Screaming and mysteries and gifts and chocolate cookies
Hi all! I got an email from someone recently that started "I hope you're doing 'well' right now" and it made me laugh out loud, because yes, doing "well" is all any of us can ask for right now, isn't it? I'm puttering around and reading (some) and writing (a little) and baking and tending my garden and screaming inside my heart, how about you? One recommendation I have for all of you in this hard time is to send something, no matter how small or silly, to a friend. I've sent ice cream to two friends in the midst of this, and it never fails to cheer me up when I get that shipping notification, a friend sent me an enormous jar of cheese balls last week, and it made me laugh so hard I think my neighbors were concerned, and I was just telling someone earlier this week about the time a friend texted me a $5 Starbucks card when I was going through something tough, and it was so kind it made me tear up. We're all doing lots of screaming inside our hearts right now, so anything we can do make our loved ones smile or laugh or have a moment of happiness is a real balm.
This week's book/series recommendation is courtesy of my friend Nicole (no, not that Nicole...no, not that one either, this is my OG friend Nicole, no offense to the others, I love them very much too). I've been doing regular video chats with her and another friend throughout this pandemic, and we always talk about what we're reading, and a few weeks ago she told us about this mystery series she loves, about Ruth Galloway, an archeology professor in Norfolk, England -- there's a grumpy, kind of unlikeable police officer, a marsh, lot of very old bones, and a druid, and a whole lot more. I read the first one, called The Crossing Places, and I am now ADDICTED. If you've read all of these, don't spoil them for me; I'm only through the sixth book because now my friends and I are trying to read them all on the same schedule, so we're patiently waiting until we can start book seven. Also, as a reminder, here's my Bookshop, with lots of my book recommendations all in one place!
One day last week I had one of those bad cooking days -- the dinner I made was just not at all good, and I was annoyed about it, and also annoyed and depressed about so many other things, so I decided I needed to bake some cookies to have a win that day. I wanted chocolate cookies, so I sort of blindly decided to make this recipe, and I'm so so grateful I did. These cookies are super dark and super chocolatey and are crisp and chewy at the same time, and they come together pretty quickly. I will say that the headnotes make this recipe seem a little easier than they are -- it's all "no need to chill the dough or roll into logs and slice!" and I was like "Oh yay awesome, this will be fast!" and then I was midway into the recipe and it told me to chill the dough for an hour, and I was like "...but you said???" And yes, this was my fault for not reading the whole recipe through before I started baking, but I was desperate, okay? Anyway, yes, you absolutely have to chill the dough for an hour, and if your kitchen is warm like mine, maybe two -- my first batch of cookies spread a TON and were super thin because they needed to chill more, but the second batch was perfect, so this is a strong warning to chill the dough for closer to two hours if necessary, even though that's annoying. BUT these cookies are delicious, so if you want delicious cookies that you have to wait a little bit for, make the dough first thing in the morning and stick it in the fridge and then bake them later (or make them right before bed and bake them first thing in the morning and have one with coffee for breakfast, they're perfect with coffee). Okay, enough rambling, here's the recipe.
Salted Double-Chocolate Chewy Cookies
Ingredients
2 cups (256 g) unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup (72 g) unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, such as Maldon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt or fine sea salt
1 cup plus 4 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks or 282 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature (I cut the butter into small cubes and just used it as is, the stand mixer helps beat it into shape, but if you don't have one, let the butter warm up some first)
1 cup (225 g) dark brown sugar
1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar, plus 1/2 cup (100 g) for coating the cookies before baking
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 ounces (225 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I was very lazy when I made them and just used chocolate chips, which was fine but I think chopped chocolate would be better)
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and both salts. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a big bowl using a hand mixer or just a wooden spoon and elbow grease, beat the butter until creamy (about 30 seconds using the stand mixer, two to three times long without it). Add the sugars and the vanilla, and beat until light and fluffy and well blended, about two minutes with a mixer. Beat in the eggs, one and a time. Then gradually add the flour mixture (I did this part by hand, because no matter how low I turn my mixer, flour flies everywhere otherwise). Stir in the chopped chocolate. Cover the bowl and chill until firm; at least one hour, or as long as you want.
Pour the remaining 1/2 cup of granulated sugar into a shallow bowl. Scoop a tablespoon of dough out of the bowl and roll into a ball, and then roll in the sugar to coat completely. Continue with the rest of the dough. Evenly space the balls about 2 inches apart on parchment paper lined baking sheets (I did nine cookies per sheet, these cookies spread a lot, even if they're well chilled).
Bake for about 12 minutes, enough so that the edges are set, but the centers are still soft. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 or so minutes before transferring to a rack to cool completely. Eat them warm or at room temp, with coffee or ice cream or just by themselves, and your heart will stop screaming for a few minutes.
xoxo
Jasmine
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