TWD: Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops

Yet another "Tuesday" in the Bungalow Barbara Time Warp! Which is my way of saying I'm sorry this post is late... This week's project for Tuesdays with Dorie was to make the Chocolate Malted Whopper Drop cookies, chosen by Rachel of Confessions of a Tangerine Tart.


Would you believe I didn't even know what a Whopper candy was? Somehow I missed that particular part of Americana. And as far as malted milk, I only vaguely remember that my Dad liked chocolate malts, and after trying one once I decided I didn't like malt. That was, oh, something like 45 years ago (gulp!) and the only form of malt I've ingested since then has been in beer.

So this was a new experience all around. With malted milk powder and chocolate malted-milk ball candies on my shopping list, we went into town. I was convinced I'd find the malt powder at the natural foods co-op -- wrong, they only had malt syrup. But they did have malt ball candies in bulk. Off to the supermarket where I tracked down some Carnation malted milk powder. Interesting, it lists wheat as one of the main ingredients next to malt.

I was thinking of chopping up the malt balls in my food processor, but after reading some of the P & Q, I decided to cut them by hand into quarters. I tried a few of the crumbly bits. Hmm. Not going to be one of my favorite candies. Too sweet, not chocolatey enough. Nice crunch, though.

I reduced the sugar in the dough down to 1/2 cup since we don't like things too sweet. Other than that I followed the recipe. Some left-over candies got cut in half and put on top.

Did anyone else have trouble with how sticky this dough was? I chilled it for an hour or so, but even so, there was dough all over the portion scooper, my hands, the spatula -- everything! Eventually I figured out that using my little pump oil sprayer and constantly spraying the scoop (and my hand) worked pretty well.

After shaping them, I put the cookies into the freezer for about 20 minutes, then baked. It was hard to tell when to take them out. Mine were set and dry on the outside, but still soft and a little underbaked on the inside, which was perfect! They were even better the day after.

These aren't my favorite chocolate cookie, but they were still pretty good and we enjoyed them! I shared a few with our town librarian, but mostly they were just for us! My notes for next time say: use more Whoppers (maybe 8 ounces) and cut them just in half. Try coffee-flavored Whoppers (who knew there were so many flavors?). Maybe add a few chopped almonds.


Random thought: those half-Whoppers in the center of the cookies look a bit like nipples... But jeez, these "ladies" have some issues -- nipple-slippage, cracks, lumps, oh, let's just not go there...