#36: Hot Chocolate Cookies with Marshmallows

I was moved to bake again thanks to my unhealthy obsession with pinterest. Having first discovered this virtual pinboard in August down in Provo, I have been finding FABULOUS desserts I felt compelled to make in the summer... but am just now getting around to ACTUALLY trying them. For instance, this summer I ran into this little gem of a recipe: Hot chocolate cookies. Now, I love hot chocolate, but I knew a woman that would appreciate them even more than I would- Midge Baird. Evidently hot chocolate is her vice, so what better way than to win her over than with sweet, sweet desserts? I am a genius. As a result, I spent this last dreary, windy, cool Saturday afternoon baking to my heart's content, and here be the finished goods:

#36: Hot Chocolate Cookies with Marshmallows (as adapted from dineanddish.net)

Ingredients:

2 sticks butter
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup hot chocolate mix
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups mini marshmallows

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until well incorporated.
     - I'm talking, STIFF PEAKS kind of fluffy. Get out those electric mixers, sugar. I have learned these guns just won't do the trick if you want super chewy cookies.

2. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, hot chocolate mix, salt and baking soda.
     - I took my own spin on the recipe at this point. I went ahead and added an additional 1/4 cup of hot chocolate mix, since the taste of chocolate was WAY too subtle... and if you know me at all, you know I am anything BUT that. Oh, and if I were to make this cookie again, I would cut the amount of salt in half. Biting into the cookies, I would catch random pockets of salt in my mouth... and that's weird.

3. Slowly add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix until well blended.
     - I broke out the electric mixer again.

4. Place by rounded teaspoon onto parchment lined baking sheets.
     - Or live dangerously like me, and DON'T use parchment. I also went ahead and put the back of a spoon to each cookie to flatten them out a bit before putting them in the oven.

5. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until slightly firm.
     - I did eight minutes, for the following step...

6. As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, begin topping with marshmallows.
     - After making the magic that was my rocky road cookies, I knew I wanted to get my marshmallows a little sticky and golden, like smores, so I went ahead and took the cookies out at 8 minutes, put 4-6 marshmallows on top of each cookie, and then returned them to the oven for an additional 3 minutes.

7. After cooling for a few minutes on the baking sheet, move to wire wrack until completely cool.

There you have it. Delicious, easy... and Mothers Baird approved.