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"