TWD: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops aka Mothball Cookies

In my last post, I mentioned my pain in the a$$, but very cute little brother. He is five years younger than I am. When we were kids, much of spare time my was spent looking after him. My parents worked long hours at their business and I was the cheapest (free) and most accessible babysitter around.

There was a corner candy store across the street from my parents' office, called Larry's. It was an old fashioned little hole in the wall place with floor to ceiling shelves jam packed with jars of every kind of candy you could think of - Bazooka bubble gum, Twizzlers, candy necklaces and those horrible flavored wax candy lips that you chewed up and spit back out. There was also a magazine rack and a soda fountain complete with big glass jars filled with salted pretzel rods you could get for a nickel. For about a dollar fifty, you could score a chocolate egg cream and a Tiger Beat magazine. When you're ten, that's pretty hot stuff!

Every day after school, with a couple of shiny quarters from my dad in my pocket, I would take my brother by the hand and we'd walk across the street to Larry's. One of the things the little guy used to go for was the malted milk balls. I don't remember if they were Whoppers or not. Everyone just called them malt balls. My little brother never quite got it right and he used to call them mothballs. The name stuck and to this day, I still find myself referring to them that way!

When I first saw this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops, I was pleased. For one thing, my oven is finally fully functional again, so I was able to participate this week. Also, I knew that my brother would probably love these mothball cookies, so I would be able to unload give away a lot of them. I don't mind saying that all of these weekly TWD recipes are taking their toll. Even though I usually share everything I make, there is always way too much sweet stuff lying around this house. Don't tell anyone, but I still have a hunk of that Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte in my freezer! Mr. SGCC doesn't generally eat any desserts at all, and Mini SGCC has suddenly developed an aversion to butter, sugar, flour and eggs. We're a family of three. You do the math. Since I gave all of my fat pants away years ago, I am seriously at risk!

As for these cookies? Well, they're a snap to make. The recipe is so easy, it's almost criminal. You basically just cream together butter and sugar and then dump everything else into the bowl. Then, you scoop out little blobs of cookie dough on to a baking sheet and bake them. That's it! No muss, no fuss (and no ganache). And boy, are they good!

My cookies turned out perfectly. They were kind of crispy around the edges, while being chewy, gooey and just a tad bit cakey in the middle. A perfect cookie in my mind. The only thing I would do differently next time, (and there definitely will be a next time) is cut the amount of bittersweet chocolate in the recipe. I felt that it kind of overwhelmed the Whoppers. Bittersweet chocolate can be kind of a fame whore. It always wants to steal the show.

Even though the cookies were pretty scrumptious all on their own, I did take a few and made some ice cream sandwiches with them. Let me tell you, that was a good call!

I made up a big plate of these mothball cookies to take in to my brother today. Fortunately, his office is right across the hall from mine. Unfortunately, I liked these cookies so much that I really didn't want to part with them. Then, I thought about the fat pants......

Many thanks to Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart for choosing this great recipe for us. If you don't have Dorie's book yet and would like to try this recipe, you can find it on Rachel's site. If you're interested in seeing some other interesting and creative takes on these cookies, stop by the TWD blogroll and check it out.