Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have I mentioned I love chocolate chip cookies.  I have been good about not doing too much baking lately but one of the girls at work made some this week.  I was good and I only had two.  But then I wanted more.  Then I joined Pinterest and found a pin that lead me to this link here.  It was all down hill from there.  These are mildly adapted from this recipe.

I know I have my recipe for Triple Chippers in here and they will always be my first love but not everyone like the sweet and salty like I do, so I had to try these.  These are pretty darn good.  Good enought that I made 2 1/2 dozen this morning, gave a dozen away and all that is left is the picture you see above.  I went out to take a picture and they were all that was left.  And I think that if Rob and Nik were still home, I might have not even had those left to take a picture of.  HA  That means that Rob, Nik and I had 1 1/2 dozen between the three of us.  Ummmmmmmm not good..   Well really good actually.  That is the problem.

So like I said it is mildly adapted from the website above. I usually try to go with the original recipe but this one needed a couple things and a couple of things I just like better.  So here it is.

Ingredients
Makes 2 1/2 dozen
3/4 cup salted butter, cut into chunks or already softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract (or just two vanilla like the original calls for)
2 cups flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups (or one bag) semi or bitter sweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

I never remember to take the butter out of the fridge so I just cut it up into chunks into the KitchenAide and let it sit for 10 minutes and then beat it until it is smooth, then add the sugars and cream them together.  Add the egg and extracts and mix until incorporated.

Dump in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix.  Add the chips and scoop out onto your stoneware!  I used my Pampered Chef medium size cookie scoop.

Bake for 10-12 minutes on the lowest rack in your oven.   Take out and leave the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

These would be good to make into ice cream sandwich cookies.  They are nice and thick and dont lose their shape.  They are chewy without being fall aparty.  So very delish!  And unlike Triple chippers they are not crunchy, which I like my chocolate chip cookies to be sometimes.  This gives me some variety.  You know.. that spice of life thing!

Happy Baking.

Chocolate Chunk Chile Mango Cookies

Big Name for a Huge Flavor.  I was sitting innocently at lunch last week and was checking my email and Rob sent me a Facebook link to a Trader Joes site where they use TJ items and make yummy things like this.  I started planning my TJ trip at lunch that day.  After class that night I went and got the chocolate and the mango.  And it sat on the counter until last night.. 5 long nights it sat and stared at me…. begging me to bake them. 

I of course made the mistake of adding to my recipe builder on Weight Watchers.  Not good.  Not good at all.  If they worked out according to the recipe and the amount you were supposed to get.. it would be 4 points per cookie!!  4!! for each cookie.  Undaunted, I knew they needed to be made.  It was something that I had to do.  I mean.. fruit, chocolate, and chili.. what more could be said. 

So last night I got the help of my twin monkeys…  you remember these two right?

and we went to work making these cookies as is.   Somethings I will tweak so I can have them more often but I am trying to not do that with sweet things.  I need to cut back on my sweet tooth.  It is why I am on WW and why it is hard for me to lose it.  So I will make these as a treat, and only infrequently!  The rest of these will go to work tomorrow.. well the few that are remaining.  I have had half my daily points today in just cookies.   Not good!!

In my defense, we had to rush Rob to the ER last while I was making said cookies.  He had a fever and with cancer, that is a bad thing, so his oncologist said get him in to the ER.  The kids had to bake the last two pans..  and my nerves have been shot ever since waiting for the labs to come back.   

Ingredients
6 oz of dark chocolate  (on the TJ bar shown I used 15 squares)
1 bag of chile mangos (if you don’t like spicy you could use 8 oz of dried mango)
1 cup softened butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp hot water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups flour

Cast of characters

Next step is to set the boys/men up to do some heavy chopping.  Nik to dice up the mango and Aaron to chunk up the chocolate.  

At first I was annoyed that the chocolate was splintering and not chunking nicely but once the cookie cooked it was nice to have a little nugget or sliver here and there throughout the cookie. 

While those are being chopped and diced, cream the butter and sugars.

This is what your chocolate and mango will look like..   a bowl of spicy heaven..

Add the salt, vanilla and eggs and mix to incorporate.

Add the baking soda to the hot water and then add to the mixer along with the flour.

Mix 5-6 turns or until about 1/2 way mixed, scrap down your side and then add the mango and chocolate.

Mix until incorporated. 

Drop by spoonful onto a parchment lined cookie sheet or use your well-loved Pampered Chef stoneware.. lol  As you can see ours are well used.  I love how I can cook anything on them and the flavors dont mix.

And the finished product.. ready for a nice study break…..

I have to say, I really liked these cookies.  The mango has a sweetness that works so well with chocolate and the spiciness is just an added bonus.  I can say I would love these without the spicy mango (meaning just dried mango) and other than being a bit crisper than I normally like, these are so rich and flavorful I will be adding these to The Box.   I think I might work to make them a bit less crunchy though. These would be amazing with a bit more chewiness to them.   

Oh and in the end it made 80 cookies, so I corrected it in my WW recipe thing and for 2 cookies it is 5 points.. that was a bit better!!  Enjoy!

Happy Baking!!

Christmas Cookies Part 1- Triple Chippers!

These are one of my favorite cookies.  Rob got it from a cookbook and we have adapted it to fit our tastes and what we like in a cookie.  I dont want to ruin the surprise for you so you will have to just read the ingredients list.

Triple Chippers

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup butter, room temp
1 cup white sugar
1 cup light brown sugar firmly packed
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups coarsely crushed wavy or rippled potato chips (yes potato chips)
2 cups of chocolate chips (we do 2/3 c of  white chocolate and the rest semi sweet)

YES Potato chips!!   You really did read that right. 

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together the dry ingredients in seperate bowl, this is important for texture.  Cream the butter and sugars, add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth.

Add all the three types of chips and mix until dough-ey.   Rob just mixes them with the Kitchenaid.  Since you dont mind if they chips get crushed.  HAHA

Using a cookie scoop put onto your cookie sheet and bake for 12 -15 minutes depending on the size of our scoop.  

Cool and enjoy.  So sweet and salty and yummy!! 

Stay tuned.. it is Christmas cookie time.. so lots of new recipes in the next couple days.

Happy Cooking

Kim