Tuesday, September 16, 2008

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers!



Well it's my third cookie recipe in as many weeks--which is not a bad thing...at all! Each cookie has meant a totally different experience--each lovely and delicious!!

This week's Dorie Greenspan concoction was Chocolate Chunkers, chosen by Claudia of Fool for Food.


Ok, attention ANYONE who is a fan (like myself) of a sweet-and-salty tug-of-war-kinda-snack: These.Are.For.You.


When I go to the movies I love my popcorn--but I enjoy following the salty up with chocolate of some sort. Dear Husband is quick to point out that we are opposites in our sweet-salty combo...I go for salty first, then my candy...he is the opposite--he likes his sweet first THEN his popcorn. (He is also quick to quip that he can never count on me to leave him enough popcorn when he wants to switch to salty--because it's usually half-gone by the opening credits). When I saw these cookies were on the agenda, I was so excited to try!

The raisins caused some pause, as I'm not a huge fan of them in cookies--but I went for it and wanted to make these as Dorie recommends. I also opted to chop up all the chocolate as she suggested rather than buy the chips.



The raisins caused more pause than anticipated. Almost as bad as my cake flour incident, I stared trying to figure out which ones would be best. I finally chose something that said, 'seedless raisins--plump and moist!" and added them to my cart...but then was happily surprised as I went to get my chocolate--there, in the baking aisle, I saw this little 1-cup packet of SunMaid "baking" raisins (baking raisins--who knew?!) I happily switched out the huge tub o' raisins I thought I was going to have to buy for these lovely little things called "baking raisins" (which only makes me wonder why all raisins are not created equal...)



I chopped up my chocolate diligently, using the recommended white chocolate as well as dark, and then compiled the dough, and was about to scoop them out when I got a call from my niece. I told her I was baking and within 10 minutes my sister-in-law dropped off 2 helpers!




They were bummed out they missed the fun part of measuring out everything and mixing it up--but were impressed with the cookie scoop I had--and we proceeded to scoop out a sheet....





...that was as far as they got because from there on out it was all about finding Auntie Lisa's Brady Bunch DVD collection--which I gotta say, cracked me up. Enabling those minds to be classic TV fans is something I take pride in. (And I figured any Brady they watched meant one less chance I would be asked to put on the dreaded Drake & Josh)



I told them they could watch TV while I got up every 5 minutes to scoop and bake (I have 2 ovens, so had 2 batches going at once). In between my batches as I came in and out of the TV room, I fielded questions like, "Who's older Marica or Peter?" "What happened to their other parents--did they get divorced or did they die?" "I like the stairs in that house.." "Cindy is sooo cute!" (which, in Season 1, you must admit, she really was) And they agreed that Alice is the best one of them all. PLUS they learned the theme song after about 2 episodes -- darn near brought me to tears...

So all in all, a productive day for me...doing one of my favorite things--baking--while taking on my favorite role: Auntie Lisa. And they were sent on their merry way with cookies (and the Season 1 DVD's) in hand!

Oh, ya, the cookies--I got off track again (don't say I didn't warn you). Yes, the cookies--Dorie, thank you!!! These are melt-in-your-mouth good...they satisfy any type of snack urge you may have--salty, sweet, fruity, you name it!

The only thing I'd do differently is cut down on the peanuts--or chop them up more than I did--I love the 'salty', but it was all I tasted in a lot of bites.

I also like all the 'stuff' in them (thus the "chunk" in the name), but being a huge cookie fan, there wasn't as much "cookie" as I would prefer. I'm making a mental note to try these as just white and dark chocolate chip cookies sans the nuts & raisins so I can up the ratio of chocolate cookie-to-chunky add-ins.

But I did like them a lot just as they are--they certainly lived up to the "Chunkers" name with all those flavors and add-ins! In fact, now that I think of it--Chocolate Chunkers are the Brady Bunch of cookies! A lot of pieces coming together to form one big happy cookie!

"And Ann B. Davis as Alice"

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the Brady Bunch too - brings back good memories! Your cookies look great!

Pamela said...

How cool about the Brady Bunch. I'm glad they enjoyed watching the show. It is quite a catchy little tune, too!
Regarding the salty/sweet...sometimes at the movies, on the rare occasion that I get popcorn, I dump some M&M's in there to get a chocolate and salt surprise. ;O)

Prudy said...

What a great blog and I love your movie list on your profile. And of course the cookies look smashing!

Cathy said...

Salty-then-sweet, sweet-then-salty . . . who cares in the face of true love? The Brady Bunch AND Chocolate Chunkers at the same time? Yes, all was right with the world that day. And baking raisins! Why, the only thing I like more than a single-purpose kitchen gadget is a single-purpose kitchen food. I wonder what would happen if you tried to sprinkle some baking raisins on your cereal? Hmmm. Oh, your cookies look fabulous!

Anne said...

Haha I love the Brady Bunch too. It looks like your helpers did great and the cookies were delicious- nice job!

Spike said...

The Brady Bunch and cookies sounds like a perfect day to me!

Anonymous said...

that's the way to bake these cookies, with lots of help. they look great, too!

Michelle A'etonu said...

looks like you guys had tons of fun! and your cookies are lovely! have you ever tried popcorn with milk duds? you should...you'll never go back!

Annette said...

Your cookies look delicious! I'm going to have to get the Brady Bunch collection. I was a fan as a kid.

I also wanted to say thank you for commenting on my first TWD post. I seriously thought no one was reading. In reality, I didn't set my blog to notify me when comments were posted. Oops.

Nancy/n.o.e said...

The Brady Bunch of cookies - so true! What a fun post. Those cookies were delish - I cut down on almost all the add-ins to get more cookie-ness. And chopped my raisins and my nuts pretty finely. No matter what, all that chocolate goodness conquers all.
Nancy

Jules Someone said...

Nice pop culture reference. ;-) Glad you liked the cookies.

Di said...

I'm glad you're enjoying TWD! My husband is also a big fan of the salty/sweet combo. I didn't put any nuts in my cookies, and after trying one, the first thing he said was that now he needed something salty to balance it out. And I'm intrigued by the "baking raisins." How are they different from regular raisins?

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

They look good!

Julie said...

Hi Lisa - sorry it's taken me so long to get over here....I'm so glad Cathy has recruited you!! Your blog is great and your cookies look awesome. Good job on recruiting the kids to Brady Bunch....only the greatest show EVAH!!!!!!

Bungalow Barbara said...

What a great post, and what a great auntie you are!

Cathy said...

Hey, back again! I left you an award, my friend. You can claim it over on my blog. Yahoo!

Heather B. said...

How did we not discuss baking??? I LOVE to bake. Remind me to tell you about the lemon-raspberry cupcakes made from scratch with little raspberry decorations on them that made it from Upstate NY to Martha's Vineyard on a ferry and everything. I'm still impressed with that one. Anyway, now it's a toss up between the cake and these cookies for what I'll be baking next.

P.S. cute helpers ;-)

Lady Baker said...

mmmm...lemon raspberry sounds amazing!! (so does the ability to keep them in 1 piece commuting down from Update NY to MV!)
:)

Kimberly said...

I had a devil of a time trying to make these look decent but they sure were yummy. And good for you for passing on quality tv to those who encounter so little quality in today's tv land :)