Quick Dessert: Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cobbler

Don’t you hate it when you’ve signed up to cook something and completely forget about it until the last possible moment?

I can’t tell you how many times that has happened to me. It’s probably a shameful amount, and I’m working on that. However, it’s probably because of my poor planning that I’ve become really good at whipping up dishes in a short amount of time.

This time, I signed up for dessert at growth group. I thought I was ready to go. I had gotten my homemade Oreos ready to go, and I took them… a week early. SIGH.

The next week, I was scratching my head, looking for a fun and effortless dessert that would leave everyone satisfied, and I found this lovely chocolate cobbler recipe. I normally love lots of steps so I can watch the dessert grow or come together, but I appreciated how this all came together so quickly and was perfect. 

You can eat it warm, with some ice cream on top, or you can eat it by spoonfuls from the dish, without any judgment from me. Enjoy.

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Cobbler

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1-3/4 cups hot water

Instructions

• To start, Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
• In a bowl, combine your flour, salt, baking powder sugar and 2 tablespoons of the cocoa powder with a fork. 

• Pour the milk and oil into your dry ingredients, stirring it slowly to keep any dry pockets from forming. 

• Pour into a baking dish (mine is a 9x9-inch square). 
• Combine the brown sugar and remaining cocoa. This will serve as the "crumble" for your dessert. I truly wasn't sure what this would look like, but it is delish. Sprinkle your mixture over the batter. 

• Now, for the odd part. Pour hot water over the top of your dessert. Don't stir it. Just leave it.  

This WILL be beautiful in the end, I promise. 

• Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Told you!

What I like about this particular dessert is that it comes with its own gooey syrup to swirl around. You'll be fighting to see who eats the last spoonful. 

Andrea's Easter Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Easter’s coming! It’s a great time for many reasons (one of which being that my birthday is near), and for many, this is a time for gathering with family and reflection of one’s faith.

Afterward, you gather, you celebrate, and you eat. If you’re a kid, there’s a high probability that you’ll get to go on an Easter egg hunt. If you’re an adult, there’s an even higher possibility that you’ll steal all of your kids’ good candy.

I wish that I could make homemade candy, but I’m no confectioner. I wish I could make chocolate covered peanut butter eggs like so many wonderful food bloggers. However, I am terrified of chocolate dipping (mostly because I'd probably eat it all before the dipping commenced).

I am however, a cookie person. So I asked myself: what can I do to marry chocolate peanut butter eggs and cookies? I scoured my go-to recipes, and found a great recipe that was perfect. 

It had everything that I was looking for in a cookie - the crumbliness from peanut butter, with the sweet decadence of chocolate. Enjoy this recipe while your kids are out in the yard. It'll be hard to share them otherwise.

Andrea's Easter Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/2 cup chunky or smooth peanut butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (If you don't want crumbly cookies, omit 1/4 cup)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions: 

• Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and prepare your pans by lightly greasing them, or by covering them with parchment paper.

• In a medium-sized bowl, blend your butter, peanut butter and sugars until they are smoothly mixed. 

Guess who was annoyed that she didn't get peanut butter?

• Add the egg and mix until fluffy.

The egg adds a great lightness to your batter.

• In another bowl, blend the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together. Once they are well mixed, begin to slowly add them to your butter batter.

Your batter will be crumbly. That's good. 

• Add the chocolate chips, then cover your dough and stick it in your fridge for at least 30 minutes.

• Drop cookie dough onto your baking sheets in rounded teaspoons. Bake for 10-12 minutes. (Note: please don't overcook these cookies. Since they're light, they WILL taste like char.)

• Enjoy!