Cookies to Celebrate.

Like most people who love to cook and bake, the kitchen is my safe haven- the one place I go to after a long, hard day and just feel like everything can and will be okay.

It’s the same place I go to when I’m stressed out and need to clear my head (okay fine, procrastinate), to celebrate getting a job, a best friend’s return home, birthdays or even for no particular reason at all.

So it seemed only right when my darling boyfriend got a promotion at work that I made him something to celebrate.

Deciding what to make him was pretty much a no brainer (the boy love his cookies), making them right (crunchy, not too crumbly or chocolatey ala Famous Amos) was slightly tricker.

Until I came across the famed $250.00 cookie recipe* in Maida Heatter’s cookie book.

A chocolate chip cookie with a slight twist in the form of chocolate flakes and ground oatmeal? It sounded perfect for the occasion- and utterly delicious to boot.

As it turns out, I hit the nail on the head with these cookies.

The cookies were crunchy, nutty- thanks to the addition of the oatmeal and extra baking time- the perfect shade of golden brown and incredibly addictive and decadent, even to a chewy cookie lover like myself.

So as much as these cookies were a celebration to mark a milestone in the boyfriend’s career, any cookie that can make both the boyfriend and I happy is a true winner in its own right, if you ask me.

The $250.00 Cookie [adapted from Maida Heatter's Brand-New Book of Great Cookies]

Ingredients
1 cup sifted plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup old fashioned oats
60g dark chocolate, finely chopped
120g unsalted butter
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg, at room temperature
180g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 175C. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil and set aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and set aside.
3. Using a food processor, pulse the oats and dark chocolate together until almost ground and set aside.
4. Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Add the sugars and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the egg and beat well. Add the flour and oat mixtures and fold in until just incorporated. Mix the chopped dark chocolate in.
5. Using two teaspoons, spoon teaspoonful of the dough on the prepared baking sheets, two inches apart.
6. Bake for about 20 minutes or till crisp to the touch and golden brown. Makes about 60 small cookies

* The $250 cookie recipe resolves from a tale of a lady who bought the recipe from a cafe for what she thought was two dollar and fifty cents, only to be charged for two hundred and fifty dollars for it. Enraged by it, she vowed to get even by spreading the recipe around, or so the story goes.

Posted by thecoffeesnob on March 27, 2011

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