Dressed Up Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’m home for a week, and I have a long list of foods I want to make. Mostly, I just want to taste my favourite homey flavours, but also there are some things that I just want to try out to see what happens.

First on my list was something to put on a plate that has to be returned to a colleague.
It came with Valentine cookies from his wife- so that was February! The plate sat around the office for months before anyone thought about it. By that time, it was late summer and it seemed either that he wasn’t at work when I brought it (and so it wouldn’t be fresh), or it hasn’t turned out acceptable enough to give as a gift. Food gifts are easily the best, but there’s always my mother’s haunting voice in the background that you cannot return an empty plate. I agree with her of course, but I’ve noticed it might be a fading social ethic. Well, I’d rather offend on timeliness rather than give back an empty plate.

These are based on the Toll House Chocolate Chip cookie, I just added a few riffs of my own. I’ve been wanting to chop up fancy chocolate bars to put into homey cookies to see if it was too much, or just better. This was a good combo. For these, I added coconut (half toasted, half straight), a chopped bar of Lindt orange dark chocolate with almonds, cocoa and extra semi-sweet chocolate chips. I think I would up the coconut quotient if I were making them again. I like coconut and felt it might have been overshadowed by the chocolate, but others feel that’s the right priority. Here’s what I did.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Extras
2 ¼ C all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
5 tsp cocoa
1 C butter
¾ C sugar
¾ C packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ¼ C semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bar Lindt Excellence Orange, chopped (it has almonds in it)
½ C sweetened, flaked coconut

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking soda and cocoa in a bowl.
2. In a larger bowl, cream the butter with the sugars.
3. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
4. Add the dry ingredients in three parts, mixing well as you go.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips, chopped chocolate and coconut until well mixed.
6. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto an ungreased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
7. Bake at 325F for 10 min.