I got this recipe from www.joythebaker.com. I changed it up a little bit but the recipe is basically the same. She's got an awesome blog and if you haven't checked it out already you should.
I was dog sitting for a few friends when I had the urge to bake something but didn't want to actually turn on the oven. This is a great "lazy baking" recipe since it actually doesn't require baking at all. Plus, who doesn't want to come home to cookie dough balls after a vacation?
Here's what you'll need for the recipe:
-1/2 stick butter (original recipe uses a whole stick)
-1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp sea salt (or 3/4 tsp kosher salt)
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/3 cup granulated sugar
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/3 cup fat free greek yogurt
-3/4 cup chocolate chips (original recipe uses 1 cup)
-1/4 cup caramel chips (original recipe doesn't add these)
-1/2 cup chopped pecans (original recipe uses walnuts)
-1.5 cups chocolate chips for melting and dipping
Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and set aside. Then whisk together butter, sugar, yogurt, and vanilla extract (the wet ingredients). You need to use softened butter here so if you don't have time to leave the butter out at room temp than just put it in the microwave for a little bit. I did this by hand but you can use an electric mixer if you'd like to speed up the process a bit. Once the wet ingredients are whipped together slowly add the dry to the wet. Lastly, add in the nuts, chocolate chips, and caramel bites. It should look like this...
Next you'll want to make little balls out of this dough. I choose to make small-medium sized balls. I used a large spoon (~1 tbsp) to scoop and rolled the balls in my hands (clean hands). They should look like this.
Now here comes the hard part. You have to put them in the freezer (I put them in a deep freezer) for a few hours to harden and cool off, otherwise they won't hold. If you don't have a deep freezer plan on waiting about 4-6 hours before these little guys are good to go. In the meantime you can watch a silly movie or go for a walk with your dogs or workout or nap or cook dinner for the week ahead!
Once they were frozen I melted the 1.5 cups of chocolate chips in the microwave, you could also use a double boiler. Then I dipped the cookie dough balls in melted chocolate and put them back in the freezer so the chocolate shell could harden. I had a picture of these and accidentally deleted it, whoops! Just imagine a chocolate shell on the outside or go to www.joythebaker.com and see them!
I recommend storing these in the freezer and taking them out 20-30 minutes before you want to eat them. I couldn't wait so I ate them straight out of the freezer, weird right? You could also pop them in the microwave for 5-10 seconds but be careful they get melty. Cookie dough soup could be good though...
Adaptations you can make...
1. Try using replace 1/2 cup of the flour with oats, use 1 cup of raisins instead of chocolate chips, use walnuts instead of pecans, and 1 tsp cinnamon and you've got oatmeal raisin cookie dough balls. I wouldn't dip them in anything but you could certainly dip them in chocolate
2. Use 2 mashed bananas instead of yogurt, 1/2 cup peanut butter chips, 1/2 cup chocolate chips and you've got chocolate peanut butter banana cookie dough balls (wow that's a long title).
3. Use shredded coconut and chopped almonds for an almond joy inspired cookie dough ball.
The possibilities are endless. Have fun in the kitchen and experiment. Turn on some music, get your hands a little doughy, and invite a friend over. Sometimes you make fail but sometimes you'll end up with a tasty treat!
