Fixation Friday: Chocolatiest Crinkles

Yay! The first "challenge" of my very own baking group. We make anything and everything chocolate twice a month. I like to call our members "addicts" because really, who isn't addicted to chocolate. I've been really excited to start this group. It isn't strict, there aren't too many rules, and the main point is to have fun and eat chocolate. It can be a complicated recipe, or it can be as easy as chocolate rice krispie squares. Whatever. If you are interested, you can go to the site Chocolate Fixation, and there you will also find the recipe for this week.

These cookies are called Chocolatiest Crinkles. I chose them because I haven't made them since Christmas and Glenn loves them, and I thought he deserved a treat. They are also pretty easy to make too. I tweaked mine a bit. I don't roll them in powdered sugar before I bake them because I don't like the way they turn out. Instead I bake them without any added sugar, but after they are mostly cooled, I sift some over the cookies and it looks like snow. Fun stuff. These are great cookies, I reccommend them to anyone who likes chocolate.

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

Whew... that title is a mouthful.

Like I said last Tuesday, I am totally getting this done on time. I am actually writing this on Wednesday the 27th and setting it to post at 12:01 AM on Tuesday the 2nd. Hooray for me. Enough back patting for me though.

I really enjoyed this recipe. It was so simple to make, but then again, most of Dorie's recipes are. If you can keep everything you need for the recipe close by, most recipes whip up in a matter of minutes. I can't really say the same thing about the pies and such, but oh well. Anyway, Glenn just opened the fridge and went, "Mmmmm... Cookie dough!" As he went to reach for the bowl, I quickly informed him that there's oatmeal in it. As soon as I could finish speaking he looked at me all disgusted like and says, "Why do I let you buy oatmeal? Never again, that's nasty!" In case it wasn't obvious enough, Glenn doesn't like oatmeal. Whatever, I don't make stuff with oatmeal all that much, and when I do, he doesn't need to eat it. It's not like I don't have an alternative form of sweets! The chocolate banded ice cream torte is sitting in the freezer right now, not to mention he just finished a piece of it. He boggles my mind sometimes, but I love him. I'm a major p.i.t.a. for him so I suppose we are even.

Anyway, now that one cookie has made it from bowl to oven to my mouth, I can officially say that I really like these cookies. I made a couple minor changes. First, I used half peanut butter chips and half chocolate chips and second I used dark brown sugar instead of light brown. Both changes made a big difference. Well I don't actually know that, but they sure are enjoyable cookies. They have that deep warmth and richness to them, if that makes any sense, but they feel good to eat. I suppose that's why they, whoever they is, coined the term "comfort food." Since I like my cookies on the chewier side, I baked mine at the minimum time, but I would suggest a minute or so less. I'm really glad I made these despite Glenn's protestations. This week's TWD in one word: warm

TWD: Granola Grabbers

Hmmm, what to say about these um, cookies, if you will. They weren't bad. They weren't terribly life alteringly good either. They were decent cookies. I can't say that my granola grabbers were the same "healthier" version in the book, but mine were more like the rebellious spawn. I don't care for raisins in cookies, so I took them out and swapped them with white chocolate chips. I didn't feel like peanuts, and Glenn doesn't like slivered almonds, so I took those out as well. I subbed candied pecans in place of both types of nuts, and I must say that it was very wise to do so. My blend of french vanilla granola (courtesy of Fresh & Easy) along with the white chocolate chips, candied pecans, and dark brown sugar instead of light proved to be a tasty cookie.

Glenn took some to work, as usual, and I got the dreaded "they were okay" comment from him. He said people liked them, but definitely weren't crazy about them like they were with my CCCs or the sinful brownies I made. Oh well, I can't be absolutely amazing all the time.

These aren't terribly attractive cookies either... hmmm.

Thanks to Michelle of Bad Girl Baking I ventured out and tried something I probably would have overlooked in the first place. I did enjoy these, and it was a fun process that was really very easy. This week's TWD in one word: crunchy

You Are So Beautiful, To Me

Oh my goodness, I have finally reached Chocolate Chip Cookie (CCC) Nirvana, and oh how beautiful it is. I think it is a common goal of every baker to find their perfect CCC recipe. For some it is the Toll House recipe, and for others it is a recipe passed down from generation to generation. I was fairly happy with the Toll House recipe, but it wasn't giving me what I wanted. I wanted a big thick cookie that looked beautiful on the outside, but perfectly soft and chewy on the inside. Most importantly, I wanted crispy, but not burnt edges. I figured that just wasn't going to ever happen, so I settled with the old faithful Toll House.

Things change though. Change they did after I found myself browsing Amy's blog South in Your Mouth and I saw that she did a CCC comparison between two recipes, one from David Lebovitz and the other from Jacques Torres. Judging from Amy's pictures, I knew that Jacque's cookies were destined to be mine. I followed the recipe very closely, and despite the protests of my tastebuds and my chocolate cravings, I refrigerated the dough for a full 36 hours.

How did it all end? Like I said earlier, this is Nirvana. The second I took them out of the oven I started dancing around and singing "You are so beautiful, to me! Can't you see? You're everything I hoped for, you're everything I need!" You know how it goes. They looked perfect, but how did they hold up in the taste tests? Glenn says to me, after I stopped staring at him, anticipating his first bite, "It's like you made these in heaven and brought them down here to me." Ahhh, I couldn't be happier, or could I? After the obligatory photo shoot with these beauties, I sat down with a glass of milk, a plate of cookies, and an open mind. My mind was officially blown. Perfectly sweet, chewy, just enough chocolate, and yes, crispy edges. There you have it. I have found my perfect CCC. The search has ended, well, at least until someone tells me there is something better out there. Thank you Amy for inspiring me with your lovely pictures, and thank you Mr. Torres for creating the most unbelievable CCC's I have ever devoured.

Scotchie Scotchie Scotch

No, not the drink, but butterscotch. Yum. I actually made these cookies before we left for Boston, but I haven't gotten around to uploading the photos and actually making this post. June has been a busy month for me, a couple trips, a one year anniversary, and let's not forget a grueling Daring Bakers challenge. It may have been a busy month, but it has been a fun month for sure.

Along with the Blondies I attempted to make earlier this month, I was in a butterscotch mood and wanted some cookies to eat at the baseball game so I made some Oatmeal Scotchies. This recipe came from my best friend's mother and it is very tasty. If you like your oatmeal cookies chewy I suggest you bake these at the minimum time and take them out despite what they look like. They last a little longer that way anyway. Enjoy!

Oatmeal Scotchies

1 1/4 cup unsifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cup old fashioned oats
2/3 cup coconut
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl.

Mix flour mixture into creamed mixture gradually.

Stir in oatmeal, coconut, and chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 7-10 minutes and let cool.

How Is This Even Possible?!?!?

PB&C is never bad, right? Wrong. I found this recipe online from a link on yumsugar that led me to here. From the looks of it, these cookies seem very tasty and combine the two most perfect things on earth, foodwise. Unfortunately, this combination of chocolate and peanut butter proved disastrous. The cookies were as easy to make as cookies are, the pre-bake dough taste test received raves from Glenn, but as soon as they came out of the oven they were defeated. They did not taste good warm. I gave them a chance to cool and they did not taste good cooled either. I am chalking this one up to an unfortunate baking event and so life goes on. Just for future reference on what not to bake in case you ever come across this, here is the recipe.

By the way, this recipe won the Pillsbury Bake-Off contest back in the day, 1951. I guess in 1951 they had crappy tastebuds, because this recipe would come in dead last on my scorecard.

Chocolate Nutbutter Cookies

1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup chunky or creamy peanut butter
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups Pillsbury all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a large baking sheet.

Beat sugar, shortening, and peanut butter together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla.


Stir together flour, baking soda, cocoa, and salt in a separate bowl. Gradually mix in the egg mixture and the milk alternating between the two.



Drop the dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheet. Flatten cookies slightly with a fork in a criss cross pattern.


Bake for 6-10 minutes (in my oven, 6 minutes was probably a little more done than I like).

Check Out My Double D's.... Cookies That Is

The other interesting recipe we found in the Bon Appetit Magazine was called Deep Dark Chocolate Cookies (Double D, get it?) and it was captioned with "these dense chewy cookies will satisfy even the most intense chocolate craving." They weren't lying. These cookies are very intense and perk you up like a cup of coffee. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to throw in some espresso and really give these cookies a boost. Coffee always brings out the chocolate flavor a little better even if you can't taste the Joe.

Double D Chocolate Cookies

nonstick vegetable oil spray
1 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips, divided (I used Ghirardelli)
3 large egg whites at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, divided
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray two large baking sheets with nonstick spray.

Melt 1 cup chocolate chips in glass bowl in microwave, stirring a couple times.

Beat egg whites to soft peaks using an electric mixer.

Beat in 1 cup powdered sugar gradually. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft marshmallow cream.


Whisk 1 cup powdered sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a medium bowl to blend.

Beat dry ingredients into meringue on low speed.

Stir in lukewarm chocolate and 1/2 cup chocolate chips. The batter should become stiff. (Mine didn't so I refrigerated it for about 20 minutes.

Scoop out tablespoon sized balls of dough and place on cookie sheet. A cookie scoop works best for this. Space two inches apart on baking sheet.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until tops of cookies are puffy and cracked.

More Celebration of Peanut Butter Lover's Month

Hooray for more peanut butter! I am going to make myself sick eating all this peanut butter, but who cares. I don't like biscotti and that was the second recipe in my book, so I skipped to the third recipe which was peanut butter cookies. Sounds great to me. Only problem is I start gathering my ingredients and realize that I have a half a stick of butter left. Bummer, that means less cookies. Oh well, I just half the recipe and then throw in some chocolate chips for good measure, and these little beauties are what comes out. They aren't bad or anything, I am just not that impressed. A peanut butter cookie is something to savor, to truly experience, and I am just really picky about them. I want them to be soft and chewy and a tad bit too sweet. I just didn't get that from these, but they were still good. Glenn suggested that next time they be flattened more because one bite is a little too much rich sticky peanut butteryness to handle in your mouth. I am still working on developing a better pb cookie recipe, but this will suffice until it is complete.

By the way, trying to figure out what half of an egg looks like is an interesting task.

PB Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar (I used dark brown because it's yummier)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup peanut butter (crunchy is best)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt

Sift the flour and baking soda together. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugars until soft and creamy. Combine the egg, flour mixture, peanut butter, and salt. Add the butter and sugar mixture and mix until smooth.

Wrap the dough in foil or parchment and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight. (I totally skipped this step)

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Shape the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on a baking sheet. Flatten slightly with a fork. Bake 15 minutes, or until golden. (I thought peanut butter was already golden)

Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Don't Discriminate Against the Shortbread

I have never liked shortbread, it's just so plain to me and it is severely lacking in the chocolate and/or peanut butter department. But when I asked Glenn what I should make yesterday, he suggested just starting at the beginning of my 500 Cookies book and knocking out each recipe, one by one. That first recipe just happened to be shortbread. Incredibly easy and incredibly tasty. Needless to say, I actually like shortbread now... I guess as long as I make it myself. I don't like that shortbread is traditionally extremely dry and crumbly. I prefer a little chew to my cookies.


Scottish Shortbread (I don't understand the Scottish part)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup + 2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons rice flour (I just used regular flour since I didn't have this specialty kind)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
Raw sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and line a 7 x 11 inch pan with aluminum foil. Sift the all purpose flour into a bowl and stir in the rice flour.

Beat the butter and the sugar until smooth. Add the vanilla extract. Work the dough until it starts to clump together, then press it into the pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The shortbread will seem to be done before it is, so ensure that it cooks the full 45 minutes (or if you are like me, you completely ignore this warning and do it your own way).

Remove from the oven, sprinkle with the raw sugar, and cut into fingers. Cool for 20 minutes and remove from pan. For an extra tasty treat, dip half of the cookies into melted chocolate.

Is It Supposed to Look Like Brownie Batter?

Well, I got a new cookie cookbook which is super exciting, not that I need anymore, but this one just begged for me. It was so cute and small and lime green and has 500 cookies in it. I had to have it. Anyway, I am flipping through it and I see these cookies that look almost identical to my favorite Chewy Chocolate Supreme cookie at the Great American Cookie Company. I of course had to try it. So I make it, and taste it, and it is delicious, but when I go to drop it by tablespoonfuls on the pan, it looks just like brownie batter, smooth and slightly runny. I go on and attempt to neatly place this runny mess on the cookie pan and stick it in the oven. I second guess myself and decide to add more flour to the cookie dough so it looks more like cookie dough. When I look in the oven, I begin to think that maybe it's going to run onto the bottom of the oven, but thankfully I didn't. It turns out that they actually kinda sorta turned out how they were supposed to, but it was too late and I had already made my changes. Whatever, next time I will give the chocolate more time to cool, and maybe that will help the runnyness of it all.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

6 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1/3 cup all-purpose flour (I later added an extra 3/4 cups)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse (i just used 1/2 cup chocolate chips)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Melt the bittersweet chocolate with the butter. Set aside and allow it to cool slightly. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract until thick and pale. Stir the melted chocolate into the egg mixture and then gradually add flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chunks.

Drop tablespoons of mixture onto baking sheets and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Slide the parchment paper onto wire racks to cool.

The Cookie With No Name

I made these cookies for a Christmas party last year and they were SO good! They're called Chocolatiest Crinkles which is a name I despise. I actually don't make them the same way so the name ultimately becomes irrelevant, but my husband and I cannot seem to come up with a better name, or even just a name that doesn't suck. This is yet another great recipe from my great book Luscious Chocolate Desserts by Lori Longbotham.

I would put up a picture of these if I had one. I just never have an excuse to make this many cookies, but in the event that I do, a picture will follow. In the meantime, there is a beautiful picture of the cookies in the cookbook.

Chocolatiest Crinkles (or whatever you want to call them)

5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler, whisking until smooth. remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.

Whisk together the lour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium speed in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and beat until well blended. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well blended. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three batches, beating just until well blended after each addition. Transfer the dough to a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours, or as long as overnight.

Position the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter 2 large baking sheets.

Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls, roll in the powdered sugar to coat thoroughly and heavily, and place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. (This is where I decided to change it up. Instead of rolling the balls in the powdered sugar I just bake them as directed and then as they are cooling, I use a sifter to sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookies. I think it looks prettier and is much easier and less messy as well... to each his own.)

Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on wire racks for 2 minutes, then transfer to the racks to cool completely. (The cookies can be stored in layers separated by wax paper in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.)