Peppermint Oreo Cookie Balls - Just Us Four Guest Post - December 23

Hi there! Grab a cup of coffee and sit down with me for a bit! My name is Kelli and I run the blog Confections + Coffee! I am excited and honored to be a part of the holiday season guest posting for Just Us Four. I hope you enjoy these delicious bite sized treats! They were made with you busy bakers in mind! Enjoy! 

It's the holiday season and you know what that means, right? Peppermint! One of the only times of the year where peppermint is totally acceptable in every dessert you make!

Do you have a favorite peppermint candy? I love those soft peppermint sticks, I could eat a whole bag of them! As a matter of fact, I do almost every time I buy them, so I usually buy two bags. :)

So it's two days before Christmas and you have very little time to make a dessert for that gathering you kind of maybe forgot about. Oops! I've been there done that, which is actually how I developed these cookie balls! You can thank me later. :)

Anyways, back to the sweets. I ran across Peppermint Oreo Cookies at a grocery store. I don't know where you live, but where I live, our Wal-Mart's don't have those cool seasonal Oreos. It's so weird! I was so excited I just had to have them even though I don't eat Oreos. Yeah, I know, I'm weird.

I knew that I immediately wanted to make cookie balls. A chocolatey, creamy, pepperminty cookie ball coated in chocolate and topped with peppermint crunch just sounded perfect to me. This recipe is so easy, too! There is no baking at all. All the prepping is done in a food processor, then you chill the cookie balls for 10 minutes, the you coat them twice, top with peppermint crunch, and you're done! Easy peasy!

I was in such a holiday mood that I made tons of chocolate covered things. I'll be posting a couple more recipes that are great for holiday parties soon! Like those awesome chocolate covered pretzels with toppings and a chocolate covered ritz peanut butter cracker sandwich. Those are a holiday tradition in my home!

Brookie Sandwich

Have you ever had a brookie? A brookie is a brownie + cookie. I will admit (please do not ostracize me) that I am not a chocolate dessert fan. I've tried recipes and had recipes that were chocolate this or chocolate that and they were just horrible. Bland, not chocolatey enough, dry, bleck. Who wants a dry un-chocolatey cookie? Or cake? Oh it just makes me shiver.

That's why if you look through my blog there may be a whopping 3 or 4 chocolate based recipes. Because I don't want to give you guys a horrible chocolate-based recipe. I would feel so bad.

But my hope has been restored with a recipe that includes THREE different kinds of chocolate to make the most perfect fudge-y, dense, and chewy brookie I have ever encountered. You will not regret making this wonderful recipe. You won't, I promise!

Yes, you read right, this has three kinds of chocolate in the brookie dough. First, you'll whisk together your dry ingredients that includes flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. You are going to add your typical cookie ingredients such as butter, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Next, you'll add a generous amount of melted chocolate. Are you ready? After that you'll add another batch of chocolate chips.

Are you already in your kitchen looking for your chocolate? I won't be upset if you are.

After you bake the cookies, you'll let them cool and whip up this amazing butter cream. It's light and fluffy and perfect with the brookie. Let me know how fast these go!

INGREDIENTS
For the brookie -
1 C + 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
8 oz semi-sweet chocolate (chips, pieces, etc.)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 C light brown sugar
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 C mini chocolate chips
For the buttercream -
1 stick of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp heavy cream
2 C powdered sugar

DIRECTIONS
1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for in 30 second increments until melted. Set aside. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla. Set aside. Cream the butter until smooth and creamy. Beat in the sugars

3. Mix in the beaten egg/vanilla until incorporated. Add the chocolate in a steady stream and beat until combined. Add the dry ingredients on slow speed. Fold in the mini chocolate chips.

4. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Scoop about 1 Tbsp of dough and roll into a slightly flattened ball. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the top has begun to look matte.

5. As the cookies cool, make the buttercream. Cream the butter until smooth. Add the vanilla and cream, then slowly add in the powdered sugar until light and fluffy.

6. Using a gallon Ziploc bag, fill the bag with frosting and cut the corner of the bag off. Frost the bottom end of a cooled cookie and top with another to make a sandwich.