Crazy Yummy Dark Chocolate Cookies

For Valentine's Day I wanted to make an extra yummy dessert, but I wasn't quite sure what to make.  I was looking through a couple of cookbooks and I found one that had cake and berries and a berry juice poured over it and the whole thing was a dark pinkish-red.  It looked yummy and it would be perfect for Valentine's Day.  I consulted with sous chef as he rode by on his razor and to my amazement he shot it down.  I even showed him the picture.  It looked amazing.  'It needs to have chocolate.'  Smart boy, what was I thinking?  Andy LOVES dark chocolate.  He could eat those bars of 80% dark chocolate without even a glass of milk.  I like chocolate here and there, but it definitely has to have a little something with it...nuts, ice cream, milk, something.  Then I remembered this MS Dark-Chocolate Cookie recipe that I wanted to try.

Perfect!!!  I found the recipe and again consulted.  'Uuuummm, yea, that looks good...but, oh, maybe we should cover the top with some vitamins and then...'  This kid is funny.  He was completely serious with his suggestions and let me tell ya, his 'and thens' are never ending.

 We, of course, shaped ours like hearts.

So here is.

Ingredients

Makes 22

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 4 ounces melted and 4 ounces coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350, with racks in upper and lower thirds. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; mix in vanilla. Combine espresso powder and melted chocolate; beat into butter mixture. With mixer on low, gradually add flour mixture; mix just until combined. Fold in chopped chocolate.
3. Drop dough by two heaping tablespoons, 3 inches apart, onto two baking sheets. Bake until edges are dry, 14 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. (To store, keep in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 3 days.)

 Good choice sous chef.  They turned out amazing.  Oh, and yes I know he is licking the mixer with raw egg on it and salmonella and all that.  Usually they get one lick , but I think he got a little carried away while I was taking pictures.  I always tell myself I will pasteurize my eggs before I bake so that I don't have to worry about it, but I never remember until we are all done and the batter is sitting there begging to be licked.  I do remember eating tons of batter as a kid and never getting sick.  Half the fun of baking was being able to lick the mixer or the bowl.  I should just pasteurize the eggs right when I bring them home from the store, then I would never have to have these conversations with myself.

 See that smile!

  I think I left this batch in the oven a minute or two too long.  See the burned edge around the bottom?  No worries, we had no problem finishing off all of these in just a few days. 

These cookies ended up really huge. Julian and I made the batter, then I had to refrigerate it so that we could go to Ella's Valentine's Day party at her school.  When we got home the batter was really hard.  I let it sit out for about 20 minutes then we shaped them into hearts.  It made it really easy to make them into nice hearts, but they were also really, really thick...and HUGE.  I don't think the pictures show just how large they were.

These babies are rich, also.  I heated mine for about 20 seconds, then topped it with a nice scoop of macadamia ice cream.  My camera battery died just as I was gearing up for pictures of this madness, but I didn't really care because all I really wanted, at that point, was to eat my madness.  It was A-mazing.

This is what happens to kids when you give them sugar and dark chocolate.

They get crazy silly.  Not really.  They hadn't even had dessert yet.  That's just what they do when I tell them I want a picture of them together. 
I love my little sillies!!