First Recipe!

I figured that the first recipe I post here should be something of my own. So I went with the recipe that has gotten the most positive feedback. This is definitely not one for diets though. Or kids. :) Too much sugar and caffeine in this one.

Chocolate Coffee Overdose
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons instant coffee
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup cappucino chips(available from King Arthur Flour )
10 ounces dark chocolate covered espresso beans
7-8 oz dark chocolate (I used one special dark bar and one dark chocolate bar with espresso)

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Assemble dry ingredients: In a medium bowl whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, coffee powder and cocoa powder. Set aside.

Assemble the wet ingredients: In a big bowl or with an electric mixer beat the butter until it is fluffy and lightens a bit in color. Now beat in the sugar - it should have a thick frosting-like consistency. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg gets incorporated before adding the next. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as well. Add the vanilla and mix until it is incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix in about four waves. Stir a bit between each addition until the flour is just incorporated. You could add all the flour at once, but it tends to explode up and out of the mixing bowl and all over me every time I do that. At this point you should have a moist, brown dough that is uniform in color. Stir in the espresso beans and chocolate chips by hand and mix only until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.

Drop the cookies onto baking sheets: I like to make these cookies medium in size (they are rich!) - and use roughly one heaping tablespoons of dough for each one. I leave the dough balls rough and raggy looking - I never roll them into perfect balls or anything like that - this way each cookie will have a bit of unique personality.

Place the cookies in the oven: Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes on the middle rack. You don't want to over bake these cookies at all or they will really dry out. If anything, under bake them just a bit. When they are done, pull them out to cool.

After cookies cool: melt the chocolate on low heat, and then drizzle/smear it over the cooled cookies. With this, if you put chocolate in saucepan on stove while cookies are cooking, will often start melting from heat coming off the oven. Just gets things going a little faster, while saving on energy costs.