Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

This is one of my go-to cookies recipes when I'm Jones-ing for something chocolate. In about an hour from set up to clean up, you can have these beauties out of the oven.  I've made them so many times the cookbook opens automatically to their page - so you know this is a good recipe. Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies (Adapted from Nigella Express ) 4 oz bittersweet chocolate (or if you prefer semisweet) 1 c flour 1/4 cocoa, sifted 1 t baking soda 1 t instant espresso powder (optional) 1/2 t salt 1/2 c butter (1 stick) 1/2 c brown sugar 1/4 c sugar 1 t vanilla 1 t chocolate extract (optional) 1 egg - cold from the refrigerator 2 c chocolate chips Melt chocolate, set aside to cool a little. In a small bowl stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda, espresso, and salt.  In a mixer cream butter and sugars together. Add vanilla and chocolate extracts. Mix in egg. Mix in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips. Use an ice cream scoop (1/4 c) and place do...

Glaze pools in the center - yum! This cake made me realize a few things: 1.  I need a new bundt pan. 2. When a cake sticks to the pan (see item 1), chocolate sauce hides a multitude      of sins. 3. Patience is a virtue I don't possess - waiting for this cake to cool seemed an     eternity. 4.  If you gave me some cold milk, I could probably eat this entire cake by      myself. So what is this marvelous cake? It is the Tunnel of Fudge Cake from Cook's Country. I changed it up a little-slightly.  I saw this suggestion after I had the cake in the oven. Mixing 1T of butter with 1T of melted butter and coating the pan. This might have helped me with item 1, but I still think I need a new pan. It is a good brand pan (Nordic Ware) and a pretty fleur de lis design. I see they now offer it with a different coating. Chocolate cakes seem to stick worse than yellow cakes. My pan has a black coating and I'm wonder...

I was in the mood for chocolate cookies - OK when basically am I not? OK really I had some bananas that were getting a little overripe and I didn't feel like banana bread.   I started to peruse my cookbooks for a new recipe when I came across this one.  It sounded interesting because it had raisins in it and I thought hey at least there are 2 types of fruit in the cookies - that's healthy* Chocolate Banana Cookies (Adapted from 201 Chocolate Treats ) 6 oz semisweet chocolate (melted) 2 c flour 1/4 c cocoa powder 2 t baking powder 1/4 t baking soda 1/4 t salt 3/4 c (1 1/2 sticks) butter 1/2 c sugar 1/2 c brown sugar 1 t vanilla extract 1 t chocolate extract (optional) 2 eggs 1 c mashed bananas (about 3) 12 oz chocolate chips 1 c raisins (or dried currants or dried cherries) Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.  Cream butter and sugars in mixer until fluffy.  Beat in extract(s) and then add ...