Milk & Cookies

Remember when I made those brownies from scratch? Well, they came out okay but I was a little disappointed and chalked it up to the quality of the chocolate. So this time I made them again, from the same recipe, with Ghirardelli 100% chocolate. It really makes a difference! I still think there’s room for improvement if I mess around with the egg/sugar/flour ratio, but this was a pretty good first step.

I'm running out of outdoor photo settings for my baked goods!

Rocky Road? ... nope thats the cookie dough!

I keep running into recipes for “Dark Chocolate”, “Double Chocolate”, “Super Chocolatey”, even “Triple Chocolate” cookies. Well eat this one all you wannabee’s! These are QUADRUPLE chocolate cookies! “Ridiculous!” you say…
yes, ridiculously good!

This recipe is based on a couple of different recipes from the Food Network, America’s Test Kitchen, and AllRecipes.com. It is far enough from them that I will not link to them since this recipe is truly my own.

If you don’t like these cookies… you must be dead already. Go see a doctor immediately.

INGREDIENTS (makes ~3 dozen cookies)

• 16 ounces semisweet chocolate (chopped, chips, or morsels)
• 10 Tbls. (1-1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 2 tspn. baking powder
• 1/2 tspn. salt
• 4 large eggs
• 2 tspn. vanilla extract
• 6 oz. white chocolate chunks (or chips) (recommended improvement – 8 to10 oz. instead)
• 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips (60-70% cocoa)

DIRECTIONS

Start by (slowly) melting your semi-sweet chocolate in either the microwave or on a double boil on the stove.

In a large mixing bowl beat together the softened butter with the two types of sugar for about 1 minute.

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for another 45 seconds or so.

Now pour in the melted chocolate and beat again until combined.

Now stir in the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Do not over mix these ingredients, its ok if it isnt completely smooth.

Finally stir in the two types of chocolate chips / chunks. This recipe reflects the actual quantities that I used, and I would recommend adding more white chocolate since it seems to get lost in these cookies. Maybe use 8-10 oz. instead.

Now your dough is complete, you can either start making the cookies now, or refrigerate the dough for a while to let it stiffen up.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple trays with parchment paper. Start placing tablespoon sized scoops onto the trays with a least an inch of clearance around the dough. Cook each tray for 13-15 min. Let each tray cool for a few minutes before moving the cookies to a cooling rack or tupperware container or (best of all) your mouth.

Cookie Action Shot!

Today is a special day. It marks one of the most frightening and fulfilling days in my life. A day that I will cherish forever, as a moment when I felt completely full of love and completely loved in return. I am talking of course of my wedding day three years ago. Thank you, Zoe, for making me as happy today, as I was when you first entered my life some 8 years ago.

As a special treat for Zoe, this weeks cookies feature an ingredient that I usually shun from being in my cookies. I am talking about nuts. But as all things should be, I compromised, by making sure that the cookies selected this week are also full of rich dark chocolate so that I will also be unable to resist them! I guess this weeks cookies are a match made in heaven.

INGREDIENTS (makes 35-40 cookies)

• 8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, 60%-72% cocoa (chopped)
• 4 Tblsn. butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tspn. espresso powder
• 1 tspn. vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 tspn. baking powder
• 1/4 tspn. salt
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup golden raisins

DIRECTIONS

These cookies are very straight forward to make, just like any chocolate cookies. Start off by setting up a double boiler to melt the bittersweet chocolate and the butter together. Be sure to keep the temperature low so not to burn the chocolate. Mix these two together until evenly melted and creamy.

In a separate bowl combine the sugar and eggs. Beat them together until smooth and a bit frothy. Now add the melted chocolate and butter mixture and mix it in. Finally, stir in all of the remaining ingredients.

Refrigerate the dough if you like, to make the cookies a bit softer and chewier, as well as easier to scoop.

Preheat the oven to 325°F and line a couple trays with parchment paper.  Start placing tablespoon sized scoops onto the trays with a least an inch of clearance around the dough.   These cookies will spread a bit, but not as much as many other cookies.  Cook each tray for 11-13 minutes until the tops just start to crack like brownies.

Almost done.

That's an awfully large cookie for such a small cow!

Apparently Some Crust Bakery in Claremont, CA has some famous mocha cookies. How I never discovered this during my 4 years there is a mystery. I guess my college bubble didn’t extend past about 6th street. Anyways, at the Alumi Weekend about 1 1/2 weeks ago, my friend Trish took me there and we ate their delicious mocha cookies. Yum!

Anyways, they’ve made the recipe available to the public so here it goes (here’s a link):

• 4 1/2 oz unsweeted chocolate (100%)
• 9 oz bittersweet chocolate (70%)
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 eggs
• 3 Tbsp. instant espresso
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup pastry flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 8 oz bittersweet (70%) chocolate chunks

The main ingredients

Basically, you melt the chocolate and butter in a saucepan. Meanwhile, mix the eggs, espresso, and sugar in an electric mixer. Add the melted chocolate and mix more. Add the flour (plus baking powder and salt),  mix a little more. Finally, fold in the chocolate chunks. Bake 15 minutes at 350 degrees.

It was a tough job but someone had to do it.

We couldn’t find pastry flour so we used regular flour. And we couldn’t find instant espresso so we used regular espresso. If you find a little piece of crunchy stuff, that’s probably espresso. Kind of like eating those chocolate covered coffee beans. Finally, I think our oven runs a little hot so the first batch came out a bit overdone. For the second batch I turned it down to 300 and only left them in for 14 minutes. Hopefully the second batch came out better, I just couldn’t bring myself to try one after I had already eaten one from the first batch plus I licked all the batter from the beaters. They’re VERY rich.