Choco-Loco

I think that the Chocolate Chip Cookie is one of the best cookies on the planet! Seriously – it’s got chocolate, it’s got cookie and when dunked in a cold glass of milk it tastes even more amazing than on its own.

I have baked hundreds of Chocolate Chip Cookies in my career as an amateur urban baker and recently, I’ve been experimenting. I’ve been adding blueberries, orange extract and now modified the standard Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to make it even chocolatier!

So without further ado, here’s what I did:

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients
3/4 dark drown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup vegetable shortening
2 large eggs
1 tsp of good vanilla
1 tbsp of strong coffee or espresso (whatever you have leftover from your morning brew)
2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of good cocoa powder (I like Ghirardelli)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups of chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 deg Fahrenheit. Grease two cookie sheets

Cream the sugars and the shortening together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add the vanilla and coffee/espresso and mix well.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and gently mix/fold in. You don’t want to over beat because that will lead to a tougher cookie.

Mix in the chocolate chips into batter.

Bake cookies for 15-17 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on cookie sheets before chowing down.

Makes 2-3 dozen cookies depending on how you size them.

Although my oven is only a couple of years old (as opposed to the archaic devices found in most NYC dwellings), it seems to have taken on the quirks of an older appliance. This means that the heat is distributed unevenly. So here’s a tip: When baking something like cookies, where your cookie sheets don’t both fit on one oven rack, alternate the sheets every 7-8 minutes until your baking time is up. This ensures an even batch of cookies every time. You can also invest in a brand new convection oven, but I think my trick is cheaper.

Enjoy!