Cookies fit for an Officer...

*sigh* The weekend draws to a close once again, which is a tragedy because I just have so much school work these days since the semester is coming to a close, and somehow I managed to do absolutely none of it!

Anyhow, I baked the "better-than-brownie-Cookies" on thursday night, and although I couldn't taste them, since I'm allergic to almost every ingredient in them, my audience (before the boy came on Friday) said that they were good, but could be better! This was to my dismay, since Yair (the Boy) has been eating Tuna in the desert for the last two weeks, the idea of serving him sub-par cookies devastated me! Anyhow, they assured me that it wasn't that they were not good, it was that the cocoa powder had added to bitter of a texture, and that perhaps they would have been better with a little less. I ended up not using the brownie-cookie recipe I had planned to based on

the fact that I had hoped to use cocoa powder, as I wanted to have them as chocolatey as possible, and it was an ingredient that I had never used before and I wanted to try it!

In the end, I decided just to use a regular chocolate cookie recipe that included cocoa powder, nuts and chocolate chips.

Here is the Recipe

I used:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips, melted, plus an additional 1/4 cup
2/3 cup coarsely chopped toasted salted cashews
2/3 cup coarsely chopped Oreos
1/2 cup M&M's

* I didn't add Oreos, or salted cash

ews, OR m&m's for that matter! Instead, I added dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and Smartie

s and chopped almond slivers. Of course, the added goodies are whatever suit your taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat cookie sheets with cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter and sugar until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla and eggs until combined, about 1 minute; beat in melted chocolate chips until combined. Reduce mixer speed to lo

w and beat in flour mixture until combined. Stir in remaining 1/4 cup chocolate chips, cashews, Oreos, and M&M's until combined.

Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets, about an inch apart. Bake 12-13 minutes or until set. Cool 2 minutes before transferring cookies to wire racks to cool completely.
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen

Now, Yair said that they were good and compared to canned tuna they tasted like heaven which was a relief:) However! making these cookies, taught me a very valuable le

sson - You know how usually a recipe will tell you "refrigerate for at least 3 hours", well I've always thought that that was a waste of time and not an important aspect of the recipe WELL, it turns out it is.

My second batch of cookies taught me this - the second round of cookies I made were regular chocolate chip cookies, but I added white chocolate chips, dark and a few mini chocolate bars - I baked one round without refrigerating the dough and it was a liquidy disaster! They tasted nice apparently, and yet they didn't look like cookies, they looked like sheets of golden brown dough with

chocolate chips! Then, I placed the rest of the dough in the fridge for about and hour and Voila! They came out perfect, golden brown, fluffy, soft chocolate cookies! SO bakers all over the world - let it be said here first, that refrigerating dough is REALLY important!!

Here is the Recipe for Round Two of the cookies:

3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 160 degreeC (or 325degreeF). Whisk flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Then beat the butter and sugars until combined. Add the eggs, yolks and vanilla. Scrap down the bowl as needed. Reduce your mixer speed to low and mix in the flour slowly, around 30 seconds. Mix in chocolate chips until incorporated. Chill the batter for at least 30minutes so that it's easier to scoop them. Scoop them into balls on a baking sheet/aluminium. Bake for 17-20 minutes

These cookies are probably the most beautiful ones I've ever made I was really proud of them, and He loved them and by the end of the weekend I managed to send him to the base a) looking like this:

and b) with two large containers of Delicious cookies, which made me feel very accomplished!

Tonight, I am off to a family friends for dinner, where they will present me with the Candycanes they brought me from Toronto!! Thank goodness!! Finally! A little taste of the christmas spirit I have so missed!!