Triple Chocolate Cookies

Day 11

If we’re honest, we probably agree that, for Valentine’s Day, there’s no way to even consider sharing a recipe that doesn’t include chocolate, right? I’m talking lots of rich, gooey, mouth-watering chocolate—chocolate delivered in the vehicle of triple chocolate cookies that have the flavor of brownies and the texture of thin, crispy wafers or soft crumbly biscuits, depending on the desired thickness and baking time. Today’s recipe really does showcase one of the best cookies I’ve ever eaten. Although I’m personally partial to butterscotch oatmeal cookies, this choice of Ghirardelli’s Triple Chocolate Cookies is a favorite on my rotation. I found the recipe a few years ago on the inside wrapper of baking chocolate, and I’m so glad I did.  

Copyright, Doug Kapustin Photography, 2013

Of course, we should celebrate those we love everyday in a thousand ways, but, more often than not, we take our loved ones for granted. For that reason, Valentine’s Day is a great day to remind us to express our love. And, what better way to say I love you than to make a sweet treat for those we hold dear? Sweets are such nice gifts, especially when they can be wrapped in small packages and left on pillows or in the lunch bags of our unsuspecting recipients. I find that cookies and truffles are the best choices for gifts since a batch can be divided between several recipients. For some wonderful reason, chocolate remains a staple of gift-giving, and I know that these Triple Chocolate Cookies will become a part of your next get together or special gifting occasion.  

As a child, I would go to great lengths to find chocolate. My favorite was the Kit Kat bar, hands down. It still ranks among my favorites, for sure, but I’ve since added Lindt milk chocolate bars and Ritter Sport Butter Biscuit bars to my list. If you’ve never tried either of those, I highly recommend both. Plus, if you’re wanting a fun five minutes, visit the Ritter Sport website and look at the bizarre chocolate bar choices and Ritter’s colorful wording to describe each. The website is sort of like a chocolate version of the Mentos commercials—really fun and quirky!

My father and mother—bless their hearts—must have been so frustrated and confused by such a rotund child with so many food obsessions. As far as I was concerned, every outing had to include elaborate meal and snack planning. Even every trip was centered-around the restaurants we passed, at least in my mind. My parents were kind and they humored me, but I was so different from them that they surely scratched their heads in incredulity.

Movies were another food adventure for me. I would not only look forward to the next movie we’d see at the cinema, but I’d plan and procure snacks that would best suit the movie plot. Once, I remember going to the movies with my cousin and her friends when we were teenagers, and we decided to buy burgers to hide in our bags for the event. Because the movie was Top Gun, I clearly needed a guy’s burger (made perfect sense to me), so I ordered a chili cheeseburger from Hardee’s. I cannot adequately convey my cousin’s irritation when she reached in her nice canvas purse after the theater lights dimmed, only to find a chili-soaked wrapper and a dripping burger. Irritated or not, she had no choice but to hand-it-over. And I had no choice but to enjoy it,  to lick chili from a paper wrapper, watching the hijinks of Goose, Ice Man, and Maverick. 

This year, I made the Triple Chocolate Cookies  for Valentine’s Day, so maybe I’ll sneak some into the local movie theater for old times’ sake. They’ll be a lot easier to hide than a chili cheeseburger.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Ghirardelli 60% Cacao bittersweet chocolate chips -1/3 cup all-purpose flour -1/2 teaspoon baking powder -1 cup Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate chips -1 cup Ghirardelli white chocolate chips -1 cup chopped pecans -6 tablespoons unsalted butter -3 large eggs -1 cup granulated white sugar

Directions:

	Melt the bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter in the top of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth.
	In a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with an electric mixer until thick; stir in the chocolate mixture.
	In a small bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder; stir into the chocolate mixture. Gently mix in the white chocolate chips and pecans.
	Using a sheet of plastic wrap, form the dough into two logs, each 2 inches in diameter and about 8 inches long. Because the dough will be quite soft, use the plastic wrap to hold the dough in the log shape. Wrap tightly; refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until firm.
	Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.
	Unwrap the dough. With a sharp knife, cut the dough into 3/4-inch slices. Place the slices 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.
	Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until a shiny crust forms on top of the cookies but the interior is still soft. Let cool on the cookie sheet. Then remove from the cookie sheet with a metal spatula.
	Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week. (Recipe modified from Ghirardelli recipe for “Ghirardelli’s Ultimate Chocolate Cookies”.)