Saturday, April 20, 2013

Weekend Cooking; Fat chocolate chip cups


This has been quite a year for my school book clubs.  They're organic matter constantly changing and shifting.  Generally I've had two book clubs and they start out large and then dwindle to a small handful of die-hard book fans that didn't know they were fans when they started.  The whole process is amazing to me.

This year has brought new challenges as I started off bold with three groups; two girl groups and one boy group.  Luckily another 5th grade teacher has been willing to help me all year with the second girl's group.  She took the stronger reading group and they've read a wide variety of challenging fifth grade material.  They just finished The Lightning Thief.  Now the gaggle of girls I lead is another story.  I like have to lead them like little baby lambs to the book. They are much more concerned about drama and excuses.  I'm trying to raise them up and they are all like "this is so hard" but yet they keep coming back.  I've had a few drop out and I've asked a few not to come back and yet we've had others join up mid-year and this is why is has been a very natural and organic book club year.

This has also been the first year we've served snacks consistently for every meeting.  Amanda, the 5th grade teacher, and I alternate bringing treats for the Wednesdays that the girls meet and I solely bring treats for the boys.  It is MUCH easier to bring treats for the boys!!  They about die for anything I bring for them which in turn make me excited to bring them treats.  It is a dynamite cycle.  The girls tend to be a bit more picky.  I made them little cookie cups near Christmas that had a chocolate mint kiss in the middle and several girls threw them away after just one bite because of the mint.  Geez!

This week I made these top notch treats from a recipe I found on Pinterest.  I love when  a pin takes you to to a blog worth reading and Averie Cooks is just such a blog.  The Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups were a huge hit at book club and the children I live with were a little upset that the whole pan wasn't staying home with them.  The cool thing was it was such an easy recipe I'm going to surprise them this weekend with more.  This board of Averie Cooks is dedicated to recipes she's made and I'm  especially intrigued by this post about her Top Ten Favorite Chocolate Cake recipes.  I'm searching this week for an extreme chocolate dessert for College Boy as he turns 18 next Sunday, the 28th.  His only requirement is that it be like chocolate heaven.
Any suggestions?

If you need a special treat this week try those chocolate cups!
This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking post-click there for more food-related links.


10 comments:

(Diane) bookchickdi said...

Oh boy, those chocolate chip cookie cups look amazing, I just pinned the recipe. As for your son, I make this Brownie Fudge for Christmas gifts and it is awesome. This is the link: http://www.food.com/recipe/brownie-fudge-20207

Beth F said...

Oh wow -- those cookie cups do look awesome. I don't make many chocolate cakes (Mr. BFR likes yellow cake!), so I'm no help there.

Unknown said...

I bet the browned butter is what pushes these over the top. Such a yummy "what is different in these" kind of flavor.

caite said...

in many ways boys are so much easier....
and I especially love to see boys develop a love of reading.

Laurie C said...

Any chocolate recipe is improved by the secret ingredient I found out about from the King Arthur Flour people...espresso powder. It doesn't add coffee flavor in small quantities as much as deepen the chocolate flavor in chocolate cake, brownies, etc. I tried it with our tried and true chocolate cake recipe (from New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant cookbook) and it was amazing!

Gilion at Rose City Reader said...

Those look delish!

I had to stop following recipe boards on Pinterest because I was pinning too many cookie recipes and not enough (none) vegetable recipes. :)

Rose City Reader

Peggy Ann said...

I'm putting the coffee on now! They look wonderful.

Sue Jackson said...

I'm so impressed and fascinated by both the cookie cups and your book groups! Isn't it wonderful to get young kids excited about reading? I went into the 8th grade English classes at my son's middle school last year and gave talks about reading and writing, and it was so much fun to see the kids get excited about books they'd read and new suggestions!

We will definitely try this recipe - thanks!

Sue

Great Books for Kids and Teens

Book By Book

Peaceful Reader said...

I'm going to have to get some expresso powder! Thanks Laurie.

Belle Wong said...

The chocolate chip cups look delicious. Kudos to you for running all those book groups!