Food Rescue - Malted Milk Balls

We are trying to reduce our food waste, so I have been trying to find creative ways to use food before it goes bad. I have been going through the pantry to find things that need to be used up. Today's subject is a bag of malted milk balls that we bought at Fresh Market. I bought them for the Gnomeslayer to try, but they had a really thick chocolate coating on them and she didn't like them. I didn't either. So they have sat in the pantry for a while now, until we get desperate for chocolate and eat one.

I remembered I had a recipe for malted milk ball cookies I saw in a magazine, so I decided to give them a try. I only had about a cup of the malted milk balls, so I had to reduce the ingredients. I used my Cascadian Farms morning bowl of fiber cereal, which is a mix of flakes, bran and granola. The cookies turned out great, crispy around the edges and soft in the middle. I highly recommend them.

Malted Milk Ball Cookies

1/4 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. packed brown sugar

1/3 c. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

1 egg

2 Tbs. cooking oil

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 c. plus 1 Tbs. flour

1/2 c. bran cereal

1 c. malted milk balls, crushed or finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir until well combined. Beat in eggs, oil and vanilla. Add flour and stir until well combined. Add in the cereal and malted milk balls. Drop dough in 1 1/2 inch balls, 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.