And I am back......

Well, mostly back.....who knew pneumonia could take so much out of you? I'm happy to say I'm not coughing up a lung anymore but still a bit tired. And I can so operate on tired (hell I have for the past 3 years), so back to the grindstone at work tomorrow!

I braved the office xmas party last night too. Sorry, holiday party. 500 people and I made it through dinner and the awards...then home. I am not particularly in the mood for festivities of any kind - but it was an excuse to wear the very cute 1950's Mad Men'esque style dress that K and I spent a lot of hours looking for! For those that were brave enough to risk my germs and get close to me, they got to see that every other black stripe in the dress was see through (um yeah...I wore a black slip underneath....nobody saw nothin'!)

After living on toast, gatorade and bananas for 2 weeks (and still fitting into jeans that haven't seen the light of day for 3 years...insert happy dance), I was in the mood to bake something today. I didn't want to do anything too ambitious, and Joe and Jeff over at Culinary in the Desert routinely have the most delicious looking baking I have ever seen.

Now, their pics turned out 1000 times better, but these cookies are so good. Almost like a two bite brownie with....wait for it......a rolo shoved in the middle! The neighbor husband and goddaughter dubbed these the belly button cookies after watching me quickly stuff rolos into the centers once they were cooked.

I love caramel - way more than chocolate. So this cookie offers up the best of both worlds - chocolate for the chocaholic and caramel for....me. I think I may have over baked one of the batches but the overall flavour is great. Think two-bite brownie meets coffee meets caramel.

Chocolate Caramel Espresso Chews (Adapted from Land O Lakes and Culinary in the Desert)

For the dough

1 tablespoon milk

1 1/2 teaspoons instant espresso powder or coffee granules

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cups cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks or 1 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

48 Rolo candies, unwrapped

For the glaze

1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder

1 to 2 tablespoons hot water

1 cup confectioners' sugar

To prepare the dough

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, stir together milk and espresso powder.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugars until smooth and creamy. Beat in dissolved espresso powder and milk mixture. Mix in eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each. Mix in vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix until combined. Fold in pecans.

Shape dough into 1 1/4" balls, lightly flouring your hands as needed to prevent sticking. Set balls into miniature muffin tins lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Place into the oven and baked until puffed and set, about 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and quickly, but carefully, press 1 candy piece, top-side down, into each cookie. Set aside and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Run a thin knife around the edge of each individual muffin well, then gently remove cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

To prepare the glaze

In a small bowl, stir espresso powder into 1 tablespoon water. Stir in confectioners' sugar - if it is too thick to drizzle, stir in enough of the remaining tablespoon hot water to thin. Drizzle over cooled cookies.

Makes 48 cookies.