Review:  These tasted great.  However, they were ugly.  They were pale and didn’t look cooked through at all.  I was slightly embarrassed.  However, if you are making these just for your family or for someone who does not eat just with their eyes, they are great.

They are almost as pale as me.  Almost.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and vegetable oil.  Stir in the egg and vanilla until smooth.  Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir until combined.  Mix in chocolate chips and cranberries.  Make tablespoon sized balls and place on a parchment paper-lined or Silpat-covered cookie sheet.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Makes around 20 pale cookies.  Guess this is a time we needed butter for browning.

Well, not only did I bring a dessert, but I put my chameleons to work again (See http://twofacedchef.com/2009/11/20/chocolate-cranberry-pistachio-chameleons/).  But they came back in cookie form.  Thanks to the genius of Little Mommies and my Daddy, they found a way to turn these chocolate delights into a cookie form.  These are relatively bittersweet and addicting.  Go head.  You can do it.

Talking about bittersweet and addicting, I think I find this funnier every time.

Chocolate Cranberry Pistachio Cookies.

Ingredients:

• 12 ounces semisweet chocolate (Chocolate chips are fine. I used Callebaut.)
• 2 2/3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup (about 6 ounces) pistachios
• 1 1/3 cup (about 6 ounces) dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread pistachios out on ungreased cookie sheet. Toast for about 5 to 7 minutes, watching carefully. They burn easily. You can tell when the nuts are toasted because they will brown slightly and you will begin to smell them. Remove from oven and let cool.

Melt chocolate in small saucepan over low heat, stirring until smooth—or melt in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring often. Set aside.

In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In large bowl, beat together butter, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in melted chocolate. Slowly mix in flour mixture. Stir in cooled nuts and cranberries. Refrigerate batter for 5-10 minutes.

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 9 minutes or until cookies are puffed. Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer to rack to cool completely. Makes 60 cookies.

Little Mommies has all these sweet serving platters that are great to take pictures on.  Enjoy the pretty pictures while you can, soon enough you will be back to my terrible camera with my terrible taste.  I accept my lack of servingware.  I accept my lack of servingware. (Maybe if I keep saying it, it will be true…)

and now for the tale of the transforming chocolates……

OK, PLEASE tell me at least one of you have seen Are You Afraid of the Dark?  For all of you non-watchers, it was a show on Nickelodeon that still haunts me to this day.  Basically, a bunch of kids would sit around a campfire, tell a “tale” about something scary, and once the story started, it would cut to terrible actors acting out the scenes. 

Now what does this have to do with chocolate, you may ask?  Well the following is a recipe that can be made into both a bark and clusters, what I like to call a “chameleon”.  This brought back the memories of the SCARIEST episode of the show, with Tia and Tamara from Sister Sister, the only episode without a happy ending.

I hope you all can still sleep tonight.

Ingredients:

Wanna know what’s not fun?  Buying shell-on pistachios by mistake when baking cookies and having to shell them all.  This is why I need a kid.  They are perfect for entertainment, chores, and especially peeling pistachios.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spread pistachios out on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Toast for about 5 to 7 minutes, watching carefully.  They burn easily.  You can tell when the nuts are toasted because they will brown slightly and you will begin to smell them.  Remove from oven and let cool. 

This little mixture is NOT safe around me.  Not at all.

Combine nuts and cranberries in bowl; set aside.  Line cookie sheet(s) with waxed paper.  Temper chocolate or melt candy melts.  Combine chocolate and nut/cranberry mixture. 

These are the clusters BEFORE they have hardened.  Resist the urge to steal a chocolate covered pistachio.  Resist!

For clusters: drop by rounded teaspoonful onto cookie sheets.  Continue until you use up all of chocolate mixture. You will need several cookie sheets.  Refrigerate until set, about 25 minutes. 

When the chocolate is still wet, it is slightly reminiscent of sludge.  Just saying.

For bark: spread mixture onto one cookie sheet.  Tap cookie sheet against counter to spread chocolate out into a thin, even layer. Refrigerate until set, about 25 minutes.  Break candy into irregular-shaped pieces.  Store bark and clusters in an airtight container at room temperature.  Makes about 2 pounds.

**Chocolate melting wafers, also known as candy melts and confectionery coating, are a very easy to use chocolate substitute. I prefer the Merckens’ brand and it is available in many candy and craft stores.

 Oooohhh Shiny.  See now this is when I DON’T want kids.  Because then I would have to share.  And be pregnant.