By request from WHS Senior Katie Smith, the most recent dessert I have embarked on baking is Rolo Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Essentially, it is a rolo baked inside a chocolate chip cookie. Sounds healthy, right?

Disregarding the protests from your mom, dad, or whoever tries to make you eat healthy, you should go ahead and make this dessert; I guarantee you will thank me.  These cookies will most definitely satisfy your taste buds and are totally worth taking the time to make.

So, first things first, there are two ways you can do this: there’s an easy way and hard way.  Basically, the only difference is that with the easy way, you do not need to make the cookie dough scratch, but with the hard way you do.  I definitely recommend that you make the cookie dough yourself since the cookies will come out better, in my opinion.  So, for that reason, I am going to start with explaining the hard way. (Also, before you embark on this endeavor, make sure you have mini muffin pans.)

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter, melted
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 ¼ cups flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 ½ cup mini chocolate chips
• Rolos

Now, this recipe says it will yield about 5 dozen cookies, for that reason, I would say do what I did and cut the recipe it half.  That being said, if you’re making these for a party or some type of gathering, maybe you want all those cookies; however, if you’re like me and just made them for your family, I’d stick to cutting the recipe.

• Get a large mixing bowl and pour the melted butter into it. Then while the butter is still hot, add in the regular sugar and the brown sugar. Mix these with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined: For this step, I made sure both sugars were measured and ready to add until I melted the butter. That way, I knew the butter would still be hot.

• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.

• Add the eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture and mix on low speed. Continue to mix while you add the vanilla extract and then the flour mixture: Make sure you add the flour mixture gradually, for it will be too hard for the mixer to mix in all at once.

• Stir in the chocolate chips.

• Spray mini muffin pans with nonstick cooking spray and then scoop cookie dough each cavity. After, put the pans in the fridge for at least 1 hour: When scooping the dough, only scoop enough to just fill the cavity of the muffin pan. Also, the recipe says the let the pans chill for an hour, but being impatient, I only let them cool for 30 minutes and that was sufficient.

• While the pans are chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

• After the dough is chilled, bake the cookie cups for about 10 minutes: With my oven, I baked the cookies for about 12 minutes. I’d say bake them as long as you need to until they are turning golden.

• While the cookies are baking, unwrap the Rolos; one Rolo per cookie: You’ll need to do this in order to have the Rolos ready to press into the cookies when the come out of the oven.

• As soon as the cookies are done and come out of the oven, press one unwrapped Rolo in the center of each: Make sure you do this as soon as the come out so that the cookie dough does not harden.

• Let the cookies completely cool and let the Rolos re-harden before removal.

This way, while it may take longer, is definitely worth it in the end.  However, if you would like the conserve time, you can always make the cookie dough out of a box or bag that you buy at the store and then start at Step 5.  This process may be easier, but it will most likely produce less satisfying and less delicious results.

So, here’s an alternative to making the been-there-done-that-everyday chocolate chips cookies.  And even though chocolate chip cookies are a staple and a go-to for a reason, it’s always a great idea to switch it up sometimes and make something a little more interesting.