Lily is David’s godmother. This lady has more secrets than a magician. Tall, with auburn hair and turquoise eyes, Lily hasn’t aged a day in the almost seventeen years David’s known her. She is calm and loving, but can be fierce in unimaginable ways when pushed to the extreme. She is the youngest daughter to a very powerful man, but tends not to flaunt the fact. Rather she keeps a low profile and uses her status when necessary. She doesn’t eat a lot but has a magical way with food and is quite resourceful.

These cookies are packed full of goodies, and a surprise topping bring a touch of Lily’s magic to your table.

This recipe is part of the series of Fallhollow Recipes I have created with author J.Keller-Ford for characters in her new book In The Shadow of the Dragon King, to be published in 2016. This will be the first book in The Chronicles of Fallhollow trilogy. See below the recipe to find out more.

WHAT YOU NEED

For the cookies:

– 14 tablespoons/200g unsalted butter (Be sure that it is unsalted because otherwise the cookies will be too salty once you’ve added the salted peanuts)
– 1 cup white sugar
– ½ cup dark brown sugar
– 2 large eggs
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 2½ cups plain white/all purpose flour
– 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
– 1 cup roughly chopped Heath/Skor/Daim bar
– 1 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate
– 1 cup whole salted peanuts

Note – As long as the fillings total 3 cups, you can adjust to suit your taste, e.g. if you don’t like peanuts then leave them out and use one and a half cups each of the Heath bars and dark chocolate instead.

For the topping:

– 1 cup white chocolate chips (or bar chopped into small pieces)
– ¼ cup (or a bit more!) pop rocks popping candy

WHAT YOU DO:

1) Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Prepare a few baking trays with baking paper or non-stick cooking spray.

2) Place the butter in an ovenproof bowl and into the oven for a few minutes until approximately half of it is melted. Leave to cool for about 5 minutes.

3) Put the white and brown sugars into a mixing bowl, add the butter, and mix with an electric mixer until fluffy.

4) Add the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time, beating in between each until combined.

5) Add the flour and baking soda and beat on a low speed, only until combined. The mixture will still be quite creamy.

6) Add the peanuts, heath bar pieces, and dark chocolate chunks and fold in by hand with a spoon or firm spatula.

7) Using an ice cream scoop measure the cookie mixture onto the baking sheets – as the mixture is quite sticky, you will probably need to use a small spoon to bring it out of the ice cream scoop onto the trays. Allow plenty of room for spreading. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes until they are just starting to color around the edges. Best to do a single tray first to judge the cooking time and spacing of cookies. Leave them to firm up for a couple of minutes on the tray and then transfer them to wire racks to cool.

8) Once they are cooled, make the topping. Place the white chocolate into a bowl set above simmering water, on in the microwave, and melt until the chocolate is about half melted. Then remove from heat and stir until the rest of the chocolate melts. This ensures the temperature of the chocolate won’t be too hot. Add the popping candy and mix, you will hear some crackling but most of the popping candy will remain unpopped (I believe that the hotter and more liquid the chocolate is, the more the candy will pop at this stage which you don’t want to happen).

9) Lay the cookies out on a surface and splatter the white chocolate over the top.

Store in an airtight container once the chocolate is set firm.

In the Shadow of the Dragon King, coming Summer 2016 – A seventeen-year-old squire with knightly ambitions reluctantly joins forces with a sixteen-year-old overachiever to slay a dragon, free the realm, and maybe even get the girl.

J Keller-Ford Author Info

J. (Jenny) Keller Ford is a scribbler of Young Adult and New Adult speculative fiction. As an Army brat, she traveled the world and wandered the halls of some of Germany’s most extraordinary castles in hopes of finding snarky dragons, chivalrous knights and wondrous magic to permeate her imagination. What she found remains etched in her topsy-turvy mind and oozes out in sweeping tales of courage, sacrifice, honor and ever-lasting love.

When not torturing her keyboard or trying to silence the voices in her head, Jenny spends time collecting seashells, bowling, screaming on roller coasters and traveling. She is a mom to four magnificent and noble offspring, and currently lives in paradise on the west coast of Florida with a menagerie of royal pets, and her own quirky knight who was brave enough to marry her.

Find out more about Jenny here –

Twitter: @jkellerford
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/OUw7Zp
Goodreads: http://bit.ly/Nm96OT
Website: http://www.j-keller-ford.com
Blog: https://jennykellerford.wordpress.com/