Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies

Everyone has a favorite indulgence when it comes to dessert. Some people get weak at the knees at the sight of cheesecake, others weep at the first forkful of a good pie, some wring their fingers at the bakery door at 6 a.m. for the first whiff of a fresh scone.

Myself, well, I would have to say  I'm a cookie person. Cookies are just good old fashioned dessert fun as far as I'm concerned, and I adore almost all of them. My grandma  used to make special diabetic cookies (think splenda and a lot of raisins) for my dear grandpa, and in retrospect they were actually pretty nasty, but I devoured them just the same because they were cookies, and they held a certain power over me.

My  love and admiration for cookies has resulted in a lot of experimenting, and in my personal collection of baking recipes, the cookie section is the most swollen of them all by far. One of my (current) all-time  favorites is an almond dark chocolate chip cookie:

Almond Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
-1 cup butter
-3/4 cup sugar
-3/4 cup brown sugar
-3/4 cup almond butter
-2 cups flour
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup almonds
-1 T. vanilla
-1/2 t. almond extract
- t. baking powder
-1 t. salt
-1.5 cups dark chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet.  Cream butter and sugars, add eggs. vanilla and almond extract. Mix flour, baking powder and salt, and add to batter until incorporated. Fold in chocolate chips and almonds. Using ice cream scoop or spoon spoon onto cookie sheet. bake for 10-15 minutes until set.


 I dipped half the cookies in melted chocolate and sprinkled them with almonds to give them a bit of flair.




 Can I get a "hell yeah" ????

yum.

Picture this:  plain jane classic peanut butter chocolate chip cookie  gets a makeover.

They have a crisp bite of a with a decadant nutty almond flavor. They go really well with their standard companion the glass of milk, or my personal standard companion of the cup of coffee. These are cookies that inspire me to use a phrase that normally makes me cringe, "NUMMY"!! 

This is a pretty  good example how a simple change to a recipe can liven things up a lot. Before I dipped these cookies in chocolate and almonds, people weren't nearly as excited by them as they are now. Just a little garnish goes a long way, and its helpful that these are tasty as all get out. Do yourself a favor and make a good pot of coffee, make up a batch of these delicious little devils, and take a quiet moment to yourself to really appreciate the greatness that is COOKIE.

No comments:

Post a Comment