As I’ve told you in the past, my baking skills are ehhhh….. Take for example the cake disaster of 2011. It was one of my daughter’s birthdays and I wanted her to have a beautiful cake with homemade fondant for her party. The previous year I’d made this delicious chocolate cake that my BFF had given me the recipe for and it turned out great. So I figured I’d make the same cake again and do some different decorations. Well, I followed the directions to a T. And it didn’t turn out right. It got stuck in the pan badly and just didn’t look right. I had to toss it. I persevered and made another one. Guess what? That one didn’t turn out right either! At this point, I was pissed which resulted in a lot of yelling/crying, my frustrations being taken out on a cake pan that I slammed repeatedly into the trashcan trying to get the cake out of it and my husband telling me to just go buy a cake. He’s always the voice of reason when I reach THAT point. And I was probably at like an 11, on a scale of 1-10! I didn’t listen to him though and I went ahead and made ANOTHER cake, but used an old standby and it turned out fine. Anyways, it’s incidents like that (and that wasn’t an isolated one!) that make me leery of baking.

BBBBUUUUTTTT, I’m getting better and taking on much smaller baking projects. Like, cookies! My hubs is usually the cookie baker in our house but (and I love him dearly!) his cookies are never consistent! They always taste good but they look different every time. So I’ve taken over the cookie duties lately and here’s the result of one of my baking experiments.

Although it’s a double chocolate cookie, it’s not overly sweet (which I’m not a fan of!) but has just enough choco goodness. And this is a great cookie base so if you want to switch out the chocolate chips for something else, that would work too. I’ve got some white chocolate chips in the pantry that are calling my name!

Chocolate Chocolate Cookies (makes 3 dozen cookies)

• 1 3/4 c. white sugar
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 c. all purpose flour
• 3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 2/3 c. mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a stand mixer, or a large bowl using a hand mixer, add in the butter and sugar. Beat for several minutes until combined and smooth. Add in the eggs and vanilla and mix together. Scrapes the sides in between mixings. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda and whisk together. Add half of this to the mixer and mix until combined. Then add in the rest of the dry ingredients. Add in the chocolate chips and mix once more just until combined. Using a cookie scooper, scoop the dough and place onto baking sheets. I usually do 12 cookies on 3 baking sheets. Place in the oven and bake for 8-9 minutes. The cookies will puff slightly. Remove from oven and let sit for about 3 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack. The cookies will flatten as they cool. Once completely cooled, place in an airtight container or a large Ziploc bag.

Enjoy my fellow chocolate lovers!