Chewy and Rich Chocolate Cookies

I don't think anything beats a cookie that reminds me of my mom's fudge sauce. This cookie recipe, which I got off the back of a package of Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate, just looked like it might be tasty, and I was very pleasantly surprised.



It's also really easy to make. I'd recommend doing it in a mixer if you have one, because the dough gets very stiff at the end, but it's nothing that a little muscle can't handle either.



If you are in need of a chocolate fix, these cookies are certainly for you!



Chocolate Cookies
Makes between 60-70 cookies

Ingredients
4 squares of Baker's unsweetened chocolate
3/4 cup butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour



Place chocolate and butter into a microwave safe dish. Microwave the chocolate and butter until melted. This will probably take approximately 2 minutes, but depending on the strength of your microwave, might be slightly more or less. It's important not to microwave the chocolate and butter too long; you risk the chance of burning the chocolate. If you are worried about the strength of your microwave, try microwaving just a minute, and then giving the chocolate and butter a stir. When it's almost melted, bring the cooking interval time down to 30 seconds.

Once the chocolate and butter are completely melted, stir until completely blended. Next, mix in the sugar. The mixture will look kind of grainy.

Stir in the eggs and vanilla. I like to lightly beat the eggs before mixing them in so that they blend in well and are not mostly yolk in one place, and white in another.

Finally, stir in the flour. Do this in three or four additions, so that the flour doesn't go everywhere. The dough will feel quite stiff.



If it's not firm and easy to roll, place the dough in the refrigerator for up to an hour.



Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls, and, on to a greased cookie sheet, place approximately 2 inches apart.



Bake for 8 minutes. The cookies should be just set. This will ensure that they stay nice and chewy. Cool the cookies on the sheet for a minute, then remove to a cooling rack.



I ate a couple when they were still warm, and they were soft and chewy and delicious!

Chocolate Cookies Parfait

Ingredients: 125 grams tea biscuits, 250 ml whipping cream, 120 grams plain chocolate, 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur, 2 eggs,

Crumble 125 grams tea biscuits. Beat 250 ml cream whipping cream until almost done and stir the cookie crubles in. Melt au-bain marie 120 grams of plain chocolate with a little butter and 1 tablespoon coffee liqueur. Meanwhile split 2 eggs. When the chocolate is melted, stir in a tablespoon of icing sugar and 2 egg yolks. Beat the 2 egg whites to stiff and stir in the melted chocolate. Cover a cake tin with cling film and scoop half of the cookie cream in the tin. Scoop the chocolate mousse in it and then finish with the rest of the cookie cream. Cover it well off and put it cake tin in the freezer. Ideal to make in advance! Enjoy!

Hazelnut Cookies

Ingredients: 150 grams flour, 75 grams sugar, 75 grams butter, 1 tablespoon ground hazelnuts, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 1 egg yolk, 18 hazelnuts,

Number of cookies: 18

Knead 150 grams flour, 75 grams sugar, 75 grams butter, 1 tablespoon ground hazelnuts and 1 tablespoon cinnamon into a cohesive dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave it certainly an hour in the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Roll the dough into a thin piece and make cookies of it. Place the cookies on a plate lined with baking paper. Cover the cookies with a mixed yolk. Press gently in each cookie a hazelnut. Place the plate about 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Let the cookies cool. Enjoy!

Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients: 150 grams flour, 75 grams sugar, 75 grams butter, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 40 grams finely chopped dark chocolate,

Number of cookies: 19

Knead 150 grams flour, 75 grams sugar, 75 grams butter, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 40 grams finely chopped dark chocolate, to a cohesive dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave it an hour in the refrigerator. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Roll the dough into a thin piece and make cookies of it. Place the cookies on a oven plate lined with baking paper. Place the oven plate about 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Let the cookies cool. Enjoy!

GOODNESS GRACIOUS GRANDMA! COOKIES

Goodness, gracious grandma's kitchen's on fire!

Out of respect to my dear grandmother, I shall refrain my usual irreverent tomfoolery for once. I have faith that you, dear reader, will realize cookies of this caliber still deserve a place in the prestigious COOK TO BANG canon. The cookies have the potential for solving the world’s problems from the border wars to erectile dysfunction. One bite will bring you back to the innocence of childhood when banging was something you did on your high chair with applesauce all over your face. But don’t let that discourage you, for these cookies are a perfect bait to lure in unsuspecting CTB candidates. They will think your thoughtfulness cute and become disarmed by the outstanding edible bounty you have presented. Invite them over for dinner, drinks and more now that you have demonstrated your culinary prowess. No one will resist when they’re under the cookies’ spell.

Total time: approximately 45 minutes
Projected cost: $10
Drinking Buddy: milk or a

Ingredients (makes approx 60 cookies):
1. 1¼ cups of flour
2. ¼ cup of granulated white sugar
3. 3½ cups of oats
4. ¾ cup of packed down brown sugar
5. 1½ cups of raisins
6. 1 teaspoon of baking soda
7. 1 packet of vanilla Jell-O pudding
8. 2 eggs
9. 2 sticks of softened butter

Step 1
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Mix the butter, white sugar, brown sugar and pudding mix in a large bowl. Crack the eggs in this bowl and blend it all together.

Step 2
Mix the flour and baking soda in a separate bowl, and then pour into the larger bowl and mix it all together thoroughly. Add in the oats and raisins and mix until you have one sexy bowl of cookie dough.

Step 3
Use a teaspoon to scoop up cookies and throw them on the ungreased baking sheets, allowing 2 inches between. Bake them until they become golden brown (approx 10-12 minutes) and remove from oven to cook. Serve it up with milk and await adulation by the masses.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Silly me bought a mondo can of pumpkin to make last week’s Pumpkin Praline Pie. So needless to say I had a lot leftover, and who’s to throw out perfectly good pumpkin?

So I found this little gem of a recipe. Let’s just say that I have two more mondo cans of pumpkin waiting in the pantry, destined for more of these cookies.

There is something about the texture of these that is wonderful. They are lighter and fluffier than any cookie I’ve had before. The pumpkin flavor is subtle, not overpowering, and divine when combined with chocolate.

If you’re a pumpkin lover, you HAVE to make these cookies. Even if you’re not a pumpkin lover, after these, you just might become one!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 5 dozen. Recipe from Food Network.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups (12-ounce bag) chocolate chips
Nonstick cooking spray or parchment paper

DIRECTIONS
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray cookie sheets with nonstick spray or line them with parchment paper.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter in thirds. Stir in the chips. Scoop the cookie dough by heaping tablespoons onto the prepared cookie sheets and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are browned around the edges. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let them rest for 2 minutes. Take the cookies off with a spatula and cool them on wire racks.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

You know the cookies that are just the right size, and just the right sweetness? The kind that ‘mysteriously’ disappear from the counter?

These are those cookies.

There were 4 left when I took this picture. I had also made a batch of mypumpkin chocolate chip cookies (can you say, sugar craving?) which as good as they are, didn’t disappear as quickly.

I came back later and there was one peanut butter cookie missing – it had been mysteriously swapped for a pumpkin cookie. A few hours later, another switch had occurred (might I add that the cookies were still aligned in a perfect row). Before I knew it, there were three pumpkin cookies in this arrangement and only one peanut butter bite left. Hmmm. Supernatural forces maybe? Ghosts of peanut-butter-loving pasts?

I never waited to find out, because I ate the last one before some(thing) else did.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes: Not enough (approx. 4 dozen).
Recipe from the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook (someone buy this for me? please?)

INGREDIENTS
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter or margarine, softened
1 cup peanut butter at room temperature (smooth is what we used, but I am pretty sure they use chunky at the bakery)
¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon (for sprinkling) sugar
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tablespoon milk or soymilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup peanut butter chips
½ cup chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and the peanut butter together until fluffy. Add the sugars and beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter chips. Place sprinkling sugar on a plate. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls into the sugar, then onto ungreased cookie sheets, leaving several inches between for expansion. Using a fork, lightly indent with a crissscross pattern (if you happen to get so excited about these cookies that you forget this step *cough*likeme*cough* not all is lost. actually, nothing is lost at all), but do not overly flatten cookies. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may appear to be underdone, but they are not.

Cool the cookies on the sheets for 1 minute, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

(Disappearing) White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Continuing my strange cravings for chocolate and nuts…

I decided I wanted white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. I NEEDED white chocolate macadamia nut cookies. But I didn’t just stop there, I wanted to make my own vegan white chocolate as well. Ever since I saw the recipe over atBitterSweet, I knew I had to try it. I bought some cocoa butter and soymilk powder, waited far too long for them to arrive (needless to say this has been a long craving in the works). It was surprisingly easy to make, and when I chopped it up for the cookies and popped a few bites in my mouth, was ridiculously delicious. Definitely not the cheap white chocolate you’re used to buying in the stores.

When the cookies finally came out of the oven, the delicious cookies I had been craving for so long, I eagerly bit into one. And bit again. And again. Where was the white chocolate? I was getting crunchy bites of macadamia nut, but that creamy concoction I had sampled earlier? Nowhere to be found.

Hence the ‘disappearing’ white chocolate in the title of this post.

Yup, vanished. Melted into oblivion.

The cookies were surprisingly good, nonetheless, which is why I’m repeating the recipe here, but I’ve got to figure out where I went wrong with the white chocolate – what I need to change about it so that it actually lasts 10 minutes in a hot oven.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Makes approximately 2-3 dozen cookies. Recipe from Betty Crocker.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 ounces white baking bars (white chocolate), cut into 1/4- to 1/2-inch chunks
3 1/2 ounces (about 1/2 cup) macadamia nuts, coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350°F. Beat sugars, butter, shortening, vanilla and egg in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in white baking bar chunks and nuts.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until light brown. Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.