Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

You may want to skip this post. For one, I cut my finger pretty good yesterday with my craft scissors, of all things, and have a big ol' band aid on it, making typing kind of difficult. And for two, if you see these you will want to make them, and if you make them, you will definitely want to eat them. All.

So, don't blame me, I warned you.

Who doesn't like chocolate chip cookies? And who isn't tempted every time they make them to eat the dough right out of the mixer? I know, some of us actually do, but my mother raised me to be paranoid about all bacteria, so I don't. But I want to.

This is the solution! I saw these in a Taste of Home magazine years ago...in the December/January 2005 edition to be exact. They called my name and so I made them. I have been making them every year since. They are tied with sugar cookies as my all time favorite Christmas goodie. I'm going to share with you the recipe, so you an try this goodness too--I've tweaked the original recipe just a bit so this is my version.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups all purpose or ultra grain flour
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup mini-semisweet chocolate chips
1 lb to 1 1/2 lb semisweet baking chocolate

 In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add flour, milk, vanilla and mix well. Stir in the chocolate chips. It's going to be a very sticky "dough". I usually have to stir in the chips by hand, my mixer ends up making all sorts of whiny noises.

Now, this part is way easier if you have one of those Pampered Chef scoops..the smallest size, but two spoons will work too. You want to make small balls of dough, about 1 inch in size. Place onto a pan covered with wax paper.

Until you've used all the dough. You'll have about 5 dozen balls.

Now, cover loosely and put in the frig. They need to firm up, it will take 1-2 hours, which is perfect because that is just enough time to go work out and take a shower. Do it, it's that time of year you know, and these babies are so good and rich and hefty that you'll need all the extra calorie burn you can get. Of course you could just bake something else in that 2 hour span, but to each his/her own.

After the cookie balls are all firm, you pull out your baking chocolate, throw it in a microwave bowl and zap it according to the instructions. I think its like 30 second intervals.

This would be the perfect time to make an egg nog latte if the desire so strikes you.

Now, grab another cookie sheet and line it with wax paper again. Making an assembly line, take a cookie ball, dip it in the melted chocolate, and place on new cookie sheet. Resist urge to lick your fingers till you've dipped the last ball.

Once you're done, put them babies back in the frig for about 15-30 minutes to firm up the chocolate. When they are dry, you can store them in a air-tight container in the frig.

They need to be cold, but they are a little easier to forget if they aren't sitting on the counter calling your name every time you walk by. No, they just jump out at you every time you open the frig! :-) Enjoy!!