Martha Stewart's Surprise Cookies

Pick up the chocolate cookie with chocolate frosting...take a look...take a bite...SURPRISE! There's a marshmallow inside! The only thing missing from this recipe was a sprinkling of crushed graham crackers to make it a s'more cookie.

A few hours before heading out to a party my husband told me it would be nice if I made a dessert to share. Well, I didn't have time for an actual dessert so I scrambled through some recipes and came across this Surprise Cookie recipe from Martha Stewart. I happened to have all of the ingredients I needed so I made them!

They turned out to be really tasty cookies and I got a bunch of compliments. I mean, can you really go wrong with Martha Stewart??!! The cookies are more like the texture of moist dense cake bites. The marshmallow and frosting kept them very soft and chewy until the last cookie was gone. And they did all get eaten that evening!

Surprise Cookies

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 12 large marshmallows, cut in half horizontally

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. 

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg, milk, and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add reserved flour mixture; mix on low speed until combined. 

Using a tablespoon or 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto ungreased baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies begin to spread and become firm, 10 to 12 minutes. 

Remove baking sheets from oven, and place a marshmallow, cut-side down, in the center of each cookie, pressing down slightly. Return to oven, and continue baking until marshmallows begin to melt, 2 to 2 1/2 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting. 

Spread about 1 tablespoon of frosting over each marshmallow, starting in the center and continuing outward until marshmallow is covered.

Chocolate Frosting for Surprise Cookies

• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Place confectioners' sugar in a medium bowl. Whisk in butter and cocoa powder. Add milk and vanilla, and whisk until well combined.

**I cut the frosting recipe in half and had a perfect amount to generously frost all of the cookies. I crushed one graham cracker rectangle and sprinkled over each cookie after it was frosted. If you wait until all the cookies are frosted it might be dry enough that the crumbles won't stick.**

Orange Cornmeal Cake

This is a recipe that I really wanted to try. I think my husband would eat cornbread everyday if I made it so I figured why not sweeten it up with this cornmeal cake I found at Martha Stewart! The recipe didn't call for any kind of syrup, glaze or frosting so I decided to add an orange cream cheese frosting to top the cake. Needless to say my husband ate it everyday until it was gone!

Orange Cornmeal Cake

• 1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for pan
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar, plus 1/3 cup for topping
• 1/2 cup dry white wine, (or orange juice)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange
• Orange segments, for serving (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Brush bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with oil; line bottom with a round of wax or parchment paper, and brush paper with oil.

**To save myself the hassle of cutting a perfectly round piece of parchment paper that perfectly fits my round cake pan (something Martha would do!) I just greased and floured the pan. It worked 'perfectly' and the cake came out of the pan.....'perfectly'! ;)

In a large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, 1 cup sugar, and wine until smooth. Add flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, and orange zest; whisk gently to combine.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until cake begins to pull away from sides of pan and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes.

Cool in pan 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert cake gently onto a plate, and remove parchment paper. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely. Serve with orange segments and orange cream cheese frosting.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2 T. butter
1 t. orange zest
1 T. orange juice
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

With an electric mixer combine cream cheese, butter orange zest and orange juice. Add powdered sugar and continue mixing until frosting is light and fluffy.

Homemade Pizza

If you live in the southwest or plan a trip to Arizona (or if you even live there and haven't been) you must stop in and eat at Pizzaria Bianco. It is in downtown Phoenix and you will eat the best pizza in the US. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Check it out here.

Okay, on to my next point. In college my husband worked at a little pizzaria/deli flipping pizzas. Not for Chris Bianco, of course, but he did learn how to make a great pizza and still loves to do so.

We start by using Chris Bianco's pizza dough recipe courtsey of Martha Stewart. Why wouldn't we?! It's thin, crisp, and salty! Since we don't have a brick oven in our kitchen we have to settle for pizza stone. I bought ours at Bed Bath and Beyond for a reasonable price.

My husband makes delicious homemade sauce and changes the toppings every time we make pizzas. He makes stretching the dough look easy but I've tried it and I'm not great at it! If you use patience you should do fine though.

One secret of his is to stretch the dough, ladle on the sauce, put on all toppings except cheese and bake at 550 degrees F on a pizza stone until sauce becomes a deep red color and crust is par-baked. Pull the pizza out of the oven and top with cheese. Put back in the oven and bake until cheese is bubbly and crust is a deep golden brown.

The pizza pictured above is spinach, onion, red bell pepper, mozzarella and feta cheese.

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Remember the day when you came home from school and opened the cupboard only to find a sinful box of Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies?! Your eyes opened wide as you turned your head to see if anyone was watching and I know you tried really hard to eat just one but couldn't manage the task. Well, this is an organic and healthy twist on the classic but I promise you will feel just as naughty eating these soft and chewy cream pies - enjoy!

Oatmeal Cream Pies - modification on a cookie recipe (iced oatmeal applesauce cookies) from Martha Stewart

for the cookies:
3 T. butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. applesauce
1 1/2 c. quick oats
1 c. flour
1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a stand mixer cream butter and sugars on medium speed. Add egg and applesauce. Turn off mixer and add in remaining ingredients. Turn mixer back on medium speed until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Using a 1 1/2 inch cookie scoop drop cookie dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake until just set - approximately 10 minutes. Cool on a rack. Makes approximately 12 cream pies.

for the filling:
2 T. butter
2 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar - give or take depending on how thick you want the filling
3-4 T. pure maple syrup

In a medium mixing bowl cream butter and cream cheese together. Add powdered sugar and incorporate. Add maple syrup and stir. Add more powdered sugar if necessary.

On a cooled cookie spread a layer of filling. Top with another cookie. Eat and enjoy. Yum!