Double Chocolate Cookies

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Dad's Double Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups white vanilla sugar

3 eggs
3 tsbp vanilla extract

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 tsp expresso powder

2 1/2 cups 60% dark chocolate pistoles (think little flattish chocolate thingies - try dark chocolate chips, or a bar of dark chocolate chopped up)

Move oven racks to middle-top and middle-bottom positions, and preheat oven to 350F. Cover cookie sheets in parchment paper. Sift or whisk together dry ingredients: flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, expresso powder. Set aside. Cream butter, and dark and white sugars, until light in color and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Add dry ingredients (in two parts?), mix on low until just incorporated. Add pistoles, mix until just incorporated. (Note: dough will be very dense and hard to work with at this point, so good luck mixing even that much.) Cover mixing bowl with plastic wrap and let sit ~ 15 minutes. Use a tablespoon to measure out cookie dough: roll between hands and place on covered baking sheets. Stick in oven for ~16 minutes, rotating back to forward and switching top and bottom racks halfway through. Cool on baking sheets or wire cookie racks.

Additional notes: several of the "specialty" ingredients (vanilla sugar, dutched dark chocolate, dark chocolate pistoles, expresso powder) are items dad's trying to get rid of and are probably amenable to substitution. The original recipe called for cherries soaked in rum and toasted pecans, which would probably be excessively rich with all that chocolate.

Comments

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I just post 'em. Making them is up to you.