- Very Chocolate Chip Cookies

VERY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

½ c rolled oats
2¼ c all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 c butter, softened
¾ c brown sugar (packed)
¾ c white sugar
1½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp lemon juice
2 eggs
3 c semi-sweet chocolate chips
1½ c walnuts or pecans

Process the oats in a food processor or blender until fine. In a medium bowl, combine the ground oats with the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla and lemon juice. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture and blend well. Add the chocolate chips and nuts to the dough and mix by hand until all ingredients are well blended.

Chill the dough overnight for best results (I did not and the results were pretty darn fine).

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spoon ¼ c portions (or less is you prefer a smaller cookie) onto a sheet pan. Place the scoops about 2 inches apart. Bake for 16-18 minutes (or less is you are making a smaller cookie) or until cookies are light brown and still soft in the middle.

Notes:

1. These are very similar to my recipe for Ultimate Chocolate Chips cookies but there are more chocolate chips and the cinnamon is a nice addition.

- Double Chocolate Layer Cake

DOUBLE CHOCOLATE LAYER CAKE

Cake:
3 oz good quality semi-sweet chocolate such as Callebaut or Lindt 70%
1½ c hot brewed coffee
3 c white sugar
2½ c flour
1½ c good quality dark cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp baking powder
1¼ tsp salt
3 large eggs
¾ c vegetable oil
1½ c well-shaken buttermilk
¾ tsp vanilla

Icing:
1 c butter
1⅓ c good quality dark cocoa
6 c icing sugar
⅔ c milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300°.

Cake:

Spray 3 (8 or 9 inch) pans with Pam. Line the bottoms of the pans with parchment or wax paper.

Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a bowl. Add the hot coffee. Let the mixture stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

In a large bowl sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the eggs until thickened slightly and lemon colored (about 3 minutes with a stand mixer or 5 minutes with a hand mixer). Slowly add the oil, buttermilk, vanilla and melted chocolate/coffee mixture to the eggs, beating until well combined. Add the sugar mixture and beat on medium speed until just well combined. Divide the batter between the pans and bake in the middle of the oven until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 – 45 minutes.

Cool the layers completely in the pans on racks. Run a thin knife around the edges of the pans and invert the layers onto racks. Carefully remove the wax paper and cool layers completely. Cake layers may be made 1 day ahead and kept, wrapped well, at room temperature.


Icing:

Melt the butter, stir in the cocoa. Alternately add the icing sugar and milk, beating until you reach spreading consistency. Add a small amount of additional milk if needed. Stir in the vanilla. Makes about 4 cups of icing.

Notes:

1. I have revisited my previous comments about other chocolate cakes. This is the very best.
2. The original recipe says it serves 12 to 14 – seriously those folks cannot be true chocolate cake lovers. This is a very tall cake but I would say 10 at the most even given the size.