baby rambutan

a new family has moved in right next door, and wonder of wonders, joy of joys, they have an 8-year-old boy!

whenever new neighbors arrive, especially this one with a kid the same age as mine, a boy!–it matters very much, you know? at this age they don’t want to hang out with kids of the opposite gender, ahem, YET– i try to do something to welcome them, because i never want anyone to feel the way we did when we first moved here. long story kept short, some of the folks nearby were openly hostile to us.
but we’ve outstayed most of them, so that’s the happy conclusion of that.

a dozen or so of Dorie Greenspan’s chocolate malted whopper drops should do it…i renamed it malteser to signify my preference for the less-sweet UK version of malted milk balls, also i used alkalized unsweetened cocoa; the recipe does not specify the oven temperature so i experimented with a batch at 350F(resulted in thin, chewy soft cookies) and all the rest i kept at 375F (resulted in thicker puffier yet still chewy soft; i kept the remaining batter chilled at all times before baking). (recipe adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From my Home to Yours, Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

before smashing, in a sturdy ziploc bag
smashed!

1 & 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup malted milk powder1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, Dutch processed
1/4 tsp salt
11 tbsps. unsalted butter(1 stick + 3 tbsps.), at room temperature
2/3 c sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup whole milk
2 cups chocolate-covered malted milk balls, coarsely chopped (preferably Maltesers, whoppers in a pinch)
1 cup semi-sweet or double chocolate chips (such as Ghirardelli)

preheat oven to 375 F (on convect mode if your oven has that). line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
in a medium bowl, sift together the flours, malted milk powder, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
in a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar.
add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. beat in the vanilla.
add half of the dry ingredients then the milk, then the remaining half of the dry ingredients, mixing only until incorporated. fold in the malted milk balls and chocolate pieces.
chill for at least an hour.
drop the cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each.
bake for 11 to 13 minutes (rotate pans and shift from top to bottom, if not using convect mode).
let the cookies rest for 2 minutes before moving to cooling rack.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 12:50 pm and is filed under my cookie jar, sweets for my sweets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.