I'm here, I made it, I finally have my own class of awesome, amazing, inspiring 3rd grade kids with autism. I couldn't be more excited. This is the whole reason I even started a degree in special education, sat through all of the classes about all of the other disorders, syndromes, and learning disabilities, all so that I could eventually have my very own class of cuties!!! This past year was the first time in four years that I hadn't worked with autistic kids and the whole year I felt like something was missing, and now I've found it.
This past week we had teacher orientation. All of the new staff introduced themselves and something interesting about themselves not connected to education and guess what I talked about! The blog, of course, which was perfect because I had brought some cookies along with me. Super yummy, chock-full-o-goodness, crispy yet chewy cookies.
They're called Rocky Road cookies, and correct me if I'm mistaken but I remember rocky road including marshmallows. Well this recipe does have almonds and white chocolate chips inside of a yummy chocolate cookie, but no marshmallows.
I ran into one big, gigantic problem on the way. Whilst cleaning the oven in my new apartment I got a bit overzealous and decided "Why not use oven cleaner on the nasty, greasy outside of the oven as well?" I'll tell you why not, because it rubs any numbers, dots, little oven pictures off of the dials and then you can't tell what temperature or mode the oven is on. Uh oh.
I ran into one big, gigantic problem on the way. Whilst cleaning the oven in my new apartment I got a bit overzealous and decided "Why not use oven cleaner on the nasty, greasy outside of the oven as well?" I'll tell you why not, because it rubs any numbers, dots, little oven pictures off of the dials and then you can't tell what temperature or mode the oven is on. Uh oh.
Can I tell you something awesome about living with room mates? Two heads, or in our case four heads, are better than one. One of my room mates figured out that if you looked at the dial from the side while the light in the kitchen was on you could see where the dots and numbers once were, and thus I found myself marking off the increments with a white-out pen.
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| I feel like MacGyver |
So now with my oven dial repaired, kitchen stuff moved in, and first day jitters, I was ready to bake. And I'll give you the recipe so you can as well.
Rocky Road Cookies
Taken from The Pastry Affair
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup AP flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt (this measurement always confuses me, what if you have gigantic hands? Or tiny hands?)
2/3 cup white chocolate chips (like always I added more)
3/4 cup sliced almonds (added more here as well, silly me)
Preheat your oven to 175C. Hopefully you haven't rubbed off the numbers so you won't have any trouble with this step.
Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
In a separate bowl mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Slowly add this mixture to the wet mixture and beat until well mixed. Stir in the white chocolate chips and almonds. I think that marshmallows would be a great addition as well.
Spoon onto a baking sheet and flatten slightly with your hand. Bake for 8-10 minutes before moving to a cooling rack to cool completely. Store in airtight container at room temperature.
Enjoy!
