Choc It To Me

I have several 'go-to' cookie recipes that I have collected from different places, favorite cookbooks, classes at school, websites friends have emailed me with the subject line - make me this next time.

Not all of them include chocolate.

Sometimes I think they should.

I mean, doesn't chocolate make everything just a little bit better?

Well, not everything, but seriously who doesn't think adding choc chips to your favorite cookie is a good idea?

With this in mind, I baked two batches of cookies to test my theory, my favorite Peanut Butter Cookie recipe and a new recipe I recently discovered for Nutella Cookies.

Adding choc chips to a cookie recipe is the simplest thing ever. Wait until you have the dough combined, add the choc chips (I made a visual guesstimation on how much to add) and mix slowly until they are worked in. If you are worried about over-working the dough, once they have started to work in, stop your mixer and finish mixing it with your hands.

The Nutella Cookies are deliciously simple and almost end up at the consistency of brownies. I made them for the first time earlier this week at a friends house, I assume there are none left based on the reaction they got.

Mixed and shaped Nutella Choc Chip Cookie Dough
Sprinkled with Sea Salt

 My verdict on the Nutella Cookies with Choc Chips was that indeed chocolate makes a good thing better. Chocolate and hazelnut go so well together and the brownie like texture makes you feel like you could be eating a double choc brownie while the sea salt balances and enhances the flavors.

Finished Product.

Unaltered Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

The Peanut Butter Cookies are ones I make often, and have always gotten a great reception from friends I send them too. Like whoever the genius was that suggested mixing peanut butter and chocolate in the first place, I knew this could never be a bad idea.

In the interest of science (or eating, ok, so it was totally eating) I decided to make a batch of the dough and split it in half, adding choc chips to one half and baking the rest off as a normally would.

Choc'ed Up Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

And of course, since chocolate and peanut butter are almost as intertwined as peas and carrots or apple and pie the outcome was freaking delicious. DELICIOUS.

I'll still show you the control sample plain cookie because, well, those are delicious too but odds are the choc chips are making it into the recipe on a permanent basis now.

Control Sample - Sprinkled with Sugar Crystals

My NEW Peanut Butter Choc Chip Cookies

Of course, you can't add choc chips to every cookie recipe, I know some (my ANZAC Cookies for example) where it just would not work at all. But adding them to certain recipes can make all the difference between

"oh hey, a cookie, yum"

and 

Cheers, 

Joo

If you would like any of the recipes mentioned here, please let me know and I will email them to you.