Triple Chocolate Coffee Bean Cookies

We finally made this recipe. Yes, I changed the name, but that's because we used coffee beans, not espresso beans. I'm too cheap to buy chocolate-covered espresso beans, so I decided we could make our own, and certain places online said that one can use any dark roast to do so. Hence, we bought the darkest roast we could that was on sale at Albertsons and was free trade (conveniently, it was also organic and the same price as regular coffee--which we discovered it always is, even when they aren't all on sale--I've never actually looked at the coffee there before). Then, yesterday morning, instead of cleaning the house, I melted chocolate chips (Ghirardelli 60% cocoa, of course) in our Little Dipper (it was free with our big crock pot) and made chocolate-covered coffee beans...for the next hour. I am no longer too cheap to buy chocolate-covered espresso beans unless we're going to have a chocolate-covering party. I also made chocolate-covered almonds, a chocolate-covered oatmeal peanut butter cookie, and a big mass of chocolate and coffee beans when I was really sick of it at the end. I would like to say, however, that melting chocolate in the Little Dipper is the way to go. It took about 15-20 minutes to melt, but it didn't get very hot at all, and it stayed consistently melted (the Little Dipper stayed plugged in) for the entire time. I was pleased (the idea of melting chocolate in a crock pot came from here).

Our friends Clara and Cindy came over for dinner and cookie making last night. We had Taco Soup, salad, and chips with cheesy salsa, and then we got down to the real reason anyone was there: making these cookies. We basically followed the recipe (except for all the caveats like "aluminum-free"--well, we may have followed those, but I don't actually know--I've never checked. I'm pretty sure our Costco eggs are not organic and I know our Albertsons imitation vanilla extract would not be considered "high quality") except that we used only 1 cup of (local) whole-wheat flour (not pastry flour) and 1.5 cups of (unbleached) white all-purpose flour and we used 1 cup white and 1 cup brown sugar. I thought the recipe was a bit too high maintenance--beat the butter until fluffy all by itself first? Really? But I actually followed the given directions. I don't think it made a bit of difference. The cookies are good, but Ryan is not a fan of the chocolate-covered coffee beans in them (he's not a fan of chocolate-covered espresso beans in general), and I think they'd be better without those as well; next time we'll add more chocolate chips or some peanut butter chips.

Speaking of peanut butter, Clara and I decided that we could add peanut butter to the cookies as well next time (I usually make cookie recipes with 3/4 of the butter that they call for; we didn't this time, but I think it would have been fine--dare I say better?--if we had. So next time, we may use 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup peanut butter--if we're feeling adventuresome. Otherwise, we'll use 3/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup peanut butter. I say these things like we're actually going to carefully measure...you all know that's not true!). Clara and I also declared the dough to be (as usual) significantly better than the cookies, Ryan didn't comment, and Cindy is a rational, self-controlled person who is able to overcome her desire to eat cookie dough with raw eggs and did not partake of the dough.

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.