Saturday was John's birthday as well as the night he and Erik unveiled the newest murder/mystery game: Church of Our Lady of Interplanetary Ascendence. In keeping with the "church evening becomes dangerous cult bloodbath" vibe I decided to make some cookies to share.
First I made a batch of potato chip cookies. I used to make potato chip cookies when I was younger and they even when to the state fair when I was about 13. I don't recall the recipe I used at that time, but I will be making a point of locating it over the next few weeks when I visit my parents. For this batch I used this recipe. The cookies turned out fine and the guests seemed to enjoy them (every cookie was consumed by the end of the night), but I think the temperature called for is much too high. They quickly became deflated, a bit oily, and prone to burning around the edges.
For the second batch I made Neiman Marcus cookies with some small variations. First, I used 1 tablespoon of very finely ground regular coffee beans instead of the 1 and a half teaspoons of instant espresso coffee powder. Secondly, instead of the 1 and a half cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips I used some of the delicious chocolate candy that my mother sent me home with on Easter. Using a plastic bag and a hammer I crushed one chocolate bar and a few handfuls of pastel M&Ms (some of them contained peanut butter).
These cookies turned out lovely.
The evening was fun and the game expertly written. Sadly, John did not have a chance to eat any of the cookies that I made for his birthday because he was busy acting like a creepy church elder, but I will be taking him out for modern art, fancy cheeses, and wine next week so perhaps that will make up for it.
As another creepy church elder, I didn't get to eat or drink very much (until I started carrying around bottles of wine) but I did manage to snag a cookie or two when no one was looking. They were wonderful. Thanks Gemma!
Posted by: mindy | April 26, 2006 at 16:09
oooh, i like that you used finely ground espresso beans instead of espresso powder. espresso powder is something i never have, but i've always got the beans!!
Posted by: kickpleat | April 26, 2006 at 17:43
I wish I'd gotten to eat one. Sunday was my birthday.
Posted by: john | April 27, 2006 at 02:03
Oh yum, these look so good. Wish I could have one now!
~Dianka
http://na-zdravi.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Dianka | April 27, 2006 at 14:46
Thanks for the nice comments Mindy, and more importantly thank you for helping to plan such a great night.
Posted by: gemma | April 29, 2006 at 13:36
Hi Kickpleat, I actually prefer the beans. It gives it a better taste in my opinion (and I never have the powder either.)
Yes, sorry. . . I knew that John.
Thanks Dianka.
Posted by: gemma | April 29, 2006 at 13:38
I love the colorful chocolate you put in there. That gives me some good ideas for the leftover chocolate that is not being eaten at my house!!
Posted by: Chloe | May 22, 2006 at 11:53