Recipe Swap: Not “that” fattening Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

I missed last time’s recipe swap.

The brainchild of Christianna from Burwel General Store, the Recipe Swap Club turned ONE last month! And I missed it! Well, nothing can be done about it now. But, you sure could check out everyone’s lovely creations here.

Till last month, we were giving new twists to recipes inspired from the cookbook All-Day Singin’ and Dinner on the Ground, a junk store find. This year, we’ll be creating our own recipes from a crazy book Christianna found at a junk store, again. It is called The Second Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes From Famous Eating Places! It was written in 1954, and features recipes from famous restaurants at the time, making it a fascinating vintage social register.

This month the recipe to be swapped is the famous Toll House Cookie.

When Christianna sent us the Toll House cookie recipe, I immediately thought of making chocolate chip cookie dough truffles. They have been on my list for sometime, and thought this would be a perfect swap recipe and great to share in time for the coming holidays.

And that’s what I did. I made truffles. I found a recipe here and got inspired from here to make it more healthy. But when it came to dipping the rolled dough balls in chocolate, things did not work as planned. It was a hot day and after the initial few successful ones, the rest of the rolled dough balls were melting in the chocolate that was for dipping (next time I’ll only take out two cookie dough balls from the freezer). I tried freezing the dough balls, but the chocolate now had some cookie dough in it.

So, I was left with two options. Either to melt a new batch of chocolate for dipping and keep aside the “tampered” chocolate for later use. Or be happy with the few truffles I had and use the “tampered” chocolate immediately for something.

Since it was hot, I went with option 2 and decided to mix the uncoated cookie dough balls into the chocolate, not knowing exactly where I would go with recipe. Half way through, brownies seemed to be the best option. I added an egg, a pinch of baking powder, about 1/4 cup of ground rolled oats and the leftover coarsely chopped walnuts that I used for coating the truffles. I preheated the oven to 180 C and baked for about 30-35 minutes, keeping them slightly underbaked to get the fudgey interior brownies have. After removing it from the oven, I immediately put the tin in the freezer and let it cool for 30min- 1hr.

I must say, the brownies were good.

Like really good.

Really, really good! 🙂

I actually preferred them to the truffles. But then brownies have always been my weakness.

You must try both the truffles and the brownies (I’ll be working on the brownie recipe and posting about it soon).

And if I am not too convincing enough with how good they were, remember they are sans flour AND they have oatmeal and flaxseed in it!

Of course the butter and sugar make sure they are still fattening, but well, less fattening than the regular ones at least.

For me, that’s good enough.

NOT “THAT” FATTENING CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH TRUFFLES

Since the butter I had did not have the 1 tbsp-2 tbsp markings on the wrapper, I just guessed my way to 16 tbsp. As a result, I feel I may have added more butter than required. To compensate for the extra butter, I ended up using more than 1 cup ground rolled oats. If you feel they are still a little wet, add a little whole wheat pastry flour. Next time I will also add a little oil to the melted chocolate to make it slightly more silky for coating. I have mentioned the recipe with the oil.

Inspired by Galley gourmet and The Yummy Life
Makes 28 truffles (well, 8 truffles and some brownies, if you goof up like me)

Ingredients

• 16 tbsp salted butter (the original recipe calls for unsalted butter and a pinch of salt, but I had only salted butter, so skipped putting the pinch of salt)
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 cup rolled oats (ground) (I used 1 cup minus 2 tbsp, instead added 2 tbsp of ground flax seed)
• 12 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the vanilla. Fold in ground rolled oats and beat until combined.
2. Fold in the mini chocolate chips till well distributed.
3. Refrigerate the bowl for 1-2 hours.
4. Use scoop or hands to form generous 1 tablespoon, walnut-size balls of dough.
5. Freeze them for at least an hour or till ready to use.
6. In microwave safe bowl, microwave at full power 1 cup chocolate chips with 1 tablespoon canola oil in 20-30 second intervals, stirring each time, until chips are melted. Do not overcook.
7. Melt remaining chocolate and oil in same way, in second batch after this one is used up.
8. Dip dough balls in melted chocolate using a fork.
9. Shake and scrape off excess chocolate from bottom and place on parchment or waxed paper lined tray.
10. Top with sprinkles or walnuts that have been coarsely ground while chocolate is still wet. Let set until dry.
11. Use a paring knife to trim any hardened puddles around the bottoms of the truffles.
12. Store in fridge. Will keep for several days.

To check out everyone else’s take on the swap, click on the link below: