Rolo Cookies

Want a chewy, gooey caramely, decadent chocolate treat?  These cookies are so good, they were about 20 years in the making after all!

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They are kind of like a cross between a brownie and a soft gooey chocolate cookie with a Rolo (caramel chocolate) baked in the centre.  I started playing around with this cookie approximately 20 years ago, I was in university and was a nerd needed to get my mind off school work and also needed a really good study snack.  That is what all 19 year old uni students do for fun right?

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The first couple of versions were to runny and the caramel leaked all over the place, then it was too thin, cooked too long and was just too hard and chewy.  I think after many trials, many cookies eaten, this is a keeper.

Ingredients:

4 pkgs Rolo

1/2 cup butter softened to room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup cocoa

1 cup flour

Cream butter and sugar, add in cocoa and mix until incorporated, then beat in 1 egg.

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Add flour and continue to beat on low speed until it is mixed in and the batter is sort of a play-doh consistency

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Pinch off a piece of dough, flatten it a little

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This is where the Rolo comes in, add Rolo to it, fold the dough over the rolo

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once the role is inside the dough it looks like this, do this with the remaining and place on a cookies sheet lined with parchment.  I found they baked best on parchment. Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes.

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Once they are baked they are like brownie cookies but with a surprise center

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Delicious gooey caramel and melted chocolate

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You will definitely need a glass of milk

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Guinness Chocolate Cake…a.k.a Best Cake Ever

We all LOVE LOVE LOVE this cake. I make this at least a few times a year.  This is another Nigella recipe (from her book Feast) and it is my favourite.  It is a delicious dense dark moist chocolate cake topped with a very creamy smooth cream cheese icing.

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Preheat your oven to 180C, which I think is 350F.  Start with a can of Guinness.  This is what happens if you are unprepared when you open it and don’t have a pot ready to pour it in. I lost a little bit.

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Pour the can of Guinness (250ml) into a pot and add butter (250g) heat until melted.  I just realized, while typing this, that I just poured in the whole can. I think that was quite a bit more than I needed.  Which explains why the batter was wetter than I remembered it being and it took longer to bake.  But it turned out amazing!

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Add sugar (400g) and cocoa powder (75g)

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Whisk this together while heating

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Take that off the stove and let cool a couple of minutes, in a separate bowl whisk together 142ml sour cream, 2 eggs and 1Tbsp vanilla

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Pour that mixture into the chocolatey beer mixture.

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To that add 275g of flour and 2&1/2 tsp baking soda

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Pour batter into prepared (greased with a round of parchment lining the bottom) springform pan (8 or 9″)

Place the pan on a cookie sheet, just in case of leakage.

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Bake for about 45-60 minutes until done. Don’t worry about the cracks in the top, those nooks and crannies will get filled with the delicious cream cheese icing.

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Let cool completely before icing.  Once the cake was at room temperature I wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the refrigerator overnight and did the icing the next day.

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The cream cheese icing is amazing but very simple.  Beat together 300g room temperature cream cheese with 150g icing sugar and 125ml whipping cream.  I used a little less that that amount of whipping cream as I found the icing was getting too liquid.  Use your judgement.

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Dollop the icing on top of the cake and spread to the edges.

It kind of looks like a pint of Guinness!

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I think this cake would also be great without the icing or just a sifting of icing sugar.

Snowballs

I should call these cookies Newfoundland snowballs.

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These are cookies that I grew up eating and Evie loves them now.  I haven’t met anyone that didn’t like them.  I made a batch recently and shared with a few people.  They are really easy, no bake and quick to make with few ingredients.

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The coconut used is fine or medium desiccated unsweetened coconut.

Put the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan and melt stirring to combine.

Into another bowl add the next 3 ingredients and mix to combine.

Add the melted butter mixture to the oat mixture and mix.  Let this cool, I usually put it in the fridge for about half an hour until it will hold shape when rolled into balls.

Roll into balls and then roll in coconut.  That is it!

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These also freeze well and are good in the freezer for a few months.  Sometimes I freeze them and eat straight out of the freezer.