So I have been trying to watch what the amount of calories that I have been eating... but the other day my chocolate craving just could not be ignored any longer! So I searched around and found these on Cooking Light.. they are egg-less and kind of remind me of brownie bites. They were good plain,  but I kinda thought they needed something so I made them into thumbprint cookies and added a little strawberry jelly to them... way better!

Cocoa- Strawberry Thumbprints

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
  
  
• 5 tablespoons butter
  
  
• 7 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup plain low-fat yogurt
  
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Strawberry Jam or Jelly
  
• Cooking spray 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour, soda, and salt; set aside. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat; stir in cocoa powder and sugars (mixture will resemble coarse sand). Add yogurt and vanilla, stirring to combine. Add flour mixture, stirring until moist. Drop by level tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets coated with cooking spray.
   
3. Bake 5 minutes and then use a spoon to make an "thumb"print and add the strawberry jam. Bake an additional 3 to 5 minutes until almost set. Cool on pans 2 to 3 minutes or until firm. Remove cookies from pans; cool on wire racks.

Happy Baking,
   Tobi

My niece and nephew, who just happen to be Karen's munchkins were visiting the other day and we made these.. they have all the right flavors and textures.. crunchy, chewy, sweet and a little bit tart from the cranberries. What more could you ask for in a cookie.. heck they have 3 cups of oats in them.. hmm.. do I dare go so far as to say they are healthy?? Ok, probably not, but they ARE yummy for breakfast with a cup of coffee.. and no, you are not allowed to ask how I know this. Anyway,  enjoy the recipe whether it be for breakfast or any other time of day.

Ingredients:

• 1/2  cup (1 stick) butter, melted
  
• 3/4  cup firmly packed brown sugar (I actually used a little less)
  
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2  eggs
• 1  teaspoon vanilla
• 1-1/2  cups all-purpose flour
• 1  teaspoon baking soda
• 1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2  teaspoon salt (optional)
• 3  cups Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
•  Mini/ or regular chocolate chips
• Dried cranberries

Directions:
Melt butter in a large bowl and add both sugars, eggs, vanilla and mix well, then mix in flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, add the oats, cranberries, and chocolate chips. (with the cranberries and chocolate chips the amount is up to you.. we put in a few two year old size handfuls of cranberries and I just dumped in about half a bag of mini chocolate chips.) Mix all of this together well.. a mixer would be helpful.. it gets really thick by the end..but we just took turns stirring.. because stirring is fun. Scoop onto ungreased cookie sheet. They don't spread a whole lot so I kind of smushed.. (is that a word?) them a bit. Bake at 375 for 12 minutes. Let rest on cookie sheet for a minute and transfer to rack to cool.. if you can wait that long. I do have to say I am usually a fan of cookies while they are still warm, but these are actually better after they cooled.

Here are my helpers waiting for the cookies to bake..

Happy Baking,
    Tobi

My Dad was reading the Register one day and came across this recipe and Mom, Karen and I couldn't resist making them. Now the name is debatable, depends on who you ask, whether it's Moon Pies or Whoopie Pies.. although a friend just told me that Moon Pies have a crunchy cookie and Whoopie Pies have a soft cake like cookie. So I guess if you are gonna use those guidelines they would be the former.. Whoopie Pies.. But whatever you call them they were seriously good.

Here is a picture of ours.. I woke up that morning and had the brilliant idea to put a graham cracker in the middle along with the marshmallow creme.(thanks for the running to the store Dad!)  It was the best idea I have had in a long time.. seriously it's like s'mores on steroids.. yum!  

But enough chatter..on to the recipe!

The Island Hotel’s Moon Pies*
Yield: about 9 to 11 sandwich cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup marshmallow crème

Directions:
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.
2. In large bowl of electric mixer cream butter and sugar on low speed until combined using the flat paddle. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light in color, scraping down sides with a rubber spatula (or silicone spatula) as needed. Add egg and mix to incorporate, scraping down sides if needed. Add evaporated milk and vanilla on low speed in two batches; beat on medium speed and scrape the bowl as needed.
3. In a separate bowl or on a sheet of waxed paper, sift together flour, salt, cocoa powder, baking soda and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients and mix on slow speed at first; increase speed to medium and beat until well incorporated. Place batter in medium sized plain pastry bag. Pipe the batter into circles the size of a silver dollar on prepared baking sheet.(a little disclaimer here- if you aren't really proficient with the pastry bag you can use a small ice cream scoop to scoop the batter onto the cookie sheets, like we did.) Bake until the cookies feel set or firm to the touch, about 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool to room temperature on wire rack.

Meanwhile prepare the filling-

In with the Marshmallow creme!

4. In large bowl of electric mixer, use paddle attachment to cream together the butter, powdered sugar and vanilla until fluffy and no lumps of butter are present. Add marshmallow crème and mix to blend. Put filling in pastry bag.
5. Match the cookies together by size. Make sure they are as consistent as possible in diameter. Pipe the filling on the flat side of one cookie.  Take the other cookie and sandwich them together. Repeat this until all of the cookies are filled. Refrigerate cookies airtight to prevent them from drying out.

Cook’s notes: If desired, add 1/2 cup peanut butter to the filling.This sounds really yummy, we didn't try it but we did put some of the Starbucks instant coffee in some of the creme filling and that was really good.
(Sorry no picture of the coffee infused goodness we ate it before I could snap the shot.) 
We had lots of fun doing this..and we won't talk about how many we ate trying the different additions.. although we did end up in serious sugar overload..good thing Karen brought these with her!!

Hope you enjoy the recipe, although maybe some moderation would be good then you wouldn't have to resort to the chips. What can I say don't be like us. :)

Much love, Tobi and Karen

*Recipe Source: Michael Owens, Executive Pastry Chef, The Island Hotel, Newport Beach