I’m twenty nine years old.  I’m an adult.  I pay my bills.  I do my taxes.  I go to jury duty.  I stand in line at the post office without heavy sighs.  I floss too!  I totally floss.

And yet.  Somehow.  I thought it would be ok… not just ok, but reasonable… not just reasonable… but a good idea to make chocolate chip cookie dough, freeze it and then dip the balls in melted chocolate.

Now I have a  freezer full of giant cookie dough balls dipped in chocolate and I’m panicking.  I need an adult.  I’m about to eat cookie dough for lunch, cookie dough for dinner, cookie dough for dessert, and then cookie dough again for second dinner.

Incidentally, if the blatant consumption of raw sugar and butter offends your sensibilities, perhaps you might be better suited with these Blueberry Applesauce Muffins or Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread.  And you’ll have to accept my sincere apologies for the ridiculousness of frozen cookie. and chocolate.  together.  forever.

Raw cookie dough.  Sooo dang good.

Now before anyone starts yelling about raw eggs and poison and disease, let me assure you that this dough has no raw eggs in it.  Instead, I used Greek yogurt as the binder.  You might also use applesauce or peanut butter if you don’t have thick yogurt on hand.

Here’s how this happened.  I made eggless cookie dough, scooped it up in generous portions on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet, stuck cute plastic forks in the dough and froze those suckers overnight.  The next morning I melted down some chocolate chips, dipped the frozen dough balls and returned them to the freezer.  Serve them right from the freezer… It’s sort of the best thing ever.

Now if you’ll excuse me… I can hear someone calling my name from the freezer.  It must be these dough balls.  It would be rude not to respond.

So… you know that part in Scent of a Woman… yes, hello, 1992…. when blind Al Pacino sniffs out pretty ladies… literally… and somehow worms his way into their good graces?  Have you seen Scent of a Woman staring Al Pacino and Chris O’Donnell?  Of course you have.

If blind Al Pacino were to sniff me out, I’m pretty sure I’d smell like these brownies.  This fact is both troubling and awesome.  Now I kinda want to reinact the tango scene.

To quell your puzzled looks, let me answer a few questions.  Yes… I just watched Scent of a Woman.  Yes… it was amazing.  Yes… I questioned my sanity.

I’m going to keep this short.  I have to go watch Curly Sue and learn a few card tricks.

These brownies seem like the exact right thing to be doing this time of year.

Super fudgy chocolate with nuts and campfire style toasted marshmallows.  Pretty perfect to bring to a summer party.  These brownies are an instant friend maker.

I do have a few pro-tips when it comes to this recipe.  Can I share them with you?

-  So you’ve baked the brownies, loaded the warm brownies up with marshmallows, turned on your broiler and you’re ready to toast your marshmallows?  Put them in the oven and stand there.  Do.  Not.  Walk.  Away.  Your brownies will set on fire before you know it.  It’s scary when you have to pull a pan that’s on fire out of the oven.  It’s really scary.

-  You’re going to need a sharp knife and hot running water to cut through these brownies.  The marshmallows might have a tendency to stick to the knife.  Run the blade under hot water until it’s clean after every slice you make.  That’ll ensure that your marshmallows stay where they belong.

Pro-tips.  I got em.

I’ve made a lot of brownie items around here over the last few years.

These be them:

Peanut Butter Blondies with Milk Chocolate Frosting

S’mores Brownies

aaaand.

Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Now…

Dear Spring,

You’re a great season.  In fact, you’re my favorite season of all.  Something about the orange blossoms dotting my neighborhood, and the barely warm evening sun just makes me want to squeeze you with gratitude.

Great job with all the tulips.  Excellent work with all the sweet peas.  Don’t even get me started on the asparagus…. wow!

There’s just a few things I thought you might consider… just in the interest of being the best season ever, and kicking every other season right in the backside.

First, your color palette.  Have you ever considered switching it up?  All the pastels remind me of bad baby shower party games.  Plus, you’re edgier than that Spring.  Show those other seasons what’s what.  Have you considered a fresh neon palate?  It might work wonders for your image.

Second,  can you please work on making purple the new grey this season?

Lastly,  every year when you come to town, I end up in the candy aisle at the grocery store buying giant bags of chocolate egg-shaped candies.  After I’ve mistakenly make these chocolate goodies a meal, I’m forced the throw the remainder in the trash and pour dish soap on them, keeping myself from sleep-eating them in the middle of the night.  While this may seem like more of a personal issue, your attention to this matter would still be much appreciated.

Also Spring, I made you meringues.

Stay Sweet,

Joy the Baker

Meringues are a super easy way to show Spring that you’re glad it’s come to town… or you could write Spring a letter like I did.

With only three egg whites, a bit of granulated sugar and some flavoring, you’ll be able to make a sheet full of three different types of tiny meringues:  chocolate, vanilla and raspberry. All you’ll need now is some small, clear gift bags, some pretty ribbon and you’ll have precious Easter gifts on lock-down.  Sweet, right!?

This recipe makes vanilla meringues with a dash of vanilla extract, chocolate meringues with unsweetened cocoa powder, and raspberry meringues with dehydrated raspberry powder (made from freeze dried and super ground raspberries).  Feel free to play around with almond or coffee meringues using extracts too!

Here’s what I love most about my blog and its readers:

- I can sit at my lap top in awe of my split ends until I figure out something clever to say to you about cookies.

-You’ll indulge me if all I want to talk about is how I’m a smitten kitten.

-You’ll understand when I tell you that I made these peppermint cookies mostly so I could eat the cookie dough cold from the fridge.

- You, dear and darling reader, have made me a millionaire. Well, a millionaire in blog hits. I just realized that I’m well over a million hits on Joy the Baker. Rock and Roll, right? Thanks to you and all of your clicks, I’m feelin’ like a rock star. Bless you and Thanks.

- Here’s how it works- I made some cookie dough. I baked some cookies. I took pictures of them. I threw the dough in the fridge. I drank some whiskey. I pulled the dough out of the fridge. I made more cookies. I ate them. I had company. We ate them. Sorta. Then we forgot about them and remembered the whiskey. That’s how the whole thing works and you like me for it.

Q: How awesome are you? A: So totally awesome.

Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookies. In some words: chocolatey, chewy and bright with peppermint.

What I love about these cookies is that there loaded with all sorts of chocolate. There’s the cocoa powder which intensely flavors the whole cookie, then there’s the milk chocolate chips and semi sweet chocolate chips. How many different kinds of chocolate do you need in a cookie? As much as possible. You might even try throwing white chocolate chips in these beauties.

chocolate + peppermint = one fine holiday cookie