extra brute. oh yes, EXTRA brute.

January 29, 2010 Jen Driesbach

this post is simply for me.
no deep thoughts.
no sassy client (unless you count my cocoa which by the wayside is EXTRA brute not just brute EXTRA brute).
and no sweet lighting.

just me and my kitchen.

tidbit about me...I LOVE to bake. I always have. someday I will have a bakery/cafe/music house. I will. but I can't really cook well. which is why one of my goals this year is to cook something somewhat challenging w/ "real" ingredients at least once a week. but I do love to bake. it's kinda like counting money to me. it's therapeutic in the fact that if you add butter, sugar + flour together you'll get a cookie - much like 1+1=2. plus, when you feel like the creative side of your mind is on overload it's nice to not have to be creative and still create something. I just re-read that last sentence and don't think I made sense to you smart english type readers...but it does to me. ;) bonus factor too, with minimal effort, you get something seriously tasty in the end. and today, as I pack for a weekend w/ high schoolers + friends after a busy day working...I just wanted a cookie.

what kind of cookie you ask?

well, today was a double chocolate mint chip cookie kind of a day. I don't bake too often anymore b/c of well, life and the fact that it causes my jeans to shrink in the laundry - strange phenomenon. but I figured if I was going to go to the effort and calories, I might as well make it a good one. :) my chef friend dave from liberty gave me a bag of cocoa that was a sample from one of our vendors and it was labeled "extra brute" so I figured it had to be extra good - it's not every day that one bakes with EXTRA brute cocoa, you know. :)

so here you go:
step one...cream the butter, sugar + eggs til' fluffy. I kinda doubted that the cookie would turn out as chewy as I'd like b/c I like brown sugar...but was really happy with the outcome of all granulated sugar. just a little fyi for you white sugar doubters. :)

after adding the vanilla. sift the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. then add slowly to the egg mixture. now, usually I just use the nestle cocoa powder at this point. but how could I just do that when I have a ginormous, restaurant size bag of "extra brute" cocoa powder. nestle cocoa powder must only be just brute...pbsh regular brute...so if you have the EXTRA brute...by all means use it.

after you mixed the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients, add the mint chocolate chips. another tidbit about me. I have a thing with words. some are really funny - like pueblo. say it, it's funny - especially if you say it slow in a tommy boy fashion. :) and technically these chips are called morsels. morsels is just simply a gross word. say it. say it again s.l.o.w.l.y. see, it's gross.

anyways add their awesomeness to your batter. it's worth it no matter what they're called.

finally, scoop these badboys with your scooper thing onto your pan and bake for eight minutes in a three hundred fifty degree oven. when we moved to this house we had no appliances so matt bought me a super amazing kitchen aid convection oven that I LOVE because he is amazing and he loves me. and it's bakes super evenly. I love it. and I love him. :)

take them out of the oven and let them cool and enjoy! totally worth the 125 calories per cookie...this picture would be absolutely perfect if there were a perfectly chilled diet coke right next to it...but I'll just leave that to your imagination :) plus, I wonder if anyone really reads ALL the way to the end, so I'm pretty sure I could say whatever I wanted to right now and it wouldn't really matter! ;) that being said I LOVE DIET COKE. it's amazing. it really is.

here's the recipe in case you wanted to make awesomeness in your home too :)

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar (promise you won't miss the brown)
2 eggs
1 T. imitation vanilla extract only 1 1/2 tsps. of the real stuff if you have it
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder (go for the EXTRA brute if you have it. ;) )
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 bag of Nestle mint chocolate chips
how to make them:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the mint chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.