Fruity Chocolate Cookie Cakes

A few Saturdays ago, my husband and I were stuck in the house while the fence company was here installing our brand new fence. (bye bye ugly chain link fence, helllooooo new white PVC!)

I decided to try and bake something since I was kind of bored and a few nights earlier I was at a work function for my new job and the guys were joking that the new girl needed to buy lunch for everyone. Well, forget that, but I could bring in baked goods or something.

I was flipping through some cookbooks that friends had given me for my birthday and came across these cookie cake things. I had all of the ingredients in the house, so I decided to give it a go.

I made one error - you were supposed to bake them in cupcake pans (which I did) but I ALWAYS end up filling the baking cups too much. So my little cookies were a bit thick. My husband, when tasting the finished product, said it was good but a little dense. Yeah, well, they were super thick. Haha. At least they were edible!!

Anyway, the recipe below calls for apricot jam but honestly, this recipe is super adaptable to whatever kind of preserves/jam/jelly you like with chocolate. I could see strawberry tasting fabulous!!

They were easy enough but I am not sure if I personally will make them again - didn't turn out to be my favorite treat I've made. But they got good feedback from my husband and the guys at work. They had to be good - they inhaled them rather quickly...

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour
6 tablespoons apricot-orange marmalade or apricot jam
4 1/2 ounces of semisweet chocolate pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease muffins tins, preferably non stick. (Or cheat and use baking cups like me!)

2. Stand a mixing bowl in hot water for a few minutes to heat through - but keep the inside of the bowl dry.

3. Put the sugar and eggs in the bowl and mix with a hand mixer until light a frothy, when the beaters leave a ribbon trail when lifted.

4. Sift the flour over the mixture and stir in gently using a large metal spoon.

5. Divide the mixture in the muffin tins. Bake for 10 minutes until just firm and pale golden around the edges.



6. Cool on cooling rack.

7. Spoon a little jam on the center of each cookie. (Try to keep fruit chunks out of it).


8. Put chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of gently simmering water. Heat - stirring frequently - until melted and smooth. If you need more smoothness, toss in a sliver of shortening.

9. Spoon chocolate on top of each cookie and spread gently to the edges. Leave to set for at least 1 hour.


Enjoy!