The greatest teacher, failure is– Yoda

Yes, I just started this Christmas dessert post with a quote from Yoda.  I happened to watch Star Wars: The Last Jedi before a whole bunch of cookie failures, so I thought this appropriate.

Also, I’m married to a HUGE Star Wars fan.  It starts to rub off.

If you will recall my post from Wednesday, you know there were a few cookie failures over the weekend.  Well, the molasses ones were perhaps the saddest for a few reasons.  First, they are one of my favorite Christmas cookies.  They are soft and crunchy and spicy and sweet.  Just delightful.  Even though these cookies looked terrible, they still tasted pretty good.  So we kept the remains and they sat on the counter and mocked me.

Until a few days ago.

I decided to make a treat out of our failure.  I learned from it as Yoda might point out.  I remember watching a cooking video on how to make cake pops.  Essentially you make an entire cake and then you crumble it up with some other stuff and mush it into ball shapes, ice it, and pop it on a stick.  I thought the same principle might apply to our molasses crumble and I had just seen a recipe for chocolate chip ginger cookies and my idea was completely born.

It turned out MUCH better than our cookies and I’m happy to admit our failure turned into something pretty wonderful.  Now, to make this you don’t have to fail at the cookie part.  Regular, properly made cookies will do just fine.  I’m going to include the molasses cookie recipe we use, courtesy of Mrs. Cimarusti nee Neuman, but you can use any Christmas cookie you would like.

Ready? Cookies, you must make.

Molasses Cookie Recipe- courtesy of Mrs. Amy Cimarusti

• 1 1/2 sticks shortening, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda (NOT baking powder, which is what caused our cookie failure)

1. Preheat the oven to 375.  Beat together the first four ingredients really well.  In a separate bowl combine all the dry ingredients.
2. Gradually combine the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.  Once you have a dough ball, chill in the fridge for about an hour.
3. Scoop out about one tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball.  Roll the balls of dough and evenly space them on an ungreased cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes until the top of the cookies crack.  Let cool on the sheet for a few minutes before moving to a rack.

Molasses Cookie Truffles

• 1 batch of molasses cookies (recipe above)
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1. Place the cookies in a large bowl and crumble really well.  I used a meat chopper (like this one) to really get a good crumble.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop up some crumbles with your hand and squish together until it forms a ball.  Repeat until all the crumbles are used and then place the sheet in the freezer.
3. While the balls are cooling, melt the chocolate & peanut butter chips in a double broiler or in the microwave in 30-second bursts.
4. Remove the melted chocolate and peanut butter from heat and take the frozen cookie balls out.  Roll each ball in the chocolate and then place back on the sheet.
5. Freeze for another 15 minutes.  Before serving, let them sit out for a few minutes.  You can store these in the fridge or the freezer.