Sometimes we don't reflect on the fact that many famous chefs insist on the very finest, cleanest ingredients for their celebrated restaurants. Many make their own butter, for instance, at the establishment, from the organically-certified milk from nearby farms that is delivered to them fresh daily. I'm impressed; never think that organic cooking has to take a back seat to the more conventional methods and ingredients.
One exception: preparing complicated dishes from boxed mixes will never make you happy. Brownie and cake mixes that taste mostly of salt (due to the soda content) will not give you the super-level recipe that I have adapted to organics from the Huffington Post Food section.
When you make a lovely, light dinner and leave plenty of room for a fabulous dessert, you want something truly memorable, and today I can say that I'm delivering on that. There is an article in HPFood that deals with hot-chocolate-based recipes, and here is just one.
But it is an important one. Cookies are always a good choice for dessert because diet-conscious guests can limit themselves to just one, and besides, these cookies are very cleanly prepared.
The marshmallow ingredient isn't quite so simple, though. There are very fine marshmallows out there, but to get above the supermarket level you may have to visit a specialty shop, make your own or order them from the Internet. For that purpose, here is one source: 3 Tarts in New York City. Just search "marshmallows" on the Internet and you'll find that's only one of many choices. See their offering above.
HOT CHOCOLATE BROWNIE COOKIES
Ingredients:
1 stick organic butter at room temperature
3/4 cup organic blonde or light-brown sugar
1 large organic egg at room temperature
1/4 cup organic milk
1-2/3 cups organic all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon hot chocolate powder (not the type that contains milk)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
15 large marshmallows or 1 package mini marshmallows
20 squares dark chocolate from a bar that has been molded into squares
Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl and cream them until light and fluffy.
Add the egg and milk and mix well, scraping the sides of the bowl.
Add the flour, cocoa powder, hot chocolate powder and baking powder. Fold until just combined.
With a cookie dough scoop, drop spoonfuls of dough on baking sheets. Place the sheets in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the cookies for about 9 minutes.
While the cookies are baking, halve the marshmallows and press one chocolate square inside each half.
If you want to top the cookies with the mini marshmallows instead, leave the chocolate alone; you'll melt it once the cookies are completely baked.
When the cookies are done, they will be soft. Remove from the oven and leave them to cool for 2-3 minutes and with a steady spatula take about 6 cookies at a time. Place them on another baking sheet. Top them with the chocolate-marshmallow and put them back into the oven for 2 more minutes or until the marshmallow is slightly puffed.
For the mini-marshmallow version, top each cookie with 4 mini marshmallows, place them back into the oven for 2 minutes. In the meantime melt the chocolate in the microwave and when the cookies are done drizzle some on top of them.
Serve while still warm.
Instead of melting the chocolate for the mini-marshmallow version, you could also get a good chocolate syrup and use it the same way. I found a wonderful organic chocolate sauce in a squeeze bottle at Sprouts in Tucson, but it is available elsewhere as well.
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