Hot Chocolate Cookies

Hi guys.

Just a couple of quick hits since I’ve been a little MIA. No particular reason, I think I’m just in the end of winter, cannot face another sweet potato, lets just eat grilled cheese again funk. Don’t get me wrong—I love grilled cheese. Especially since I discovered the new Arnold’s Everything Rye bread… I’m salivating thinking about it. But grilled cheese isn’t exactly worthy of a write up.

Other things that are:

Orangette’s new book, A Homemade Life. I received my copy yesterday, thanks to an Amazon pre-order, and it is everything you expected from Molly. It is just lovely, the stories, the recipes. A story about her father brought me to tears. The story of how she and her husband met, even though I already knew courtesy of the blog, made me swoon on the subway this morning. And that is not even to speak about the recipes… please, don’t miss this one.

I found these two James Beard cookbooks at a used book sale for a dollar each. I love the covers, and the recipes look amazing as well. I do love the brutal honesty in some of the descriptions. In the bread one, one recipe is noted that he finds it incredibly too salty, but some people like that so he’s including it anyway. Well, okay. Let me run right out and make that one (though, I do like things salty so maybe I’m one of those people he’s referring to).

I recently made these cookies courtesy of Orangette, chewy cocoa chocolate chip cookies, baked in to miniature, with hits of chocolate chips in the mix. The yogurt makes them exceptionally chewy, and it is the type of cookie you can make at the last minute with things kicking around your house. The fact it only called for four tablespoons of butter, which was exactly how much I had left, made it an instant favorite. They taste like hot cocoa in a cookie.

Hot Chocolate Cookies

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. (½ stick) unsalted butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
7 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 cup plain yogurt, preferably not low- or nonfat
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In the microwave, or over the stove, melt the butter and pour in to a separate bowl. Add the sugars, and sift in the cocoa. Stir to blend well.

Add the yogurt and vanilla and stir to mix thoroughly. Add the dry flour mixture, and stir to just combine. Add the chocolate chips and stir to incorporate.

Drop the dough by generous tablespoons onto the prepared baking sheet. I tend to make small cookies, about a tablespoons worth of dough. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are crackly and look set. Cool the cookies in a pan for ten minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Notes, or confessions: I don't usually sift my cocoa. I don't know if I got a particularly non clumpy batch last time, but I've never bothered.

Once, I didn't have any plain yogurt but wanted these cookies desperately. So I used vanilla yogurt, and then halved the amount of extract. I think they were just as delicious.