opening night cookies!!

cookies. what better than chocolate chip cookies on opening night. everyone gets their own little bunch. i havent started baking yet and the current brain debate is: make them a 'normal' cookie shape OR make like chocolate chip cookie bars. sounds sort of incredible...i decided to try this out with molasses instead of granulated sugar (mainly cause i have a lot of molasses that is just sitting in the pantry but also, b.c it reduces the sweetness factor).  with a little research on that handy-dandy-world-wide-web, i learned that you a) should not replace more than half the sugar content in a recipe w. molasses, b) you have to add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for every cup of molasses you add to the recipe, c) you use 1 1/3 cup molasses for every cup of sugar (*note: i replaced the granulated sugar b.c thats the more processed of the two sugars - brown and granulated) and d) reduce the liquid in the recipe by 5 tablespoons. (there's no liquid in the recipe so...i'm ignoring that step.) Ali (from Gimme Some Oven) suggests cooling the dough for 20/30 min to make sure your cookies dont go flat. on it!

i also have an affinity to dark chocolate and when you're making gifts for people...why not splurge a little. at whole foods i found sirius chocolate. its pure icelandic chocolate. i purchased 14.1 oz of their 70% extra bitter (damn...) i also borrowed this picture from someones website b.c i couldn't make sense of the actual companies website. doesnt this look amazing? Found here.

the packaging is even awesome.

so...i am taking my first batch out and they fell and look like chocolate on chocolate cookies...verdict will be the taste - i guess. verdict: they taste like molasses cookies w. a hint (slight) of chocolate. SO - if you dont like molasses cookies, don't make them my way. :)

Dad’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
(adapted from Gimme Some Oven)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup + 2 Tbsp. butter, slightly softened
• 1 1/3 cup molasses
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups dark chocolate chips (mini, regular, or chocolate chunks!)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir together the flour and salt, then mix them into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips.  Drop by large spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until they look cakey.