Girl Scout Cookie Truffles

It's that time of year again! Girl Scout Cookie time! I was a Girl Scout for 7 years and sold many, many boxes to kind neighbors and patient strangers. As an adult, I used to never buy them because they're too much of a temptation to have in the house (Curse you Tagalongs!). But then a young friend joined Girl Scouts and I had to support her.

I decided to order a couple of boxes of the new Savannah Smiles Cookies and Thin Mints so I could come up with a way to use them.


I know making "truffles" out of cookies is nothing new. I made the famous Oreo truffles a couple of years ago; super easy, very rich, and really good. I used the Savannah Smiles to make that kind of truffle, which I consider "Cheater Truffles" because, let's be honest here, grinding up cookies and mixing them with cream cheese isn't a real truffle.

Let's start with the Savannah Smiles Truffles.



I took 2 boxes of the new lemon cookies and ran them through the food processor until they were chopped up into small pieces (you could also put the cookies in a freezer bag and crush them with a rolling pin). I then added an 8oz block of cream cheese and pulsed the food processor to combine.



After lining a cookie sheet with parchment paper, I took a heaping tablespoon and rolled the cookies and cream cheese into small balls. I covered the cookie sheet with plastic wrap and stuck it in the freezer for an hour.



Now, let me just start by saying that I hate dipping things into chocolate (truffles, cake balls, etc). It never works out too well for me and I have no patience for it. The only way I actually enjoy doing it is if I use a lollipop stick and turn them into cake pops or truffle pops. Next time I make these, I'm going to do that.

I melted white candy melts and coated the truffles and allowed them to set. Then I melted yellow candy melts and drizzled it over the top and finished them off with a yellow candy butterfly, just because.

With the Thin Mints I made real truffles using Alton Brown's Chocolate Truffle recipe as the base and tweaking it a little.



His recipe calls for 10oz of bittersweet chocolate. After grounding up the Thin Mints in the food processor...


I combined 5 oz of the Thin Mints and 5 oz of Special Dark chocolate chips.



Following Alton Brown's recipe, I added 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter and put it in the microwave for two 30 second intervals, stirring between.




I heated 1/2 cup of heavy whipping creaming and 1 tablespoon of light corn syrup to simmering and then poured it over the chocolate, letting it sit for two minutes. I mixed it until smooth and poured it into a ceramic dish, covering it with plastic wrap and putting it in the fridge for an hour.



I then used a 1/2 tablespoon to scoop out the ganache and set it on a parchment lined cookie sheet to set in the fridge for another hour.




In his recipe, Alton Brown lightly coats the truffles in chocolate before rolling it in cocoa. I started rolling my truffles in melted dark chocolate before rolling it in the leftover crushed up Thin Mints.



This just proved to be too messy and created lumpy truffles. The ganache itself was sticky enough for the Thin Mints to stick to them, so I stopped using the chocolate and just coated the truffles in the Thin Mints.

These truffles all ended up being super rich, but delicious! In the future, I think I'd make the Savannah Smiles truffles a little smaller, otherwise, I wouldn't change a thing.



I think the Savannah Smiles would make a great crust for lemon bars or lemon/blueberry bars.

Looks like I'm going to have to order more cookies.

Cookie Experiment #3: Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cups

McDonalds has this limited release McFlurry out there right now made with Rolos. I've heard several people go on and on about how good it was and it got me thinking about what I could make with Rolos. My first thought was brownies, but I wanted more of a challenge. Don't get me wrong, I'm still thinking about those brownies...I'm thinking chocolate with a layer of mini Rolos in the middle and caramel on top.

Yeah, those will eventually get made.

Any way, I was driving back to work one night and I had a cookie brainstorm. If they turned out right, they would be more Twix-like than Rolo-like, but I had to make them.

These cookies, the Chocolate Caramel Cookie Cups, are a base of shortbread cookies filled with caramel and topped with whipped, dark chocolate ganache.

Only a handful of ingredients are needed. Sugar, flour, vanilla, butter, heavy whipping cream, and dark chocolate. Seriously, that is all you need to make these cookies.



I love shortbread cookies. They are so easy to make and so delicious.



Cream 2 cups of butter and 1 cup of sugar.



Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and 4 cups of all-purpose flour. I used a a mini muffin pan and a heaping 1/2 Tablespoon of dough.



I balled up the dough and then used the back of the 1/2 Tablespoon to press the dough into the cup.



I baked the cookies for about 12-15 minutes at 350 degrees until they came out golden brown.



While the cookies were baking, I made the ganache. I've made ganache many times in the past and is super easy to make. I heated up 1 cup of heavy whipping cream to simmering and then poured it over 7 oz of dark chocolate.



After letting it sit for a minute, I mixed the chocolate and cream until it was all melted and combined. I covered it in plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming and let it come to room temperature before putting it into the fridge. Once it was cool, I put it in the stand mixer and whipped it up.

I also made caramel just as I had when I made Dark Chocolate Caramel Thumbprint Cookies.
I played around with it a bit because I wanted the caramel to be a thicker, so after making it, I put it back in a heavy pan over low heat, stirring it and adding sugar a Tablespoon at a time until it was the thickness I wanted.

When the cookies were done and cooled, the caramel was the correct thickness, and the ganache whipped and put in a piping bag, it was time to assemble.



I poured about a teaspoon of caramel in to the cookie cup and then topped it with a flourish of the ganache.



These cookies turned out delicious and decadent.



I plan on experimenting more. Next time I want to make them thumbprint cookies with a drizzle of milk chocolate over top.

Another Cookie Experiment: Dark Chocolate Caramel Thumbprint Cookies

I've had salted caramel on my mind ever since I had a salted caramel cupcake in D.C. The cupcake itself wasn't all that great, it was a white cake with white icing, neither had much flavor and they were cold and hard like they had just been taken out of the refrigerator.

Okay, I need to go off topic for a second here. Cupcakeries are popping up all over the country. I've been to a quite a few, I love to see how people decorate and what flavors they come up with. My favorite one so far is Magnolia Bakery in NYC. Any way, these places are all over and there is some major competition, not to mention the price. If I'm paying $3.50 for a cupcake, it better be fresh and moist, not cold and hard.

Okay, back on topic. The cupcake and icing weren't all that great, but drizzled on top was this salted caramel sauce that was to die for. I wanted to make it. So I got online and researched how to make caramel.

I decided to make use of the caramel in a cookie.

For the base, I used the Chocolate Crackles cookie from the Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook, the only difference I made to the recipe is that I didn't roll the cookies in powdered sugar.






I made the dough first because it has to be separated into four discs, wrapped in plastic and placed in the fridge for at least 2 hours.


While the dough was in the fridge, I tackled the caramel. It took me three attempts, the first time I overcooked the caramel, the second time I put in way too much salt. But I didn't let it stop me, I was determined to make this caramel work.

After doing some reasearch, I decided to go with the dry method.


I put 1 cup of sugar in a heated, heavy sauce pan over medium-high heat. I was a little nervous, I couldn't believe it was so easy as to just let the sugar cook.


And then I noticed along the edge the sugar started to caramelize.


It started to darken and bubble.


I took it off the heat and added 6 tablespoons of butter

and 1/2 cup heavy cream.


In the end I added 2 teaspoons of salt. Next time I'm going to add a bit more. I don't want it to overwhelm the sweetness of the caramel, but to enhance it with a salty/sweetness.

And after sitting for a while, it was a wonderful color and just the right thickness.


I debated on the size of the cookies. Should they be bite-sized or two bites-sized. So I made them in both sizes. Bite-sized is best. These are the kind of cookies that you should just pop in your mouth.

I rolled the cookies into small balls and then used my index finger in the middle to make the indentation.


I baked them for at 350 degrees and after 10 minutes, I pulled them out and used the back of a 1/4 teaspoon to redo the indentation. Then I put them back in the oven for 4 more minutes.

After they were pulled from the oven, I immediately put them on cooling racks and spooned about a 1/4 teaspoon of caramel in each cookie.


They didn't all turn out perfect, some of them had cracks that caused the caramel to drip off the side. Others were the perfect size and had the perfect little pool of caramel in the middle.


I made the last minute decision to melt semi-sweet chocolate and drizzle it over the top of the cookies. It didn't add much to the flavor, but I thought it made the cookies look prettier.

Overall, the cookies were good.

I am not the biggest fan of dark chocolate, but if you are, you will like these cookies. I think next time, I will make the cookies out of shortbread, still use the same caramel and chocolate drizzle.