Free Chocolate and Some Cookies

A few weeks ago I got some free chocolate from TCHO, which I "won" by being one of the first 40 people to post a comment on Blakemakes.

I was super excited to win something so fabulous that I didn't want to just eat it. I wanted to incorporate it into my baking and my first thought was cookies. I had some macadamia nuts that were begging to be used up and some reeses pb chips. Definitely a night for some cookies with all that on hand.

After I chopped up the chocolate I tasted it.

And I wasn't sure if it was going to be enough, so I thought for a moment that I'd just eat it (which I really, really wanted to do!) But Chad told me it looked like enough and he wanted me to add it. So I did. Um, Let me just say that it made the cookies. Not overloaded with pb chips, a hint of fabulous chocolate from TCHO, and macadamia nuts? Yes, perfect. (Chad agreed, not really verbally but his mmmmmm's told me so.) Along with the other ingredients, it was the perfect cookie. Thanks to another recipe from Cooks Illustrated, Blakemakes, TCHO, and the ingredients I had on hand we had a great little treat!

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chunk, Peanut Butter Chip, and Macadamia Nut Cookies

(That's long, I know ; P )

2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1–2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet, I used the dark from TCHO)

I added 1 cup reeses pb chips and a cup of macadamia nuts. I only had about a 1/2 cup chocolate.

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

3. Following illustrations below, form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)

4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.