Double Chocolate Cookies

My friends and I had a little dinner party recently. We all gathered in an apartment, sprawled on various chairs, couches, and the ever-lovely floor, and ate our potluck dinner off of paper plates. While it certainly wasn't the most cohesive dinner I've ever eaten, I laughed until my sides hurt and realized that college is probably the only time where such a random, eclectic dinner party is truly acceptable.

I was tasked with dessert. Let me tell you, I dithered for a solid thirty minutes about what to make. See, I bought a container of cocoa powder at Trader Joe's recently (read up on that adventure here), and I absolutely wanted to use it. I looked up various recipes ranging from ice cream to cakes to truffles and everything in between. However, at the end of it all, I decided on something fairly easy and non-messy: chocolate cookies studded with chocolate chunks.

It was really quite easy. I didn't really use a recipe, I just subbed out a bit of the flour for the cocoa powder. While the baking time was a little iffy due to their awesome thickness, I figured it out in the end! My roommate N said that these are the best things I've ever made. I think that phrase gets thrown around a lot with what I make (humble brag), but everyone who tried these absolutely loved them.

You will need:
 -1 stick of butter, softened
 -1/2 cup of granulated sugar
 -1/4 cup of brown sugar, packed
 -1 egg
 -1 tsp of vanilla extract
 -1 cup of flour
 -1/3 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
 -1/4 tsp baking soda
 -pinch of salt
 -1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks (or chips)

Oven temperature: 350˚F.

As with most cookies, start by creaming together your butter and your sugar with an electric mixer. You want all the sugar to be incorporated into the butter, for the mixture to have no lumps, and to be light and airy.

Then, add your egg and vanilla. Continue mixing until fully combined.

In a separate bowl (or Tupperware), combine your dry ingredients. That'll be your flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Using a fork or your fingers or whatever, mix it all together until combined.

Then add about a third of the dry mixture to the butter and thoroughly combine. Continue until all of the dry mix has been added, and keep stirring/combining until the dough forms a bit of a ball and has an even texture, with no un-mixed lumps.

Now throw your chocolate chunks in there and mix to evenly distribute. Like with any cookie, you could add anything you like to these, including nuts, other types of chocolate, dried fruit... the list goes on and on!

This recipe only yielded ten cookies, since I love 'em huge and chewy. Each cookie was about two tablespoons' worth of dough, rolled by hand then pressed onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Then, place them in the fridge for about half an hour, up to overnight. You'll notice as you roll them out that they're very soft and malleable, and for thick cookies, you do not want to have warm dough going into the oven! Otherwise, they'll spread far too much and you'll have thin cookies.

Once they've chilled, put them in your preheated oven for about twelve to fifteen minutes. Mine took about fourteen. You want the tops of the cookies to look lighter, dry, and a bit dull. Pull them out when they're an even brown, but keep them on the cookie sheet to cool, since their bottoms will cook some more while they're on the sheet.

These cookies pack a ton of intense flavor into each bite. They're chocolaty without being overly sweet, and they're deliciously soft. Serve them warm with a glass of milk after dinner with friends, and prepare to reap praise! Everyone loved these, and I loved how easy they were to make. I had all the ingredients I needed at home, and I only dirtied two bowls!

Since we didn't exactly have any leftovers, I wouldn't know how long these would keep for... but I'm sure they'd at least keep for a few days in a Tupperware container!

I can't wait to continue to experiment with cocoa powder in the kitchen. Single's Awareness Day Valentine's Day is fast approaching, so there's my excuse!

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Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, how's that for some alliteration?

School's back in full swing again! I flew back to California on the 14th to spend some time in NorCal with N. You remember her, right? I stayed with her in February for a week before we drove back down to Los Angeles.

We're living together this year, so moving back in was super easy. Our other roommates, J and D, were already there when we arrived. It was a simple move in, but class and sorority rush really were draining!

Thankfully, everything has settled into a nice routine. And with that, I have time to blog!

I made these cookies last April for a family Easter party. I took pictures of about half of the process... then promptly forgot about photographing in all the excitement. Without any further ado, coconut chocolate chip cookies! Here's my inspiration.

You will need:
 -3/4 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
 -1 cup of light brown sugar
 -1 egg, room temperature
 -1 tsp vanilla extract
 -pinch of salt
 -1 tsp baking powder
 -1 cup all-purpose flour
 -1 and 1/2 cups coconut flakes
 -1 and 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Oven temperature: 350˚. Rack in the middle, please and thanks!

Get those cookies started by creaming together butter and sugar. Use a mixer if you have one, or get your arm workout by using a fork. Guess which one I did? (Side note, does anyone want to buy me a mixer for my birthday? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?)

When creaming together butter and sugar, make sure that they are fully incorporated. The butter should be fluffy and there should be no clumps of either sugar or butter.

Then, add the egg and the vanilla extract. Mix very, very well. You do not want any bits of un-mixed egg or vanilla. That will be extremely nasty both taste-wise and texturally. Trust me. The incorporated mix will look sort of gross at this point but it'll look better in a minute. Promise!

Now, add the baking powder and the salt. Combine well. Then, add the flour bit by bit and mix until all is incorporated. It should be nice and smooth. This is when it'll really look like cookie dough! Sample a tiny bit just to make sure it tastes delicious, as it should!

Add all that delicious coconut. Like delicious, sweet, textural snow... can you tell I'm a bit obsessed? It makes these cookies so gloriously chewy! Combine it so that the coconut flakes are evenly distributed through the dough.

Then, stir in the chocolate chips. The dough is going to be super chocolatey. Just chips on chips on chips! It may look like all the chips won't fit in the dough, but stir them in. You're gonna have a lot of chocolate, I guarantee it. I forgot to take a picture in my excitement but no worries! Plenty of pictures of steps to come.

Dollop your cookie dough onto a lightly (lightly!) greased baking sheet. I like me some big cookies, so they're probably about a tablespoon and a half/two tablespoons worth of dough. Pat them down lightly. It's sticky dough so it may be hard to shape, but feel free to chill it before baking if you'd like to be able to shape them.

Sprinkle with some sea salt and pop those suckers in the oven! I baked mine for nine minutes, since I like soft cookies, and then left them on the sheet to cool. If you want firm, crunchy cookies, leave them in the oven for closer to twelve minutes. Just check frequently so nothing burns!

Once they're cool(ish), dig in! They're chewy and delicious. My roommates (and the girls across the hall) came flocking with glasses of milk. Not to toot my own horn, but one of my friends took a bite, looked straight at me, and exclaimed, "Dude... On. Point." (toot toot)

Side note: these are not my fingers. Thanks I!

These took about half an hour from start to finish. These cookies are quick, easy, and absolutely delicious. They were all gone within six hours of completion!

Now I have friends to bake and cook for, I will hopefully be back to blogging more often! Stay tuned for more simple college recipes from my shiny new apartment. Next week, look forward to a Mexican-inspired dinner for one!

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Sugar Cookies

I have a serious sweet tooth, guys. Especially around Easter... I swear, Cadbury Mini Eggs are going to be the death of me.

Yesterday, I was craving a sugar cookie, but I had no eggs, and only two tablespoons of butter. Therefore, I took to Pinterest for an eggless cookie recipe! My cookie was so delicious yesterday that I went grocery shopping this morning, invited my friend N over, and made a batch.

One major bonus to an eggless recipe? Taking some, uh, quality control samples of the dough! For science's sake, of course.

They're buttery, delicious, and only use six ingredients! (Recipe adapted from Planet Weidknecht)

To make twelve large cookies, you'll need:
 -1/2 lb unsalted softened butter (two sticks)
 -1 cup granulated sugar
 -1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 -1/2 tsp. baking soda
 -1/2 tsp. salt
 -1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Forgot to get my salt out for a picture--oops!

Start by preheating your oven to 325˚F.

Get out a mixing bowl and pop your softened butter in, then pour your cup of sugar over it. Grab a fork and cream your butter and sugar together... or, if you have a hand mixer, cream it the easy way! Basically, you want to combine the butter and sugar until they make a light, fluffy mixture. There should be no pockets of sugar or butter.

Next, pour your vanilla into the creamed butter and mix it thoroughly, so it is evenly distributed throughout the mixture.

After that, pour your flour, baking soda, and salt on top of the creamed butter.

Here's the time-consuming part--using your fork, mix the dry ingredients with the butter. It will take a while. Your arm will probably hurt (well, maybe I'm just weak). You want the mixture to come together into a nice dough.

Pro tip: If it's a little too dry, add a tiny amount of water and thoroughly mix the dough. When dealing with dough, you want to add very small amounts at a time so you don't make it too wet.

Once your dough has reached the proper consistency where it sticks together uniformly, you can roll it into balls and then flatten them out. I like larger cookies, so I only put six on a sheet. Flattened out, the uncooked cookie should be about 2/3 of the size of your palm. Pop them on your cookie sheet, bung the sheet into the oven, and cook for 7-9 minutes.

The edges will look well-done and the middles will still look puffy and slightly undercooked. Leave them on the cookie sheet for about five minutes to let them firm up before transferring to a cooling rack (or a cutting board, in my case). The middles will fall and become much more solid.

These cookies firm up beautifully and have a slightly crunchy edge while the middle is chewy. They are crazy delicious.

N and I had a few each... but they're so good! Totally worth every sugary, delicious bite.

Once all the cookies were cooled, I packed all but one up and sent them off with N to give to our friends. Dangerous to keep around my apartment!

All in all, these cookies take about 45 minutes to make from beginning to end. If I had a mixer, they could be done in probably about 25. While the creaming and mixing take a while, these cookies are worth it!

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