Lovin' From the Oven

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

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I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day.. whether it was with your significant other or with a box of chocolates. My boyfriend surprised me and took me to go see the movie “Valentine’s Day” and I was absolutely delighted. Any movie with Bradley Cooper is lovelovelove! As for dinner, I ended up cooking my first real meal ever for the boy and it wasn’t too shabby, if I do say so myself. Call me crazy, but I’m terrified of cooking. I’ve never been good at it or really tried. It’s just not my cup of tea. For some reason, I find it so much more complicated and stressful than baking. I ended up making lemon/cilantro chicken, mexican rice, roasted potatoes, and rosemary focaccia bread. A little ambitious for my first cooking meal, I know.. but the boy is worth every bit of it. The bread turned out beautifully despite my hatred for yeast, but more on that later! Now that I’ve broken down my fear of cooking, you can expect me to branch out from the oven.

Usually, I’d take any other flavored cookie over chocolate, but there are those days where nothing can satisfy you quite as well as a chocolate cookie. Today was one of those days. This recipe comes slightly adapted from allrecipes.com and I chose it because it had 1,402 reviews. Anything with over a thousand reviews is a definite try in my book. This recipe didn’t fail me— thank you allrecipes! The nuts blended well with the chocolate, as always. There’s something about chocolate and walnuts that’s just magical. The cookie itself was pleasant, fudgy, and moist… exactly the way a chocolate cookie should be.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 3/4 cups brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2/3 cup cocoa powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
  2. In large bowl, beat butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
  3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Sheet Cake

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So I just got fingerprinted today for part of my teaching credential program. 80 bucks, seriously!?! I just spent my month’s money worth of food to have my identity taken. I mean, the process only took ten minutes at most, so I’m still confused at why it costs so darn much. Teachers don’t even make any money, anyways! Rip off the ones that have the money to be ripped off.. Sigh.. End rant.

I painted my room last night with my dad and couldn’t LOVE it more. It used to be a bright seafoam green (I went through my Roxy stage ten years ago and decorated my room to fit the whole “surfer theme”) and now it’s a tan/light brown/beige color. It makes such a big difference on the way my room looks now. My room is now currently my little side project that I’m working on and I’m revamping it to make it more suitable to my age. Haha.

Now onto the cake…Thank goodness for Pioneer Woman. I’ve never met her or talked to her in real life, but I feel like I know her. Those are always the best bloggers, right?— The ones that you seem to know oh so well. I don’t take any credit for this recipe, for this one is truly hers. You can find it posted on her blog here. This recipe has wandered across the baking world and finally made its way into my kitchen. I’ve had it bookmarked for months since it’s been raved about so much, and I can now stand behind it with the rest of the bloggers. I took it into work and everyone raved about it. It’s delectably moist without having too much of an overpowering chocolate taste. It’s a light cake, so be careful not to eat the entire thing in one sitting (or do, who am I to tell you what not to do?)!

For the Cake:

  • 2 cups Flour
  • 2 cups Sugar
  • ¼ teaspoons Salt
  • 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
  • 2 sticks Butter
  • 1 cup Boiling Water
  • ½ cups Buttermilk
  • 2 whole Beaten Eggs
  • 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla

    For Frosting:

  • ½ cups Finely Chopped Pecans
  • 1-¾ stick Butter
  • 4 Tablespoons (heaping) Cocoa
  • 6 Tablespoons Milk
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla
  • 1 pound (minus 1/2 Cup) Powdered Sugar
Preparation Instructions
  1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt.
  2. In a saucepan, melt butter. Add cocoa. Stir together.
    Add boiling water, allow mixture to boil for 30 seconds, then turn off heat. Pour over flour mixture, and stir lightly to cool.
  3. In a measuring cup, pour the buttermilk and add beaten eggs, baking soda, and vanilla. Stir buttermilk mixture into butter/chocolate mixture. Pour into sheet cake pan and bake at 350-degrees for 20 minutes.
  4. While cake is baking, make the icing. Chop pecans finely. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add cocoa, stir to combine, then turn off heat. Add the milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Stir together. Add the pecans, stir together, and pour over warm cake.
  5. Cut into squares & eat.

Day 6: Grammy’s Chocolate Cookies

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Whew! We’re half way through the journey. Day 6 out of 12 is complete. Now that all the simple cookies are out of the way, the last half of my twelve days of cookies will be a bit more elaborate and unique. I have 10 days left to bake 6 types of cookies. Wish me luck!

Day 6 of my twelve days of cookies: This recipe comes from Martha Stewart Living, Feb 2000. Oh Martha, how you’ve done it again. Your cookies never cease to amaze me. These cookies were delicious for the chocolate lover. I didn’t have any Dutch cocoa powder on hand (where the heck do I even buy that besides online?), so I substituted regular cocoa for it. They turned out just fine to me. The only thing that I would change is to down the sugar a little bit or omit the final stage of rolling the dough in sugar because they were a bit on the sweet side. They would have been better as plain ol’ jane.

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
  3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

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