So, what do you do with leftover chocolate Santas from Christmas (yeah, I know, it's past Valentine's Day)? No, you don't scarf them down whole! You break them up and make cookies! Specifically, Milk Chocolate Crispy cookies, which are chunky with milk chocolate from the Santas, a wee bit crispy from cereal, and include a smidgeon of white whole-wheat flour so that you can feel virtuous while eating cookies. Besides being tasty, the cookies are economical. Rather than spending money on chocolate chunks or chips, you can use up leftovers. You don't have any chocolate Santas left, you say? Well, no problem. Use leftover Valentine's Day candy, instead. The cookies can then become "Broken Heart Cookies"--take those to a book club and see the response! The principle is the same: your candy "waste" becomes great cookies. And no, the cookies won't add that much to your waist, as long as you don't eat that many. Share some.
Milk Chocolate Crispy Cookies--AKA "Broken Santa Cookies" -- Makes 24+
1/2 cup of butter
2 tablespoons of canola oil
2/3 cup of sugar
2/3 cup of dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups of white whole-wheat flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (optional)
2 cups of broken milk chocolate pieces (in 1/2-1-inch chunks)
1 cup of crispy rice cereal
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, oil, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Stir together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon and add them to the wet ingredients, mixing just until everything is barely combined. Mix in the chocolate and rice cereal. Form balls about 1 1/2-tablespoons each and place them 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes until just set. They won't brown much. If you want crunchy cookies, you can bake the dough for about 15 minutes.
