Minnesota Bound

We are going to Minnesota this weekend.  This is a multi-purpose trip.  Kate, who is hot on the college looking trail, will be visiting Carleton.  We'll do the tour and information session and meet the tennis coach.  Charlie, who is a junior at Carleton, will be hosting his sister overnight on Saturday.  Hopefully he'll limit the college experience (drinking), although I am sure there will be red Solo cups involved in whatever he and Kate do.  I'm am trying not to freak out.

Why do college kids only drink out of red Solo cups?  There's even a song about them.  This is one of the great mysteries of the world... the red Solo cup.

I'm looking forward to seeing Charlie.   Seeing him is always nice, especially if he pretends to want to see us too.

How could he not want to see us?  We're so nice and we pay the tuition.

Being the Jewish mother that I am, I have checked with Charlie at least 20 times to see if there's anything he wants me to bring him.  He says he needs shorts.   So, me being me, I jumped on the shorts acquisition project and zipped over to J. Crew post haste.    He also wants his flip flops but he must have taken those with him when he was last home because they're not here.

I also said I'd bring him cookies.  What college kid doesn't love cookies?  And I love to be needed, even if it's just for my baked goods.  So, I've been scanning my recipes for just the right cookies.  Any suggestions?  I'm going for something a little more exciting than your standard chocolate chip even though I'm sure those would be most appreciated.

Since it's almost summer, I'm thinking of giving these s'mores cookies a try.  Who doesn't love s'mores anyway?

If these are as yummy as I think they'll be, off they'll go to Minnesota.  Maybe I'll cave and make some chocolate chip cookies too.  Both will go deliciously with whatever is in those red Solo cups.

Recipe:  S'mores Cookies
(Ice Cream Before Dinner, The Girl Who Ate Everything)

Ingredients:


11 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 ½ cups flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup mini marshmallows
3 regular sized Hershey’s bars, broken into pieces
1-2 packages graham crackers, broken into squares

Directions:


In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sea salt and cinnamon to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with white and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixer and combine on low speed.
Fold in the chocolate chips and marshmallows. Chill dough in refrigerator for 1 hour to overnight (I did one batch right away and another after chilling overnight and found there was no difference.)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pans with parchment paper. I used one 11x17 pan and one 9x13 pan but you can really use any sized pans you want.
Lay out graham crackers side by side on the pans as close as possible (they should be touching). I used 16 graham cracker squares on one pan and 10 squares on another. You may have to add or remove graham crackers according to how much dough you have. If you want your cookies thicker you will use more dough and less graham crackers.

Place tablespoons of dough on graham crackers about 1 – 1 ½ inches apart. I averaged about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per graham cracker square as seen in the picture above. Press down slightly with fingertips.

Bake for 5 minutes then remove from oven to press Hershey’s bar pieces on to the top. You can place as many pieces or as little as you want depending how much chocolate flavor you want.

Bake for 5 – 7 more minutes or until dough is beginning to turn golden brown at the edges. Remove to a wire rack to cool. For clean cutting make sure cookies are completely cool and cut with a sharp knife.