Death by Chocolate Cookies

I just couldn’t resist! What better dessert for this past Mother’s Day than something chocolate. Of course Bob agreed because he could take some in his lunch everyday.


To make it special, I just served some cookies with vanilla bean ice cream and made a luscious chocolate sauce to drizzle over the top. Enjoy.

Death by Chocolate Cookies

2 packages (16 ounces) semi sweet baking chocolate
¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
¼ cup (half a stick) butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
2 cups chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Chop 1 package (8 ounces) of the chocolate, set aside. Melt remaining 8 ounces of chocolate. Stir-in brown sugar, softened butter, 2 eggs and vanilla.

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to chocolate mixture. Fold in chopped chocolate and nuts.

Using a cookie scoop, drop cookie dough scoops onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets, leaving about 2 inches in between each cookie.

Bake for 12 minutes until cookies are puffed and feel set to the touch.

Cool on wire rack for one minute then transfer cookies to rack to cool completely. Makes about 2 ½ to 3 dozen cookies.

Chocolate Sauce:

1 cup half and half
1 stick cinnamon
½ disk Mexican Chocolate, chopped

Combine half and half and cinnamon stick in medium sauce pan and heat to scalding. Lower heat and add chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts and remove from heat. Remove cinnamon stick before using.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

How heavenly! Late afternoon coffee and a stack of Triple Chocolate Fudge cookies. I finally got some time after a couple of days of calking and painting. I looked around, and there were no cookies in sight. I love cookies. No one could believe I'd slipped up and not made any for days. It never even entered my mind since there are always cookies in the house.

I purchased a wonderful baking book by Marcy Goldman, A Passion for Baking. She bakes using a method she developed for keeping the bottoms of cookies from being over heated and therefore a little too crispy as compared to the rest of the delicious snack.

She stacks two cookie sheets and lines the top one with parchment paper. She then proceeds to bake her cookies this way. I tried it and it works beautifully. She also uses this method when making bread. She places the loaf pan on top of the double cookie sheets. This also keeps the bottoms of the loaves from browning too much before the rest of the loaf has had a chance to bake through. Now, I don't know about you, but I've always had this particular problem. I haven't tried this method with bread yet, but it sure worked with the cookies.

Triple Chocolate Cookies
This recipe is adapted from Marcy Goldman's cookie recipe: Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies. She is the author of A Passion for Baking. Her method of baking uses two cookie sheets stacked together to keep too much heat from over baking the bottoms of cookies. And, after testing, it really works.

¾ cups unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons butter flavored shortening
1 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 ¼ cups flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup half and half
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Stack two baking sheets together and line top sheet with parchment paper.
Cream butter and shortening together and blend in both sugars and salt.
Mix in eggs and vanilla.
In another bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking soda. Sift to eliminate lumps.
On lowest speed of mixer, add flour to butter mixture. Add half and half.
Fold in semisweet and white chocolate chips.
Chill batter for 10 minutes.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop cookie dough and place two inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 15 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely.

I also added some M & M Premiums - Mocha Flavored to the tops.
Makes about 2 ½ dozen.

Emeril’s Dessert Coffee
I saw this recipe in the Woman’s World supermarket magazine. I’ve made coffee with Kahlua, with rum, with tequila but I’d never tried using amaretto. The taste was superb.

¼ cup Kahlua
1 tablespoon cocoa
2 tablespoons amaretto
hot coffee
whipped cream
chocolate curls

For each cup:
Dip rim of cup in Kahlua and then in cocoa. Add Kahlua and amaretto to each cup and fill with hot coffee. Top with whipped cream and chocolate curls or (as in my case) chopped chocolate. Divine! Enjoy.