milk chocolate cookies

i love chocolate. i mean, really, love chocolate. i've made chocolate cookies twice in the last three days - the first time was a horrible attempt at martha's recipe for brownie cookies. needless to say, i ended up with crunchy pancakes, not soft, cakey cookies.

so this morning i wanted to bake. what? i didn't care. i just wanted to bake. so after thumbing through 6 cookbooks, recipes clipped out of magazines, and the more than 20 food blogs i subscribe to, i settled on these: a basic milk chocolate cookie...

and boy were they easy. just be careful when you bake them. after 15 minutes, i didn't think they were done, so i let them go another 90 seconds. big mistake. more than half of one pan ended up too-burnt-for-other-people-to-eat, and the other pan is on the verge of chewy.

i really like the milk chocolate, but next time, i'm going to try dark chocolate. and turn them into peanut butter filled sandwiched. i don't know when, but at some point, those are coming.

milk chocolate cookies
adapted from everyday with rachael ray

total time: 30 minutes (includes baking), makes 24 cookies

15 ounces milk chocolate
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

1. melt the chocolate and butter together over a double boiler. remove and let cool.
2. beat the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together at high speed until thick and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
3. while the eggs, sugar, and vanilla are mixing, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl.
4. mix the melted chocolate into the egg mixture at low speed.
5. add the flour and mix until incorporated.
6. refrigerate dough for about 15 minutes.
7. preheat the oven to 375F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
8. when the dough has chilled, drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto the sheets. bake for about 15 minutes, until soft. do not over bake.
9. let cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack.

2011.12.05 this was the Swan's pick for the secret recipe club!