Cookie Nights

 It's that time again! You're probably going to be seeing a lot more recipes from me in the next while, with Thanksgiving around the corner and Christmas on its way. I've given cookies as gifts the last couple years and I'm searching for a few new recipes for the collection. You'll probably be seeing lots more cookies on here in the next little while.

Some time ago I posted a link to this blog and told you about the peanut butter pie. It was spectacular. I've been reading her blog since then and decided this week to make her Chocolate Snap cookies.

First I want to say I love her blog. It reminds me all the time to treasure my family and the time we spend together. It also makes me feel a little less guilty about expressing my affection through food--it's just how I do it. Maybe I should do it less, or at least with more healthy options, but there's just a part of myself I can give to them in the kitchen that I can't access any other way. Her blog is heartbreaking of late, I'll warn you, but it's certainly worth a read. It reminds me just how precious life really is, especially the life I know.

So I made these this week. It's an inexpensive recipe to make, easy, and requires ingredients I generally keep around the house anyway. To me the cookies taste like hot chocolate and I considered adding little marshmallows next time, just to see how they turned out. Anyway, here's the original recipe, copied directly from her page, exactly the way she posted it.

Chocolate Snaps

1cup (129 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (6 grans) cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
1/8 teaspoon (1 gram) salt
1/2 cup (86 grams) bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (4 ounces) butter, softened
1/4 cup (54 grams) sugar
1/4 cup (62 grams) brown sugar, light or dark
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.
Place the choclate chips in a glass, microwave-safe bowl, and cook, uncovered, for 90 seconds, or until melted. Set aside to cool slightly.
In a large mixing bowl on medium-high speed, beat the butter and sugars until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla; beat for 1 minute until light and fluffy. Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl and beat for 1 more minute, until well-mixed.
Add the flour mixture, turn the mixer onto the lowest speed and mix until the flour is just incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Turn speed up to medium-high and beat for 30 seconds. The dough will look more like a thick cake batter than traditional cookie dough.
Fill a pastry bag and squeeze coin-sized dollops of dough 1-inch apart onto the prepared baking sheets. I can fit 24 cookies each on my half-sheet pans. Bake for 9 minutes, then remove sheets from the oven and let cool on the tray for two minutes. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies to the rack and let cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough, or see note for freezing formed cookies to bake at another time.


These cookies have a beautiful consistency--soft and light and almost fluffy, if it were possible for a cookie to be. I'm in love. Nice Guy and his cousin destroyed nearly an entire batch of these in one evening, they liked them so much.

So I wondered: How would these be if I didn't melt the chocolate chips but instead left them whole? I only made two changes to the recipe. The first was using a tablespoon of cocoa powder instead of two teaspoons and the second was leaving my chips whole. I used slightly more than the recipe called for but not much. This is the result:

They have the same soft and fluffy texture of the original recipe. They taste great and have the same lightness on the tongue. They don't have tons of chips (something I'd probably change next time around) and the chips aren't really visible in the picture since they mostly lay along the inner layer. They are worth a try, though, especially if someone in your house prefers the soft-and-light texture over the gooey-chewy alternative. These would be perfect for my dad (he likes softer cookies on account of his bad teeth) and I'll probably make him some for Christmas.

Jennie also has a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I will be trying soon, so check back and I'll let you know how it goes.