Thursday, June 28, 2007

Chocolate,chocolate and thank goodness more chocolate cookies...


I asked Kim a dumb question today, did she like chocolate? We'll the last time I checked we (females) have a bizarre obsession with the stuff. With the stress at the clinic this week I thought it would be fitting to make something chocolately to take in tomorrow to help quell the anxiety, and start the long weekend off on a good note. And since I'm in the middle of my cookie period as noted before, here they are. I must confess these have been rolling around in my brain since Ryan requested them. Ryan, Morgan and fam got mocha cupcakes from VCTOTW instead - they didn't seem to mind.

Recipe modified from http://www.theppk.com/

3/4 cup margarine or shortening (increase salt)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1-2 tsp instant coffee granules - if you don't have them use strong coffee and omit the water for the egg replacer
1 egg replacer
1/2 cup soy milk
2 T approx applesauce - stewed prunes would also work if you happen to have them around, but I assume not likely

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa - this could be reduced...
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup dark chocolate chunks
1 -2 cups chopped nuts - I used walnuts
optional - dried cherries...
Cream margarine and sugar well, then add the remaining "wet ingredients" which you've pre-combined together (it's about 1cup total of wet ingredients)... then once well combined, then add the sifted dry ingredients (flour through salt). Once combined - do not over beat - it stimulates the gluten and you get tough cookies... Add the extras by hand and spoon onto cookie sheets. My batch took about 11 minutes at 350 convection. I would check after about 8-9 minutes primarily because I use an ice cream scoop for my cookies which makes them like a ball shape - it takes longer to cook in the center - DO NOT OVER BAKE.

As to sifting - it's been noted before, do this as you wish, with a sifter, through a sieve or even with just a whisk in the bowl that has the dry ingredients - this is not a difficult concept.

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