big box impulse buy magazine chocolate cookies

Costco is our big box store of choice. We're card carrying members ever since we had that flat tire in Lancaster county doing the Amish tourism day trip with Donato from Rome and they saved us with great service even though we were not yet members. We have to restrain ourselves in shopping mode there since we are just two, but there are plenty of things we can buy for that number. However, ani has a way of disappearing in supermarkets the moment bob fixes his attention on one thing or another. Then it is usually a tedious search trying to relocate the spouse. So sometimes bob just kills time hoping she will just turn up on her own.

This time he was not far from the discount magazine rack, so he went for straight for the cooking magazines. The Better Homes and Gardens special edition Chocolate: rich dark and decadent jumped right off the rack into bob's hands. The chocolate-espresso tiramisu was the deal sealer. It went home with the other groceries, waiting for excuses to explore its tempting pages. Meanwhile the Armenian Sister's Academy attended by our nephews was doing an election day bake sale at our polling place (a fund raiser preying on the heavy foot traffic) so we were elected to contribute. The triple chocolate cookies and sesame chocolate cookies on the same page both seemed appropriate. One more traditional including the Middle Eastern touch of tahini and sesame seeds, not super sweet, the other chocolate crack. Let's not think about the calories involved. This is just an occasional treat. But after some sampling we only had a total of 3 dozen little cellophane bagged cookie pairs, to be sold for a buck apiece. Not very much profit yield for all this work on our part, but every little bit helps...?

Of course now that we've previewed the two recipes, you can be sure we will find other occasions to repeat their execution. Even though bob is kind of a traditional cookie guy, usually not straying far from chocolate chip or chocolate chocolate chip.

ingredients: triple chocolate cookies

7 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
5 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1/2 c butter
1/3 c all-purpose flour
1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 c granulated sugar
3/4 c packed brown sugar
4 eggs
1/4 c finely chopped pecans, toasted [can be substituted by walnuts or omitted]
 
Chocolate Drizzle:
1 c semisweet chocolate pieces
4 teaspoons shortening

instructions

  1. Melt the chocolates and butter together stirring on low heat until blended smooth. Remove from the heat and let cool about 10 minutes.
  2. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. Beat together the sugars and eggs in a large mixing bowl with an electric beater on medium to high about 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture lightens in color slightly.
  4. Beat in the chocolate until combined, then add the dry mixture and beat until combined.
  5. Stir in the finely chopped pecans/nuts.
  6. Cover the surface tightly with plastic wrap and let stand 20 minutes as the dough thickens.
  7. Preheat oven to 350°.
  8. Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper or aluminum foil and drop rounded balls of dough about 2 inches apart on them.
  9. Bake about 9 minutes or until the tops are set, then cool about 1 minutes and transfer to cookie racks to cool.
  10. Makes about 60 cookies.
  11. If doing the chocolate drizzle option, combine the chocolate and shortening in a small nonstick pan and melt together, stirring until smooth, then remove from the heat.
  12. Drizzle on the cooled baked cookies sitting on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and if you can manage, place the whole sheet in the freezer 4 to 5 minutes until the chocolate firms up.

 

ingredients: sesame-chocolate cookies

8 oz semisweet chocolate
2 T butter
3 T tahini (sesame seed paste)
2/3 c all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 eggs
3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 t vanilla
1/2 c sesame seeds, toasted

instructions

  1. Melt the chocolate and butter in a small nonstick saucepan over low heat, then remove from the heat and stir in the tahini. Set aside.
  2. Stir together the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs with an electric mixer until frothy. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and beat until combined. Beat in chocolate mixture and then the flour mixture until combined.
  4. Cover and chill about 30 minutes or until the dough is easy to handle (?)
  5. Preheat oven to 350°.
  6. Place sesame seeds in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1 inch diameter balls, and roll them in the sesame seeds to coat. Place 2 in apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
  7. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the cookies puff up and the bottoms are set.
  8. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool. Should make about 40 cookies.

notes

  1. Better Homes and Gardens Special Publications: Chocolate: rich dark and decadent (2012), p. 18. Triple chocolate cookies (ours were only double since we blew off the drizzle addon) and chocolate-sesame cookies. We forgot about this incomplete recipe pair for a whole year till the next Thanksgiving when ani remembered the sesame chocolate cookies and bob could not find the magazine with the ingredients and instructions in our cookbook bookcase to insert them here. Ani's sister found it in plain site exactly where bob had looked. Then bob refound the recipes at the BHG website.
  2. Illustrations available.
bigboxchocolatecookies.htm: 24-dec-2013 [what, ME cook? © 1984 dr bob enterprises]