I'm a Cheater...When it Comes to Baking

I've inherited many gifts and attributes from my grandmother. The gift of gab? Check. Short stature with a commanding presence? Check check. My name? Biggest check of them all.

But there is one very big gift I did not get from my grandmother.When it comes to baking, I cheat. I don't have the patience and skills to make really elaborate desserts. My grandmother always had a cake that she had baked ready for us when we visited. She would take hours to make the perfect cookies at the holidays. When it comes to desserts, I've tried many times and I only succeed in rare instances, usually on basic cookies. But a cake or pie? Forget it.

I wanted to make cookies in the shape of bocce balls (round, how hard could that be?) for a friend's impending departure. I took many shortcuts to get to the finished produce.

Refrigerated sugar cookie dough? Check. It already being in a loaf making the cookies close to round? Check. Red dye to make the icing bocce red? Yep, that too.

However, they turned out a bit pink, and I ran out of decorative black icing 3 cookies in. But they tasted great and I can thank Pillsbury for helping me cheat and whip these cookies together quickly.

Ingredients:

• Sugar Cookie dough
• Icing
• Food dye

Directions:

Buy these ingredients and follow their instructions.

Yep, I phoned this one in. :)

Mudslide Cookies

Happy 4th of July everyone! Today we celebrate our nation's birthday with lots of tube meat, cheap beer, and fireworks. I'll be taking in a Nationals game with an awesome cookout planned for afterwards at my friend Scott's place. Fingers crossed we don't get any more monsoon-like weather. But even if we don't have flooding, we'll definitely have mudslide...cookies.

Mudslide Cookies (makes 32 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 TB butter

2 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

1 TB instant coffee granules

1 TB hot water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 cup egg substitute

2 large eggs

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1/4 cup semisweet chocolate minichips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°.

Place butter, bittersweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl; microwave at HIGH 1 minute or until chocolate is almost melted. Stir until smooth. Combine coffee granules and 1 tablespoon hot water, stirring until granules dissolve. Stir coffee and vanilla into chocolate mixture.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Combine sugar, egg substitute, and eggs in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed 6 minutes or until thick and pale. Gently stir 1/4 of egg mixture into chocolate mixture; stir chocolate mixture into remaining egg mixture. Stir in flour mixture, nuts, and chocolate chips.

Cover baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets; with moist hands, gently press dough into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until set. The cookies will appear cracked on the top, but will be gooey on the inside.

Cool 1 minute. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks.