Surprise Chocolate Chip Cookies - total time 1 hour

I heard about the Food Blogger Cookie Swap a couple years ago and was so mad when I missed it last year!  So I got on the reminder list and was probably one of the first to sign up for 2015.  The premise is every blogger donates to Cookies for Kids Cancer then bakes three dozen cookies and sends a dozen to three random bloggers.  It was fun coming home to cookies on our doorstep and connecting with bloggers from around the country!

I sent cookies to: Baking Bandit, Thyme & Passion, A Sprinkle of This and That
I received cookies from: Koko Likes, Bake Love Give, A Mama, Baby, & Shar-pei in the Kitchen



I have been baking these cookies for nearly 15 years now and everyone always loves them!  It's easy to change it up a bit with different types of chocolates in the cookies... I started with Hershey Kisses back in high school because it was a cute shape inside when you bit it in half.  But my favorites have been Reese cups and Dove dark chocolates.  Mmmm...

There are no eggs in these cookies, so when you inevitably taste a little (or a lot) of the dough, it's okay!  There is no baking powder either.  So these are definitely not your normal everyday chocolate chip cookies.  They actually remind me of biscotti.  So while you can certainly go the traditional route of having milk with your cookies, hot cocoa and coffee are also perfect accoutrements.  So bake a batch, make some hot cocoa, and snuggle up by the fireplace and enjoy these tasty cookies with a little candy surprise inside!  :)


36 candies (Dove chocolates, Reese cups, or Hershey kisses are some of my favorites)
1 cup butter
.33 cup sugar
.33 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 cup chocolate chips, chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2.  Whip butter in mixer.  Add both sugars and vanilla and whip together.
3.  Add flour and mix slowly.  Chop the chocolate chips until they are about half their original size or smaller.  Add chocolate to mixer.
4.  Remove dough from mixer onto plastic wrap.  Wrap dough and place in fridge or freezer.
5.  Unwrap chocolate candies, place in bowl, put in freezer for at least 10 minutes.
6.  Prep baking sheets with parchment paper.
7.  Remove both the dough and candies from the fridge/freezer.  Take a chunk of cookie dough and smash it in the palm of you hand.  The dough disc should be about 2 inches wide and about a half centimeter thick.  Place a candy in the center of dough and wrap the dough around the candy.  Repeat 35 times!
8.  Arrange the cookie balls on your baking sheets.  They can be pretty close because the dough does not spread much.  Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the bottoms of the cookie start to brown (you can tell along the bottom edge).  Allow them to set for 5 minutes on a wire rack before enjoying!