In the longstanding family tradition of being fashionably late to anything and everything, we celebrated Easter at my grandmother’s house this past weekend. I arrived even later than everyone else, not because of my commitment to said family traditions, but because I was held up photographing these chocolate filled cookie cups. While the ham had already been passed around by the time I got there, it was worth arriving late to be able to share these fun cookie cups with my extended family, and, less selflessly, to just get them out of my house so that I didn’t eat every. single. one. on my own. They were addictive enough that I still managed to undermine every second that I’d spent on the elliptical in the previous week by the time that we arrived to dinner, but the damage could’ve been much worse.
I’ve made cookie cups in the past that just used regular cookie dough and had always been slightly under-whelmed with the results. The cookies were a bit too tough, I wanted soft, buttery cookies that were firm enough to hold their shape and not fall apart in your hands, but that easily gave way beneath your teeth to rich, chocolaty centers. Instead of using a standard cookie recipe, I slightly modified my super soft congo squares recipe, which worked out perfectly for soft, meltaway cookie cups. For those chocolaty centers, I made a simple ganache filling of chocolate (I use chocolate chips rather than bars of chocolate, they are less expensive and taste just as good, and if you’re like me you already have at least 3 lbs of them sitting in your pantry at any given time), cream, and butter. I add vanilla and salt for flavor, but also bourbon as well. I experimented with using bourbon in chocolate in the past and I love the extra deep flavor that it adds, it does not make your chocolate taste like bourbon but it does add a wonderful extra oomph, so if you happen to have some on hand I suggest trying it out!
Do make sure when you are prepping your mini muffin tins that you lightly but thoroughly grease them. If you want to use a spray, make sure that it is a baking spray, which has flour in it, as regular cooking spray could leave these cookie cups stuck, even in non-stick pans (I learned that the hard way). If you don’t have baking spray, you can also individually grease each cavity of the muffin pan then sprinkle flour in each cup, knock it around so the sides of each cavity are lightly coated in flour, then shake out the excess (make sure you shake out the excess, please, otherwise your cookie cups will be to dry and taste like flour!).
Enjoy! You Might Also Like: Congo Squares
Chocolate Chip Cookie Brittle
Cheesecake Filled Cookie Cups
