When I made a call out for guest blog posts during December, I received a great response. As a consequence, a number of posts came in on or around the holidays and it is taking me time to get them all to you. This post from Maria from Your Salsa Addiction was one of those. The Hot Hot Hot Hot Chocolate bar is a great idea and the cookies sound yummy. Take a look below and while you are at it, take a look at Your Salsa Addiction….
This year was our 10th annual Christmas Party.. Every year I choose a different theme in which to create my food around, one year was Christmas around the world and I prepared food from 7 different countries, one year was all citrus and seafood for my “It’s a Florida Christmas” (that year it was particularly hot here!) This year was Christmas on the Ranch! I have to say this was one of the more fun years because so many of our guests dressed the part! One of the recipe’s I made was Cowgirl Cookies, something I originally wrote up for my daughter to make in culinary class and enter into the County Fair, but long story short, flopped (Thanks to the culinary teacher!) I choose this years theme BECAUSE of this cookie! I wanted my daughter to have the chance to make them again and present them to a large audience. They were a huge hit and everyone loved them! I’ve also always wanted to do a hot chocolate bar at one of our Christmas Parties and have never managed to pull it off , this year I did it!! Everyone loved it so much, I did it again on Christmas day for my guests. It was fun, delicious and comforting!
Hot Hot Hot Hot Chocolate!
- 8oz Whole Milk
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream
- 5 tbsp Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp raw sugar
- Warm Milk and heavy cream on the stove top in a sauce pan
- Once Milk/cream is warm add chocolate sugar and vanilla
- Keep stirring until its good and combined, and steaming hot
- Pour into carafe, and enjoy!
Cowgirl Cookies!
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups Ghirradelli Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
- 1 cup chopped hazelnuts
- 12 caramels unwrapped and chopped into tiny bits (If this is too much work, or you don’t want caramel, buy a bag of Toffee pieces, it’s yummy too!)
- A really good Salt (I used Pink Salt) for topping (Do not stir into ingredients!)
What You do:
Combine flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl, stir with a fork then add butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract stir until creamy. In a separate bowl add the eggs and lightly beat to break up the yolks, then add to mixture and stir until well combined. Stir in Chips, Caramel and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
Add a Few Grains of the good salt to the top of each cookie. (Don’t forget to do this for each batch!)
Bake for approx. 9-11 minutes or until nice and browned, remove onto a cooling rack, and EAT!
*** REMINDER ***
If you have an interest in participating in DICED! A Ranting Chef competition, the deadline is midnight on February 28, 2013. For full details about the competition, see the original post by clicking here.
Rantings of an Amateur Chef 
oh my – those cookies sound incredible! I LOVE salty sweet – can’t wait to try it out!
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They are delish! Let me know how you like them 🙂
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Looks delicious & decadent!
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Thanks 🙂
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Love your hot chocolate recipe — my husband makes a similar version and insists on using Ghiradelli or Guitard milk chocolate chips. It makes such a difference. I’ll have to try those cookies too — they look delicious!
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It does make a huge difference!! Thanks for the comment, try out the cookies you”ll love them!
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YAY Thanks for letting me blog with you!
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The cookies look delicious and the hit chocolate bar is an amazing idea! I can imagine this being a fabulous quiry idea for a winter wedding!?
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YES! It’s on my catering Menu (along with some other ‘bar’ type things like, taco, mashed potato etc) but no one has ever gotten it!
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Well I think it’s great. Weddings/Events need to be different and have elements of surprise and this has just that!
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I totally agree! I have done a Taco Bar and a Mashed Potato Bar, those were fun.. but I think stuff like that is a little too out of the box for people around here lol
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Sound great. My girls like hot chocolate! Thanks great post
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Thanks 🙂
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Yum!! Looks divine!
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Thank you! 🙂
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MMMMM, both recipes!
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Thank you! 🙂
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