Midnight Brownie Cookies

About two weeks ago, I made Midnight Brownie Cookies from Sally's Cookie Addiction by Sally McKenney.

Ingredients
4-ounce (113g) bar semi-sweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup (120mL) canola or vegetable oil
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (210g) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (300g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (21g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions
1. In a large heatproof bowl, melt the chopped chocolate in the microwave in 15-second increments, stopping and stirring after each until completely smooth,. Allow to cool down for 5 minutes. Whisk in the oil, eggs, and vanilla extract.
2. Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a separate medium bowl.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and, using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together until combined. The dough will be very thick and a little greasy.
4. Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (and up to four days). If chilling for longer than 3 hours, allow it to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking because the dough will be quite hard.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius). Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
6. Roll balls of dough, about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches (7.5cm) apart on the baking sheets.
7. Bake for 13 to 14 minutes, or until the tops begin cracking.
8. Remove from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Makes about 20-22 cookies.

In the book, there is a note that says these cookies go well the the caramel sauce from another recipe; she is right. I made the caramel sauce (sorry for not including the recipe) and drizzled it over about half the cookies. The cookies were easy enough to make, and the batter still comes together even if you use a wooden spoon. I did, because I was worried about a thick dough clogging the beaters and overtaxing the motor of my handheld mixer. The caramel was just sugar, butter, and heavy cream, with a little salt at the end and came together rather quickly and easily.

The cookies were delicious! Rich and chocolatey, with the best kind of brownie crust/chewiness. The caramel was a very good complement to them and I think it added that little extra that the cookies needed, though they are still tasty on their own (just a touch dry). These are definitely going on my bake again list, though I may or may not doing the caramel next time.

Weekly Update

Well, this week has been pretty good so far. Went to a plant on Saturday with my mom and sister, then Wal-Mart, so I have a bunch of annual plants for my planters as well as some perennials for my garden. It's been a little chilly to plant them so they are sitting in my bedroom window, but I'm hoping to get them in the ground today. I saw my mom and grandma for mother's day, so that was really nice, and I ended up seeing my aunt and cousins unexpectedly too. Yay for bonus family time!

Work has been fairly chill this week, with the exception of some rather unfortunate bureaucratic processes that got put into place. Thankfully, they didn't prove to be as disastrous as I was anticipating, but they are definitely still a pain in the ass. Also, today I accidently landed myself a spot in a meeting with a quality lady, our programmer, and one of the higher up managers. The programmer raised a concern and I jumped in asking about logistics, but since the problem was bigger and more nuanced then our morning meeting is set up for, I was told I'd be included in the secondary meeting. Which, yay for being involved and hopefully being able to curtail the worst of the stupid (or at least provide the production viewpoint) but boo for being part of a meeting that is going to test all of my skills and coping methods for remaining calm and level-headed.

Tomorrow is one of my "free pass, doing nothing" days for the month of May, although I do still have to go in to work, and I may still do the daily tasks if I feel like it (the banking I have to do regardless, but I have amnesty on my savings goal this week if needed). Both of my reading days have already passed, and I didn't actually do much reading on them. The first one, I spent a looong time playing Mahjong and other games on my phone, so I'm happy with it because I got to just relax and do what I wanted. The second one, I did do reading, but it was mostly re-reading Shiv poems rather than book reading. Seeing as how that day was the day I went to the plant sale and Wal-Mart, I'm happy with what I did get done, and it was a good day overall so I'm gonna count it as a win. I have an idea for my "whimsical fun" day, but we'll see how it ends up panning out.