Freshly Baked Friday: Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies Edition

It’s the fashion among the parental crowd to bemoan the fact that Israeli teenagers tend to spend most of the summer just hanging around have fairly unstructured vacations.

But I prefer to view this phenomenon as a feature, not a bug.

Because as far as I’m concerned, idle teenagers serve as a steady supply of slave labor talented bakers.

For instance, look what the Shiputzim kids made last week:

All together now: “Kol hakavod, tza’ir bakers!”

Now, don’t let the cookies’ innocent-looking exteriors fool you.

These are not your regular, everyday, run-of-the-mill chocolate chip cookies. Instead, each one has a small brownie hidden inside.

Hence their name: “Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies.”

Here’s the recipe:

Chocolate Chip Surprise Cookies

This recipe is adapted from Bakerella’s Pillow Cookies. In addition to a few minor tweaks – such as replacing the butter with oil to make the cookies parve - the kids made two major changes: (1) The cookies are one quarter the size of the original recipe. (2) Although Bakerella suggests using a mix for the brownies, the Shiputzim kids used my friend E’s easy brownie recipe.

Brownies

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup oil
• ¾ cup cocoa
• 1½ cups flour

Cookies

• 2/3 cup oil
• 1½ cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs plus 1 yolk
• 1 TBSP vanilla
• 2½ cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder (i.e. one envelope for my Israeli readers)
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 package of chocolate chips

Instructions

1. First, prepare the brownies: Mix brownie ingredients together and pour into a greased  9x13 pan (or one that has been lined with baking paper). Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until done. Let cool.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the cookie dough: Beat the oil and sugar together. Add the eggs, yolk, and vanilla, and beat until smooth. Add the three dry ingredients, and mix through. Stir in the chocolate chips. Let the dough chill covered in the refrigerator for one hour.

3. Next, prepare the cookies: Take 1/8 of a cup of cookie dough. Form it into a ball, and then make an indentation in the middle. Gently press a ¼ inch square of brownie into the indentation. Work the dough up around the brownie, making sure that the brownie is completely covered by the cookie dough.

Forming the cookies. Not a job for the faint-hearted…

4. Finally, bake the cookies: Place each brownie-filled cookie on a baking-paper-lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 14 minutes or until done. Yield: 30-35 cookies.

!שבת שלום ומבורך