Every time I step into the baking aisle at the shops, I seem to find some new thing. A while back, it was Butterfinger Crumbles. Often it is some fort of baking chip … various mints, pumpkin spice, cinnamon and so on. Last week, I found these salted caramel chips from Hershey’s that I hadn’t seen before and was intrigued. The cookies I ended up making turned out quite nice. The cookie dough is much more like a brownie batter, so if you make these, be sure to space the cookies a minimum of 2 inches apart as they do tend to spread. I think you’ll like them!
I think that these might be one of my more favorite cookies that I have developed lately. And I say “more favorite” because I actually have a lot of favorites. These are really dark chocolate with a bit of cinnamon and chili powder kick, not too sweet and then lovely dulce de leche sandwiched between the two cookies. As a last minute thing, I sprinkled these with powdered sugar (not written in the recipe), which added another layer of lovely. I call them “Mexican” but only because of the chocolate with cinnamon and chili, not because I actually think that these come from Mexico. 🙂
Lemony Artichoke and Asparagus Pasta Salad
Pasta salad for a lot of people means mayonnaise. For me, that doesn’t always work well. I like going on picnics and I don’t want to have to worry about keeping my pasta salad cold (not to mention that it tastes better when it isn’t too cold). So this one has a Vinaigrette instead, which matches well with the artichoke hearts too.
So, springtime and the first real weekend sunny weekend of the Spring and I decided to go for a picnic. But instead of making a sandwich, I decided to go with these hand pies and a bunch of salads. I really like hand pies, as they are an “enclosed” sandwich of sort. Or a mini-pot pie without a serving dish. Either way, delicious.











