM (ET) on 11/29/10 and ends no later than 11:59:59 PM (ET) on 12/21/10. For complete Official Rules, go to http://web.mediacdt.com/docs/motherhoodholiday. Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Subject to complete Official Rules. Void where prohibited. Sponsor: The Motherhood. Head on over to the Motherhood for the full official rules.

Good luck to everyone, and here is the recipe:

Very Grown Up Dark Chocolate and Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats

Makes 16 2-inch squares

1 stick of unsalted butter (4 oz), plus extra for the pan
1 10-ounce bag marshmallows
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal (about half a 12-ounce box)
3/4 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cups of shredded coconut (sweetened)

1. Grease an 7x12 inch rectangular Pyrex pan with 2-inch sides. Line with plastic wrap that is three times as long as the pan. Leave the extra wrap hanging out of the pan.
2. In a large pot, melt butter over medium-low heat. Make sure you pick a large pot, or you will have a sticky mess of Rice Krispie overflow all over your counters and floor. The butter will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Use your nose to guide you! When it smells good, slightly nutty, and is a pretty golden brown, the butter is "noisette" and ready. Don't wander off, because your browned butter can and will turn to burnt butter in less than a minute.
3. As soon as the butter is ready, turn the heat off and stir in the marshmallows. If the warmth of the melted butter is not enough to melt the marshmallows, turn the heat back onto low to help it along and get the marshmallows smooth. But again, be careful not to burn the butter.
4. Remove the pot from the stove. Pour the salt, Rice Krispies, coconut and chocolate chips on top of the melted marshmallows. Take a deep breath and get ready to work stirring. This is the hardest part of the process as you'll have to burn off a little sweat equity stirring the pot.
5. Quickly spread the mixture into the greased pan, on top of the plastic wrap. Then cover the top of the treats with the extra plastic wrap, and press in the mixture as hard as you can. I even like to use a small pot to push it in smoothly. 
6. Cool at room temperature, or if you have some impatient kids (or adults) in the fridge. 
7. Store in airtight container. Will keep for 3-4 days.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies... the Perfect Antidote to the Endless Falling Snow

How do I deal with the endlessly falling snow? By baking, of course. Filling my house with the smells of baking cookies is the only way I can deal with Snowmageddon. And with all the shoveling I'm doing, I figure I'm entitled to not only lick the bowl, but also enjoy some warm cookies with my hot chocolate.

As I was shoveling the fresh six inches of snow that covered our driveway today, I started craving coconut, sweet white coconut flakes coupled with rich dark chocolate. I was craving it so intensely that my mouth started watering and I started shoveling faster and faster. As soon as I reached the street, ensuring that my husband would be able to make it up the driveway to save me from a house full of crazy snowbound kids, I started baking.

These cookies just came to me. I started with the basic Nestle Toll House recipe as my base and I divided the batter in two. I threw the first half of the batter in small mounds on a cookie sheet to give the kids the "standard" cookies they crave.

And then I got creative with the second half of the batter. I was driven by some sort of divine chocolate coconut inspiration. Basically I just kept adding more and more chocolate in cocoa powder and extra chocolate chips and making coconut snow fall on top. The cookies came out rich and chocolaty, the perfect balance of chocolate and coconut, just as I had imagined they would be.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup of unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups of chocolate chips
1 cup of shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly with a fork.
3. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. The longer you cream, the better the cookie. This step makes all the difference.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Gradually beat in cocoa/flour mixture on the lowest setting of your mixer. Mix until just combined. Here you don't want to overmix as overworking the flour will make your cookies less moist.
6. Stir in the coconut with a wooden spoon or spatula.
7. Drop heaping spoonfuls of batter on silpat or aluminum foil on baking sheet.
8. Bake for 9-11 minutes until the cookie is set, but not crisped. It's hard to do the golden brown test with chocolate cookies like these, so make sure to be alert to what your nose tells you. You don't want them to start to smell like they're crisping too much or are on the way to getting burned.
9. Serve hot, or cool on rack and keep wrapped up for 3-4 days.

Reindeer Cookies

We just had an event here the other night with a food stylist/cookie designer from the city. She showed us many great techniques for decorating cookies, a lot of which were so beautiful I wouldn't even want to eat them, never mind ever hope to make anything so nice. Still she did inspire me and give me some good tips. One of the things she showed us was a great craft to do with kids: reindeer cookies! It requires no baking, only assembly with melted chocolate of things you can buy in the supermarket. You could use the same technique to make cat cookies, dog cookies, or anything else you get inspired to do.

All you need to buy are Amway or other large ready made ginger snaps or sugar cookies, midge tootsie rolls, large m&ms, small m&ms, chocolate chips, and pretzels.

1) Break the pretzels so they look like antlers.

2) Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave and pour them into a ziplock bag. Snip the corner of the bag and you have a pastry bag to use as glue for your decorations.

3) Pour the chocolate on the cookie, attach the decorations as you want.

4) Place your cookie in the freezer for 30 minutes - now they're ready to eat. That is, if you could have your kids wait that long.

Can you tell which one was done by the professional up above in the pictures?