By Sara ElSayed
Decreasing temperatures and the increase of demand for warm treats take over as we slowly approach the official first day of winter. What if there was a dessert that combined an all-time winter favorite, hot cocoa, with another chilly weather delight: cookies? Lucky for you, Love From the Oven combined the two to make the ultimate dessert.
Though the recipe has a wonderful idea and pleasing pictures, there were more than a few complications. Obtaining the ingredients was easy, simply gather your standard chocolate-chip cookie ingredients and all you have left to buy is instant hot-cocoa mix and marshmallow bits. One small side note for my bakers: marshmallow bits are not the same as your standard mini-marshmallows. The bits are typically used in cookies, and will not expand in the oven, as they are extremely condensed.
Now when looking at the ingredients, you might notice that there is no liquid present besides the eggs and butter which is a definite cause for concern. I was skeptical as to if the mixture would actually hold together.
There were no real complications until both the dry and the wet ingredients were combined. The dough ended up extremely hard to mix with an electric mixer using the beaters. Changing to the dough hook extension did not help the situation, and looking at the dough at the time, I could definitely tell that it would not hold together in the oven. I added water teaspoon by teaspoon to monitor the consistency of the dough until I was up to 6 teaspoons of water (which is not included in the original recipe) before the mix started to hold together.
At last, came the taste testing. To some, the cookies tasted like “chocolate chip pancakes” or “bready” rather than hot-cocoa cookies. All agreed that they could not taste the hot-cocoa mix at all, or taste any of the marshmallow bits. The treat was crunchy and dry, despite the modification, which can be blamed on the lack of liquid in the recipe.
Even though the cookies did not taste as expected, they still received positive reviews. If you plan on making this recipe, I would definitely recommend some additions. Add more liquid (water would be best to keep the same fat-to sugar ratio), and add more chocolate chips and marshmallow bits. Hopefully, with the addition of liquid, there will be more lucky to have cookie-tasting desserts rather than pancake-tasting cookies. For an extra layer of assurance, you could use the hack of putting a slice of white bread in your cookie container to retain moisture and prolong cookie-softness. Who knows? Maybe this recipe could live up to our winter wants, or we could find a new recipe to test.
Southview Catalyst 