Free Time

I was euphoric that my midterm would be over today, and then I would have infinite time to blog and think of what to cook and improve....And then I realized, the reason I had so much time before midterm was because I didn't schedule work before midterm. So, today and tomorrow I work from 6:15 to 9:15 at night, and I have class till five. But will this prevent me? No, not at all. Case in point: I am in chemistry class right now. (Anyone who knows will tell you its not worth listening anyway).

So, what am I going to make today? Dinner will be a quick fix between 5 and 6:15 (Healthy Choice Chicken Margherita Frozen Meal? Yes. Its surprisingly good). So, it will be late night cooking, which means dessert! Sweets are the best way to end the day. And what is the best "dessert" food to make on this Wednesday night? Cookies! Cookies and milk seem like they would be very conducive to preparing for my writing for children (i.e. read kids books, write kids books, be generally very happy) class on Thursday.

Next item on the agenda: what cookies? Well, there are these cookies I have been dying to try for some time. I found them on Orangette (this blog is amazing and beautiful, and she has great recipes), and she adapted them from Alice Medrich's recipe. Alice Medrich is a chef with her own blog. These cookies are: Chewy Cocoa Cookies. Orangette adapted them by adding chocolate chips, and I followed suit. So: Chewy Cocoa Cookies with Chocolate Chips.

I want to thank Orangette and Alice Medrich from the bottom of my heart. I love these cookies. I just had one warm from the oven, and its soft and chewy and chocolatey and cocoa-y (which is somehow a different flavor) and just delicious. Chocolate chips really do make a difference. Those little bursts of melting chocolate just made my day. Cookies are so easy to make, and they are so satisfying. Why don't I make them all the time? I don't know. Right now, I'm just trying hard to prevent myself from gobbling down another one - or four.

Some notes on baking: Don't let not owning ingredients/materials get you down! I never have real butter, so I use margarine or Smart Balance in all my recipes, and they come out just fine. I don't own a wire rack, so I cool things on top of stovetop burners (not while the stove is on....), on my roasting pan (as shown in the top-most picture), or I take the rack out of my toaster oven and place that across a bowl and then cool things on that. I also don't own parchment paper, so whenever anything says: "line with parchment paper," I say: "butter whatever-you-are-putting-stuff-on extra." Its always worked out for me. Also, the original cookie recipe called for 1/3 cup light brown sugar and 2/3 cup sugar. I used all regular sugar, but I'm sure it would have been delicious the other way too. Lastly, note me using my crock pot to mix things in because I ran out of bowls, below.

Chewy Cocoa Cookies with Chocolate Chips
Adapted from Orangette and Alice Medrich

Makes 25 cookies

1 cup All-purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/8 tsp Salt
4 Tbsp. Butter or Margarine
1 cup Sugar
7 tbs Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/3 cup Plain Yogurt
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heavily butter a baking sheet. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together. Melt the butter in a separate microwave-safe bowl. Then, add the sugar and the cocoa to it, stirring to blend fully. The mixture will look very thick and pasty. Next, add the yogurt and vanilla, mixing thoroughly and getting rid of lumps. Then, add the flour mixture and stir enough to combine. Lastly, add the chocolate chips and stir them in.

To bake: scoop a generous tablespoon of dough, roll into a loose ball, and push down slightly to make it a little flat before placing on the baking sheet. About 8 or 9 cookies should fit on a standard baking sheet, spaced about an inch apart from each other and the edges. Bake them for 10-12 minutes, until the tops have cracked slightly and the cookies seem set. Move the sheet pan onto a wire rack and cool the cookies on the pan for 10 minutes. Then, transfer them onto the wire rack to cool completely. Repeat until you use up your dough.