Snickers Cookies and Marathon Running

I officially lost my mind a couple of weeks ago ... more than usual, I mean.

My sister got a charity place with the Salvation Army on the London 2012 marathon and had been trying to convince me to do it with her. "No way Jose" was my (very sensible) reaction. I've always wanted to run a marathon - just once - and boy will I milk that one time marathon every day for the rest of my life.

"When I ran a marathon ..." will be how I reply to questions from friends about where we should go for dinner.

"I learnt several things when running a marathon; the most important of which ..." will be how I start the debate with my future toddlers about why they should eat their vegetables. 

You get the point :)

Anyway, I wasn't ready to run a marathon just yet. And then I spoke to my sister one day and she gave me a spiel about how this wasn't just any marathon but it was LONDON TWO THOUSAND AND TWELVE, Olympic year, no London marathon would ever be the same ... blah blah. Long story short, don't ever give my sister the chance to convince you to do something because ... oh, sorry, went off on a tangent there, long story short, on the 22nd of April 2012, I will be running the longest I have ever run in my entire life. Hey, if a 100 year old man can do it, I can too right? Right?

Anyway, the only plus side to running a marathon is I've heard that with all the training, I can pretty much eat what I want without putting on weight; which will mean lots of cookies whoop whoop. Check these out - if you like Snickers, the big soft biteful in the middle of these cookies is amazeballs :)

Recipe from Bakers Royale who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated.

Makes 24 - 30 3inch cookies

Prep: Heat oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5/ 375F. Line baking tray with grease proof paper

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

227g butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tsps vanilla extract

2 large eggs

5 Snickers bars, each sliced into 6 pieces

1 cup chocolate chips

1 - Combine flour and baking soda in a bowl; set aside

2 - Place 140g of the butter in non-stick saucepan over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue cooking and using the handle of the pan to swirl the butter around. Swirl butter constantly until it becomes dark golden brown in colour and gives off a nutty aroma; 1 - 3 minutes. 

3 - Remove saucepan from the heat and transfer browned butter to a large heatproof bowl. Stir in the remaining butter into the hot butter until completely melted. 

4 - Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to brown butter mixture and whisk until full incorporated. 

5 - Add eggs and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds.Rest mixture for 3 minutes, then whisk for another 30 seconds. Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. 

6 - Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute. Stir in chocolate chips giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.

7 - Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, flatten it into a round disc and place a Snickers slice on top. Fold edges over Snickers to seal it. Place cookies 2 inches apart on grease proof paper lined baking trays.

8 - Bake cookies one sheet at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, about 10 to 14 minutes. Cool cookies.