Rocky Road Cookies

     Funny how I always seem to be behind on my blogging.  I made these cookies for the first time a week or so ago and then made them again (out of the same dough) a few days ago.  They are delicious!  I receive many (too many, honestly) e-mails and magazines about food.  This recipe came from one of the many food e-mails.  Since it sounded pretty delicious, I decided to check it out.  I was quite pleased to discover that it was dairy-free.  I just had to try it.

Ooey Gooey Rocky Road Cookies from http://thegingersnapgirl.blogspot.ca/2012/03/ooey-gooey-rocky-road-cookies_19.html and http://www.fifteenspatulas.com/ooey-gooey-rocky-road-cookies/
from Fifteen Spatulas

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 extra large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2.5 ounces chopped or slivered, toasted, almonds (to toast almonds, heat oven to 350 and place almonds on foil lined baking sheet and bake until golden, about 10 minutes)
1 cup mini marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  In a large bowl sift powdered sugar and cocoa powder.  Whisk in salt.  Add egg whites and vanilla and whisk until combined and batter is smooth.  Stir in chocolate chips and almonds.  *Chill batter in refrigerator for 1 hour to help prevent spreading in the oven.  Using a medium size cookie scoop, portion out 12 cookies on each baking sheet.  Place 4-5 marshmallows on top of each cookie.  Place the baking sheets in the freezer for 5 minutes (or fridge for 10-15 minutes) to chill cookies to prevent them from spreading too much in the oven.  Bake cookies for 12-13 minutes.  Allow to cool on the baking sheets for at least 5 minutes and then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling.  

     These cookies are heavenly and naturally gluten & dairy-free.  I would definitely recommend looking at both of the sources as there are some differences between them.  For example, the ginger snap girl says to use chopped or slivered almonds while fifteen spatula says that you can use sliced almonds.  I wish I had read both as I went out of the way to buy slivered almonds when I could have bought sliced almonds.  They also differ slightly in what and when they tell you to refrigerate.  The above recipe says to refrigerate the batter before and after you put it onto baking sheets.  The fifteen spatula one says to pop it in the freezer for five minutes before you bake it.  To be honest, I didn't even bother with all of that refrigerating.  For one thing, I simply don't have enough room in my fridge.  For another thing, I wanted them now and didn't want to wait all that time for them to get cold.  It didn't make that much of a difference, as far as I could see.  The first time I made them, they were under-cooked after 12-13 minutes so I put them on for a few more minutes.  Alas, when the dough seemed cooked the marshmallows were toasted.  The second time I made them (I had leftover dough from the first batch), the consistency of the batter was a bit weird after days in the fridge so I just made one big cookie. However, this time I pulled them out earlier so the marshmallows had a better consistency.  Either way about it, these are ooey and gooey and definitely chocolately.  Almost a bit too chocolatey for my taste, not being a big fan of uber-chocolate things (e.g., chocolate ice cream or chocolate cake).  But, if you like a lot of chocolate, make these cookies.  Scott loved them!

Pre-baking

Out of the oven

A close up of toasted marshmallow goodness