It's December and if you aren't making or eating cookies, is it even really the holidays? Hot chocolate bombs are taking over this season, for good reason because they're delightful! Trader Joe's is selling a snowman hot chocolate bomb for under $2. I'm sharing a Hot Cocoa Marshmallow Cookie recipe with melty, gooey, toasted marshmallow  below that you HAVE to try. And this month I'm working on a "Sweater Weather" Cookie Series inspired by cozy winter drinks -- starting with London Fog, Chai Molasses, Apple Cider Caramel, and Hong Kong Style Milk Tea. Recipes in development and coming soon to the blog!

You may have noticed that I'm doing more cannabis infused recipes lately. I've been lucky enough to be asked to create cannabis infused recipes for the home bakers. I made these Chocolate Peppermint Canna-Cane Cookies for MedMen's Ember blog in addition to a weed-infused Chocolate Meringue Pie. Cannabis has become part of my regular wellness routine (thanks 2020) and baking is a fun way to incorporate homemade edibles where I can control dosing and flavor. Last month I made a special order infused birthday cake for someone who wanted to enjoy a high with her mom. How sweet! 

Cannabis has become a savior to manage the stress from living through a pandemic and the dumpster fire that is 2020. Is this becoming Baked With Chickens, a cannabis blog? Nah, it's just another aspect of my life and an ingredient I like to experiment with and share with others. All my recipes can be made with or without cannabis. I enjoy the community of people I've met through cannabis, they've given me so much light and happiness. Canna-curious? Try it! 

This edition is dedicated to the holiday cookie. To hell with our waistbands! We're all wearing pajamas and sweatpants anyway. 

Bok-bok-BAKE!

Christina

P.S. Not a cookie, but it is a holiday tradition. NEW episode "Jamaican Rum Cake (Christmas Cake)" now up on YouTube. This booze-soaked cake that uses an insane amount of eggs has become a tradition in my family. 

The Art of Holiday Cookies  

 Facts You Probably Don't Know About Christmas Cookies 

via Food and Wine

We leave cookies for Santa because of the Great Depression. It wasn’t standard practice to leave cookies and milk out for Santa Claus until the 1930s. Historians posit that it was something parents encouraged children to do in order to teach them how to share and be charitable during a time of economic depression. The tradition stuck and Santa’s pants have never fit the same.

Santa Claus eats over 300 million cookies on Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve, Santa visits over 500 million homes where he encounters about billion cookies. If you hypothesize that he takes about two bites of each cookie he is given, it means he eats a total of 336,150,386 cookies. (According to the above picture, Santa is gonna be LIT.)

Queen Elizabeth I invented gingerbread men. Thank Queen Elizabeth I for adorable little gingerbread people. While she didn’t actually bake the cookies herself (she was a queen, after all), she did request that her royal bakers create gingerbread cookies shaped like visiting dignitaries in order to honor them.

The history of Christmas cookies can be traced back as far as Medieval Europe. Cookies were originally used to test oven temp and the recipes were used to make flavorful biscuits. By the 16th century, modern ingredients including cinnamon, almonds, dried fruits, ginger and black pepper became increasingly popular throughout the west and Christmas biscuits like lebcuchen, pepparkakor and krumkake were introduced throughout Europe. In the early 17th century, the Dutch introduced Christmas cookies to the United States, and changes in importation laws made a wide variety of inexpensive products like cookie cutters available to Americans.

"93 percent of Americans bake cookies during the holidays,

with 61 percent baking three or more batches of cookies."

- According to a 2015 survey commissioned by Fleischmann's® Yeast and Karo® Syrup brands

 America's Favorite (and Least Favorite) Holiday Cookies 

According to a survey by Better Homes & Gardens

 Favorite Baking With Chickens Cookie Recipes 

 Help Me, I Suck at Baking But I Like to Eat!

Order These: 

Hot Cocoa Marshmallow Cookie Recipe

These chewy, fudgy, gooey chocolate marshmallow cookies with a spoonful of malt powder are like sipping a steaming mug of creamy hot chocolate with marshmallows. Best enjoyed warm while the chocolate and marshmallows are gooey and melty. 

Time to Prepare: 1 hour 30 minutes (1 hour chilling time) 
Makes 16 approximately 3-inch cookies 

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (50g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons (14g) chocolate malt powder (or malted drink mix like Ovaltine, Milo or Horlicks)
1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (3g) salt
1 1/4 cup (170g/6oz) semi sweet chocolate chunks
1/3 cup (75g) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup (170g) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature
8 large marshmallows, cut in half (toasted optional)

For Rolling:
1/4 cup (30g) coarse sugar (with large crystals, raw sugar or Turbinado sugar)

Flaky Sea Salt for finishing

INSTRUCTIONS: 
1. Sift together dry ingredients in a medium bowl: 1 cup flour, ½ cup cocoa powder, 2 tablespoon chocolate malt powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and ½ teaspoon salt. Set aside. 

2. Over a double boiler, or in a microwave safe bowl, melt the 1 cup of semi sweet chocolate until smooth and runny. Keep warm, set aside. 

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the softened ⅓ cup butter and ¾ cup sugar together until smooth and creamy. 

3. Add 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, mix until well blended. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix until incorporated and it looks like a shiny chocolate batter. 

4. Add dry ingredients and mix slowly until just incorporated and there are no flour streaks. The batter will look similar to brownie batter. 

5. Chill the batter in the fridge for 1 hour to rest and make it easier to scoop. If you’d like toasted marshmallows inside the cookie, using a culinary torch to lightly toast the marshmallow halves until golden brown. Set aside. 

6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with a baking mat or parchment paper. Pour coarse sugar into a small bowl. 

7. Scoop the dough into balls with a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop. With your fingers, split the cookie ball in half. Place a marshmallow half in the center of the cookie ball and sandwich it with the other half of the batter. Flatten and shape the cookie batter around the marshmallow, roll and flatten into a hockey puck shape. 

8. Roll each puck generously in the coarse sugar. Place on the baking sheet at least 2 inches apart. 

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes until the cookies have flattened and look crinkled on top. You may or may not be able to see melted marshmallow leaking out through the cracks. 

6. Remove from the oven and sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for five minutes, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in an airtight container.

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