Valentine's Day ~ Chocolate Snickerdoodles & Rocky Road

In case you haven't made all your plans for something chocolate on Valentine's Day, I am going to share with you two recipes from the domestic goddess herself. In her cookbook, How To Be A Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson gives some delicious recipes that I haven't seen before. The Rocky Road is especially easy to make, and the Chocolate Snickerdoodles are a long-loved recipe with a twist. I hope you'll try one or both on Valentine's, or anytime you want to feel happy and loved.

Nigella says: "Ever since I read that brazil nuts are inordinately good for you, containing essential selenium, and that you should probably have three a day, I have chosen to regard these  as health food. What they really are are clumps of brazil nuts and mini-marshmellows bound together by a mantle of chocolate. You can alter the ratio of dark to milk chocolate as you wish, but, as ever, I really do think it's worth using the best chocolate that you can."

Rocky Road

7 ounces milk chocolate
1 ounce bittersweet chocolate
3 ounces brazil nuts

1/3 cup mini-marshmellows

1 baking sheet, lined with wax paper or oiled foil

Melt the chocolates either in the microwave or using a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Roughly chop the brazil nuts, and mix into the chocolate with the mini-marshmellows.

Drop heaping teaspoons onto a lined baking sheet, and leave to cool in a cold place, though not the refrigerator if at all possible; it will take some of the gleam from the chocolate.

Makes 24.

Variation

You could chop these up and stir into slightly softened vanilla or chocolate ice cream.

Nigella says: "You can't help wanting to cook a cookie with a name like this. Luckily, these live up to it. They're verging on cakes, but only in the sense that they're neither crisp nor flat; what they taste like, in fact, are oven-baked doughnuts--small, cinnamony, with a drier crumb than the dunkin' sort. I love these as a part of dessert, with a bowl of warm, spicy, poached or stewed plums and a bowl of cold creme fraiche."

Chocodoodles-Chocolate Snickerdoodles

                                                                                  
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
Replace 2 tablespoons of the flour
with cocoa for chocolate cookies
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon
2 baking sheets, lined with parchment
or wax paper or greased foil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the flour, nutmeg, baking powder and salt, and set aside for a moment. In a large bowl, cream the butter with the 1/3 cup of sugar until light in texture and pale in color, then beat the egg and vanilla. Now stir in the dry ingredients until you have a smooth, coherent mixture. Spoon out the remaining sugar and the cinnamon onto a plate. Then, with your fingers, squeeze out pieces of dough and roll between the palms of your hands into walnut-sized balls. Roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and arrange on your prepared sheets.

Bake for about 15 minutes, by which time they should be turning golden brown. Take out of the oven and leave to rest on the baking sheets for 1 minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Makes about 32.

I hope you have someone with whom you can share this special day. And I wish you a very happy and loving Valentine's Day!

Blessings...Mimi