In Purrsuit of Flavors ~ December 2, 2020

Tails Around the Ranch

5 years ago

Happy December to all you ‘howliday’ cooks out there. For this last of 2020 for “In Purrsuit of Flavours” edition, we’re once again joining our hosts, those Wild Weim boys over at Easy Rider as well as the great chef cats over at Canadian Cats. This month’s theme is “colourful cuisine.” While our colors may be various shades of brown/tan, once you’ve had one, you will be colorful. Guarantee if you leave one for Santa on Christmas Eve, no doubt he’ll treat you nicely. So let’s get to cooking!

Chocolate Chip Cookies Shots

My son and I recently made these babies and while they’re kind of labour intensive, they are relatively easy to put together once you have the mold. First step…use the form but for heaven’s sake don’t use the cookie dough recipe included with Wilton’s form. It was disgusting so we tossed the first batch (even squirrels wouldn’t eat them) and went on a Pinterest search. There are a plethora of recipes on Pinterest so I narrowed the search to only ones highly rated. Our biggest dilemma was deciding on which flavor to fill the shots but ultimately settled on Irish Cream (they can also be made alcohol-free for designated drivers or under-aged peeps). In a subsequent “quality control moment” we tried Kahlúa and while it was tasty as well, the Irish Cream was far tastier. I may give Amaretto a try since it should also pair nicely with the chocolate coating. My motto is to be creative and go with whatever appeals to your tastes. [For the record, we halved this recipe]

Ingredients

1 cup softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/4 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup of mini chocolate chips

To coat the inside of the cookie shots, use 10-12 oz. of chocolate, finely chopped chocolate (we used chocolate wafer candies since it was what I had on hand).

Instructions

Cream butter and sugars until light and creamy. Add eggs, vanilla and beat well. Then add dry ingredients, mix. Dough will be thick and stiff. Stir in the mini chocolate chips and refrigerate dough for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Pack balls of chilled dough into the cookie shot mold. Press the inserts into the center of each mold. Some dough will push up and out of the mold. Leave inserts in place and scrape excess dough away. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Halfway through baking time, use an oven mitt and push the inserts down again. Dough will expand out of mold but you can remove any excess later.

Once baked, let cookie shots cool for a few minutes so you can handle without getting burned. While still warm and with inserts still in place, scrape away any excess dough that expanded out of the mold. Let cookie dough cool completely. Keep inserts in place until completely cooled. Once cool, twist inserts and lift them out of the mold. Then twist the cookie cups and lift them out of mold. Set aside while you melt chocolate coating.

Coat inside of cookie shots by pouring a little melted chocolate inside the cookie shot glass and rotate around to coat the inside cavity. Turn upside down and dip the top rim; set aside until chocolate is completely set. Once cookie shot glasses are finished, they can be filled. After pouring in a ‘colorful’ liquid, I added some chocolate mousse and topped the whole thing off with a tiny dollop of whipped cream. Add some winter themed sprinkles and voila! A festive treat perfect for Santa.