Easy Dark Chocolate Brownies

These brownies come together really quickly and are cakey and chocolatey. I made these for a movie night, and they were a hit.

Ingredients
4.25 ounces dark chocolate (I used Hershey Dark)
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 325 F with a rack in the lower third. Spray a 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Melt the chocolate and butter, stirring frequently until smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar. When the mixture has cooled, add in the eggs one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Add the flour and stir until well blended. Scrape the batter in the pan and spread it evenly.
Bake 30 minutes. Cool the brownies in the pan.
Yields 16 servings.

Dark Chocolate Cookie Cups

The dark chocolate richness really came through in these bite-sized chewy cookie brownies. I baked them in mini muffin tins and found that I liked the ones slightly underbaked better. The time I listed below fully bakes them, but take off a few minutes if you prefer underdone. They're perfect for a summer ice cream sundae.

Ingredients
2 bars (4 oz each) 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs 
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line mini muffin tins with baking cups. 
Melt chocolate in the microwave or over a double boiler
Allow the mixture to cool slightly (so you don't cook the eggs).
Stir in sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla; mix well. Gradually fold in flour, baking powder and salt until blended.
Spoon tablespoons of dough into the baking cups. Bake 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before enjoying. 

Yields 2 dozen

Triple Chip Cookies

If you are in need of a chocolate and peanut butter fix, this will do the trick. The cookie itself is cakey, and there are a ton of chips. I tried them warm out of the oven, but I much preferred them after they cooled completely.

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Melt butter in a saucepan. While the butter cools, mix together sugar, vanilla, and egg. Add in the melted butter. Gradually mix in flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in peanut butter chips, semisweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips.
Spoon tablespoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheets.
Bake for 12 minutes. Cool completely on the cookie sheet.
Yields 2 dozen

TCHO Chocolate Chip Cookies

Earlier this year I visited the TCHO Chocolate factory and store in San Francisco. while I was there I picked up a bag of 66% dark chocolate baking disks. Using the bag of chocolate and a recipe I found on TCHO's website, I made these delicious cookie. Mine were a bit more cakey than what appeared in the picture on TCHO's website since I refrigerated the dough a bit before baking. Next time I'll make them right away.

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 1/2 ounces TCHO Dark or Milk Baking Discs, chopped coarsely

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beat butter and sugars at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla, beating until blended.
Combine flour, soda, and salt in a small bowl; gradually add to butter mixture, beating well. Stir in TCHO Chocolate. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto lightly greased baking sheets.
Bake for 8 to 14 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. Remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Yields 5 dozen

White Chocolate Cookies

I found this recipe on Cookies and Cups and had to try it. I'm normally not a huge fan of white chocolate and always end up trying to use up the white chocolate chips I buy on sale (just in case...). Even though this recipe calls for white chocolate chunks, I figured the 2/3 package of white chocolate chips I had left would do. I brought these cookies to work, and they were a big hit. Other than the chocolate chips for chocolate chunks, the only other change I made was using margarine instead of butter.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 Tablespoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

2 1/2 cups flour

20 oz coarsely chopped white chocolate (2 1/2 - 3 cups)

Instructions

In bowl of stand mixer cream together butter and both sugars for 2 minutes in medium speed.

Turn speed to low and add in eggs and vanilla. Turn mixer back up to medium and beat until smooth, about 20 seconds.

Turn mixer back to low and add in salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour, mixing until just combined.

Fold in white chocolate chunks.

Chill dough for 24-36 hours.

When ready to bake preheat oven to 375°

Line baking sheet with parchment paper and form dough into heaping tablespoon sized balls, placing 2 inches apart on baking sheet.

Bake for 6-8 minutes until golden around edges. Don't overbake.

Allow to cool on baking sheet for 3-5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to finish cooling.

Yields 3 dozen.

Sprinkles Ice Cream

Happy 4th of July everyone! This is a magnificent summer treat. It was so hard to pick out a choice, but I just couldn't say no to the cookie sundae with cookie dough ice cream. At $7.75, the cookie sundae wasn't cheap, but it is perfect for sharing and still very filling. It starts with half of a Sprinkles cookie. Then it’s topped with a scoop of ice cream and your choice of two toppings. Finally the other half of the cookie is crumbled on top. I went with a chocolate chip cookie and chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with hot fudge and red velvet cupcake crumbles on top. Amazing! The ice cream itself was just OK; it’s really the toppings that make it a great dessert. Since only locations in California are open (http://www.sprinklesicecream.com/), you will have to make your own at home this holiday weekend if you can’t make it here. :)

In addition to ice cream, they also sell cookies and brownies for $3 each. Besides the excellent chocolate chip cookie on my sundae, I tried the salted oatmeal cornflake cookie. The cookie is large and thick and obvious good quality, but the flavor combination is a little strange. I also tried the double chocolate cookie (delicious and brownie-like) and the peanut butter pretzel (not too heavy on the peanut butter flavor, but the pretzels were a bit chewy).

PS- Don’t worry about a long line. It moves fairly quickly.

Christopher Garren's and a Giveaway!

My friend over at Eating My Way Through OC let me know I needed to try out Christopher Garren's in the South Coast Collection. Fantastic recommendation! I picked out three of their cookies (chocolate chip, ultimate chocolate chip, and chocolate decadence). The cookies come in two sizes (90 cents for an average size cookie that you would bake at home and $3.50 for a jumbo cookie). All three cookies were buttery, soft and chewy. The chocolate decadence (dark chocolate cookie with mini chocolate chips and white chocolate chunks) was my favorite. The chocolate chip was well-executed, and the ultimate chocolate chip was a perfect "everything" cookie with nuts, oatmeal, and coconut in addition to the mini chocolate chips.

If you can't make it to Costa Mesa, have cookies delivered to your home. Gourmet Cookie Bouquets is hosting a summer cookie giveaway. Visit their website for a chance to win one of two beautiful cookie arrangements. (The sock monkey bouquet is especially cute!) Enter the contest before July 7th.