my kitchen: peanut butter smores cookies & hello kitty version

Peanut butter smores cookies! With all the goodies lying around my kitchen and a cookie craving, I had to experiment.

I used salted chocolate caramels and marshmallows from Costco and threw in some Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal instead of graham crackers. Tossed in a few eggs and tablespoons of oil and sugar into a bowl with a bag of Betty Crocker Peanut Butter Cookie mix from Carrefour (just follow the directions).

I tried making the cookies three ways- (1) stuffing the smores in the center for fat cookies, (2) stuffing the smores in the center and then stuffing in a Hello Kitty silicone mold, (3) chopping up the caramels and marshmallows and mixing them for regular sized cookies.

Experiment with half or quarter sized marshmallows and chocolates- or dice it up more finely to spread the love.

With detailed molds like this, I use a ball of dough to push into the grooves first and then fill up the rest.

I LOVE this Hello Kitty silicone mold! I'll have to do a post about all the different experiments I've tried with this mold- for Hello Kitty shaped ice cubes, biscuits with nutella, cornbread, chocolates, even pineapple cakes!

The Hello Kitty cookies turned out kind of like muffin cookies, with the dough spilling over the top, but when you flip them over you get a surprise. The bottom parts were softer and more cake-like.

It's best to let the cookies cool down considerably before trying to take it out. Otherwise, you'll get the picture below- this is what happened when I tried to take it out straight out of the oven. I can never wait and always have to sample first. I love it when its all gooey and hot and sticky.

Out of the three versions I made, I liked the chopped up version the best taste-wise... it tasted the most like smores with the marshmallows getting all toasty and salted chocolate caramels melting even further for a very chewy cookie.

I had to share so that I didn't end up eating them all myself. But I find it amusing that my Taiwanese friends offer up compliments like "It's really good, it's not too sweet" when I think the cookie is ridiculously sweet with three times the sugar of a normal cookie (marshmallows + chocolate + caramels). I think the peanut butter and salted caramel plays well with the smores and makes the flavors more layered and more palatable than regular chocolate chip or oatmeal chocolate chip. And as you guys know, it's tough to find a good chewy cookie in Taipei. If you're looking, try We Love Cookies or Subway. Have you found them anywhere else I should try?