I've been looking for a way to jazz up the standard Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for a few years now. I love chocolate chip cookies, of course, but they don't have much of a wow factor, and sometimes, they're just not chocolaty enough for me. Fortunately, I stumbled across Cathy Lowe's recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies on FoodNetwork.com. They were not at all difficult to make, but they were vastly superior to the chocolate chocolate chip cookies you can make following the old Toll House recipe; those cookies always had a corpsy grayish color and a plasticy texture.
Lowe's recipe, however, made for cookies with a lovely rich brown color; a crisp, macaroon-like shell; and a line of soft, brownie-like texture on the inside. To me, their natural cracks and fissures look a little like half-cooled lava covered with a broken crust of rock. Maybe I should call these Lava Crispies?
Anyway, their chocolate flavor is rich and very noticeable, even in bites without chocolate chips. My only criticism of the recipe is that the cookies dried out and turned hard very quickly, even when stored in an air-tight container. They're not the best cookies to keep around the house for a week, so it's better to make this recipe only when you plan on sharing!
I took the FoodNetwork.com reviewers' suggestion to bake the cookies at 350 degrees. At that temperature (and with my insulated cookie pans), the cookies took about 11 minutes per batch. I didn't grease my cookie sheets, but I did use parchment paper. I also used miniature chocolate chips so the chocolate chip texture was distributed over more cookie space. One last thing: I would suggest making the teaspoon of salt scant if you're sensitive to sodium (I was always thirsty after a couple of these!).
Enjoy!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe Courtesy of Cathy Lowe
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 sticks butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 cups chocolate chips, 2 Hershey's chocolate bars, chopped or M&M'S
- 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a bowl stir together flour, salt, and baking soda. In another large bowl stir together butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Gradually stir flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined. Stir chocolate chips and walnuts, if using, and stir to distribute evenly.
For cookies: Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes. Cool on a baking rack.
For bars: Pat dough into a greased 9 inch square baking pan and bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cut into squares when cooled
From FoodNetwork.com on Mon Aug 03 2009
© 2009 Scripps Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved
No comments:
Post a Comment