Chocolate Hazelnut Latte Cookies

I really want to try this recipe, but we are currently (not that this is a strange state of affairs) lacking espresso beans, thus we cannot make chocolate covered espresso beans nor espresso powder. So I settled last night for making chocolate chocolate chip cookies based on a recipe from a Hershey's recipe sampler ("7 Great Ways to Make It Chocolate!"). My office mate declared these to be her favorite of my cookie products. I think they're pretty darn tasty myself and Ryan also claims to be a fan. I must confess my cookie making secret, however: really good chocolate makes any cookie a really good cookie (this is apparently not true for peanut butter brownies)--in this case it was Ghiradelli 60% cocoa chocolate chips (the standard) and Ghardetto (no idea on the spelling on that one) cocoa powder. Here's the recipe:

1 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar (I'm sure 1 cup white and 1 cup brown would be fine--or any other proportions, for that matter)
2 eggs
2 tsps (ish--I never measure vanilla) vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour (the flour proportions can be changed also)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup cocoa powder (but throw leftover hazelnut fake coffee mix into the 3/4 cup measuring cup before filling the rest with cocoa powder--yes, everyone should have a 3/4 cup measuring cup--it's my favorite one)
1 1/2- 2 cups chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. Combine flour, cocoa, soda, salt; gradually blend into creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto baking stone. Bake 10-12 minutes. Cool slightly, then move to wire rack to cool completely.

One other cookie secret: I always use salted butter and close to the full amount of salt in the recipe--I think the end result tastes better that way, especially when it involves chocolate. Also, these are the directions from the original recipe. I didn't actually follow them very well, but the cookies are fine (as in, I mixed the eggs with the butter and sugar at the beginning and didn't do the whole "gradually blend" thing).

Yes, I know there's nothing "latte" about these cookies really, but it sounded fancy. I'm sure a latte would be a lovely accompaniment to them.

Peanut Butter "Brownies"

I made this recipe to welcome Ryan back to MT. Of course, I didn't actually follow the recipe: I melted the butter in the microwave (why in the world would you get a pan AND a mixing bowl dirty unless you had to?!), used about 1/4 cup of white sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (and they are not lacking in sweetness) and about 1/4 cup of white flour and 1/4 cup wheat flour (by "about" I mean I was eyeballing 1/2 of the 1/2 cup measuring cup), and added 2 tsp cocoa powder, some peanut butter chips, and some chocolate chips. They're not bad...but they're not all I dreamed they would be. Not even close. I think they'd be better with creamy peanut butter, but we don't have creamy in the pantry regularly.