Double Chocolate and Mint Chip Cookies

So this week I’m working on my edits, which is great, but you know what’s even better? Working on your edits while eating cookies.

Levain Bakery* is a hole-in-the-wall shop on the Upper West Side, which just happened to be right on my way home from work this summer.

Okay. So it was actually forty blocks away.

But if you pass by the place and smell the deep, rich scent of dark chocolate, you’ll understand why I occasionally took a detour. Or why, on weekends, I’d buy Levain cookies and smuggle them into whatever café I was writing out of that day.

Because those cookies? Best thing ever. Chocolatey, buttery, gooey – these are no stale, cocoa-skimping pucks. These are COOKIES.

Also, they’re four dollars.

Guys. I am actually the cookie monster**. But even I don’t want to shell out four bucks a cookie.

 

Om nom nom

 

Which is where my best friends come in.

And voila! The internet already had the same idea, and thus my happiness was replenished.

I make these cookies all the time, swapping out the chips for my mood. Today, I want peppermint. During December, I want chocolate and peppermint ALL THE TIME. I make peppermint simple syrup and have homemade mochas each morning. I make peppermint bark. I sprinkle crushed candy canes onto brownies.

Today, I lost the pepper, and just added a bag of mint and dark chocolate chips to the cookie dough. It was an excellent choice. The cookie monster would be proud.***

Giant Double Chocolate Cookies

Yield: 12 very large cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter, cubed

1¼ cup sugar

2 large eggs

½ cup dark cocoa powder

2¼ cups all-purpose flour

¼ tsp. coarse salt

1 tsp. baking powder

2½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (or white chocolate chips, mint chips, any chip ever!****)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes.  Blend in the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed.  Mix in the cocoa powder until well blended.

Add the flour, salt and baking powder to the bowl and mix on low speed just until incorporated.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Transfer the dough to a work surface and knead briefly by hand to be sure the ingredients are well combined.

Divide the dough into 4 ounce portions (or divide into 12 equal pieces).  Roll each portion of dough into a ball and flatten just slightly into a disc.  Place on the prepared baking sheets, a few inches apart.

Bake 16-20 minutes.  Let cool on the baking sheets 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

 

Source:  Love From the Oven, via Annie Eats, via My Baking Addiction, via Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. It’s big foodie world out there, guys.

 

*Oh God they have a COOKIE CAM on their site? I’m totally waving at the camera next time I go in.

*Veggie monster will be in the corner eating kale chips and feeling righteous.

**Did you know Cookie Monster’s dad is big on energy conservation, water conservation, and environmentalism?? Me neither. Wikipedia told me. But damn, that’s a bad-ass family.

*** Except for this one. He just wants to be a real boy, not part of your digestive system.