Daddy and the girls put up the Christmas lights late this afternoon, as a cold wind picked up, and so they came in feeling cookie-ish. "Something chocolate," they agreed, and so after dinner we made a variation of the old favorite, Nestlé Toll House cookies. Humble, but oh-so-satisfying!
We have a shortlist of variations on this theme -- butterscotch chips and pecans, vanilla chips and dried cherries, etc. -- but tonight I felt like the upscale version of chocolate and nuts. I used a 250g bar of Cadbury milk chocolate, very coarsely chopped, and raw whole almonds, also coarsely chopped or broken. (Blanched almonds might be a smidge better, but I didn't have any on hand.) I love the contrast of the soft, chewy cookies with the crunchy almond chunks -- comforting and familiar, and a little sophisticated at the same time. The girls both took a turn with the first mixing, and Laura was very excited to hear that we'd be banging on those almonds with a mallet! Julia didn't like the noise, and so she left Laura with the fun of it.
Just add the chocolate and nuts in as usual (sift the nuts in your hand first).
There's nothing like the smell of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies in the kitchen!
Mmmmm ... sounds delicious!
Posted by: Rorie | Monday, 05 December 2005 at 12:50 PM