Chocolate Cookies

I may have started out my passion for baking with chocolate chip cookies, but I cannot deny that these chocolate cookies hold a closer place in my heart. ;) Lame? Ahahahaha! Anyway, chocolate cookies are a rather generic term - it can be cookies with cocoa powder in it, cookies with chocolate cream, cookies dipped in chocolate, etc etc etc. There's a whole slew of cookies named "Chocolate Cookies"

However. These chocolate cookies are special. They are probably closer to my dream cookies than any other cookie I've tried baking so far. They're very crisp, buttery, and almost melt in your mouth! They are very very good. The only major difference from Famous Amos cookies is that they don't have the chocolate chips, that's all. But.... that's not everything... even though there's only one major difference, there are many many many subtle differences. Its as crisp as Famous Amos, but the texture is somehow different. The dough is also different, although its much much better than that for chocolate chip cookies (v2). In any case, here you go!

What you need:
125g butter
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup self-raising flour, sifted
120g chocolate, grated

What you do:

1. Beat butter and sugar in a small bowl until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in condensed milk and vanilla essence. Fold in sifted flour and grated chocolate.
3. Drop two teaspoonfuls of mixture onto greased baking trays. Allow room for spreading.
4. Bake at 160 C for 15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on trays for 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
5. (Optional) Drizzle cookies with melted white and dark chocolate to decorate.

As cookie recipes go, this is quite easy and relatively unusual. It gives about 3 dozen smallish cookies. Well, they start out small in the baking tray, but expand to quite large cookies, because of the baking powder, I guess. Even so, these cookies are not at all cake-y! They're crisp and crunchy and with a 100% cookie texture. :D People who like chewy cookies won't like this at all, I'm afraid, since there is no hint of softness at all. But to me, that's what makes it so good!

This cookie is unusual in the fact that it doesn't use egg, and that it uses condensed milk. Perhaps this somehow contribute to the cookie texture??? Hmm.... I really should try putting in chocolate chunks as well as the grated chocolate. Perhaps I'll have the cookie of my dreams, finally! :D The grated chocolate is another thing that's unusual!

Hadi and Justin liked this as well. They're getting used to my baking now, I think. (Too much free time! I should be studying! D: ) Hadi usually gets the lion's share, so much so that Justin is complaining now. Not only does Hadi dip into the bowl during the butter+sugar creaming stage, he also digs in at almost every stage, particularly when the cookies are waiting to be baked in the oven. This is a dangerous stage to leave the cookies without any supervision. Before you know it, half your dough might be gone! ;)

But the danger doesn't end there. Once the cookies are baked, Hadi will spring on them. Hot from the oven, cold from the container - Hadi eats the most cookies in the house :P So Justin insisted that we count up the cookies this time, and divide them equally. Fair enough. That was how I knew we got 36, ahahahaha ;)

To tell you the truth, I don't actually like EATING cookies all that much. I don't know why I like baking them so much, but I do. But these chocolate cookies are different :D We used to make these during Raya all the time! It was very popular, if I remember correctly :D But then, our meringues kind of replaced them. Ah well ... ;)

Quote of the day: In the cookies of life, friends are the chocolate chips