double chocolate cookies; tuesdays with dorie

this weeks recipe for tuesdays with dorie was a simple one.  actually, that was exactly what i needed, a simple cookie recipe.  a chocolate cookie can do many things and after the craziness of travelling for a week, chocolate cookies were just what i needed.  to make the recipe, pick up a copy of baking with julia by dorie greenspan.

 the recipe uses a pound of chocolate.  twelve ounces of bittersweet chocolate and four ounces of unsweetened chocolate.  the recipe instructs you to melt half of the bittersweet chocolate with the unsweetened chocolate.  the other six ounces of bittersweet chocolate is cut into chunks and stirred into the batter.  since i think there can never be too much chocolate, i went ahead and added an additional six ounces of white chocolate chunks with the bittersweet chunks.

the recipe calls for chilling the dough for at least three hours if not longer.  but before you try to scoop them out, let them soften a bit; chilling makes the dough about as hard as cement.  i used a portion scoop, size 40 which will have a purple handle if you buy it from a restaurant supply.  my yield was almost 4 dozen after adding the extra chocolate.  the recipe states that you will get 24 large cookies and they are "spreaders" but i did not think they spread much at all.  the baking time was accurate; don't go over the 12 minutes or they will not be fudgy.

these cookies are somewhere between a cookie and a brownie making this recipe  worth the pound of chocolate it calls for.  but don't let that stop you from adding extra chunks-white, milk or dark.  they are best when warm so don't hesitate to reheat the leftovers in the oven for a minute or two.  be warned, they are addictive.

generally, i ask people to buy a book but if that is not an option, consider borrowing it from a library or a friend.  however, many of these recipes are up online already and you can find it by searching for "double chocolate cookies baking with julia".