I recently received a most unusual but wonderful gift. Neighbours were moving and giving away all the pantry supplies they couldn’t take with them, and I was consequently the recipient of a massive supply of baking chips! I’ve been slowly using them up but with my own move cross-country approaching, I think I need to step up my chippage.
So I pulled out one of my favourite cookbooks, Nancy Baggett’s The All-American Cookie Book. It features page after page of delicious cookie recipes and mouthwatering full-colour photos, each accompanied by a short narrative of the recipe’s origins and regional history. For example, there are black-and-whites from New York City, Pecan Meltaways from Georgia, and that treat with most elusive beginnings, the Snickerdoodle. I chose a cookie loaded with add-in’s for maximum chip usage…scroll down for the info.
(book image courtesy of Amazon.com)
But first, in honor of my serendipitous chips, A GIVEAWAY! Leave a comment between now and Monday August 4 at midnight, and I’ll send you your very own copy of The All-American Cookie Book. In your comment just tell me your favourite regional dessert—cookie or otherwise, American or otherwise—with a link to the recipe if you want to get really fancy. I’ll randomly select a name from the entrants and announce the winner on Tuesday August 5. Is this a cheap ploy to get readers to comment on my post? Absolutely! But I love hearing from you, and if it scores you an awesome cookbook in the process, then why not?
Okay, enough boldface type. The above cookies are called "Death By Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies". They’re quite a mouthful, both literally and figuratively. Dense and heavy, you can smell them from across the room–and they melt most sinfully on the tongue. They contain a tablespoon of corn syrup, which I think adds to their chewy fudginess. I like this recipe because you can throw whatever you like in. I used semi-sweet, bittersweet, white chocolate, and butterscotch chips, but coconut, dried cherries, and even candied ginger would be tasty too. Just be careful not to overcook them; remove them from the oven when you get your first whiff of chocolatey goodness. They’ll look underdone, so just let them firm up on the baking sheets before removing them.
Death by Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe courtesy of The All-American Cookie Cookbook)
1 cup butter (I used margarine)
scant 1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 cup good quality cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 tablespoon light or dark corn syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla (I used a full tablespoon)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups add-ins, any type of chips or nuts, etc. that you like
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy, then mix in cocoa powder. Add baking soda and salt, stir to mix, then beat in eggs, corn syrup and vanilla. Stir in flour until smooth, then toss in chips and combine. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees–though of course this baking time will depend on the size of cookie you make. I’ve done both bite-sized and monster-sized with this recipe. Just adjust baking time longer the bigger the balls of dough. Just watch them carefully and remove when you get that first whiff!