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Friday, July 16, 2010

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:

IMG_1495All 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.

IMG_1490 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

13 comments:

  1. Why is slave labor crossed out?

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  2. These look great! I'll have to tell my dd1 (14), so she can broaden her repertoire. Her specialty (she's 14) is brownies baked INSIDE chocolate-chip cookies. She presses the dough inside muffin tins, then fills the centre with brownie mix. Maybe your kids can try that next...

    Oh, also, THANK YOU for this oil-based choco-chip cookie recipe. I've been looking for a good one - yay!

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  3. Oops... just noticed I got her age in there twice. Did I mention she's 14? :-P
    Shabbat Shalom!

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  4. should i be embarrassed that my jaw literally dropped when i got to the brownies inside part? seriously lady, that's just *amazing!*

    incidentally, i'm working on a piece right now about baking with my children. it warms my heart that you do this with your ("unstructured" lol) teenagers. i hope to do the same with mine as they get older!

    lovely post and kick-butt recipe!!

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  5. p.s. Maybe sometime you could give a hint as to how many choco chips are in a "package" where you are? I'm tossing in a cup... hope it's enough!

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  6. I absolutely agree with the slave labor/free baker services thing. My kids have been cooking up a storm while I'm at work - this is the best deal ever! And those cookies are ridiculously cool. I will pass on the recipe to my ever-ready team. Thanks for sharing it!

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  7. Innovative (if not labor intensive) idea (though keeping the kids busy for a while is the idea I suppose).

    You should send this to the Kosher Cooking Carnival!

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  8. They look very appetizing but off-limits for me at the moment - as in too rich.

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  9. This looks like a recipe for my middle son. I'll print it and hand it to him.

    I hope I don't get tempted.

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  10. MAG - So what are you making next? :-)

    Jennifer in MamaLand - (1) I like that muffin tin idea! (2) RE: the chocolate chips - it's a 10.5 oz. package. (3) RE: oil-based recipes - I find that for most recipes, replacing the margarine with somewhere between 2/3 to 3/4 that amount in oil tends to work. Of course, the result probably isn't as rich as it would be with margarine (or, obviously, butter), but no one seems to notice...

    Minnesota Mamaleh - And it tastes good too! :-) I look forward to reading your post...

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  11. Toby - Yeah, there's a noticeable improvement in the dessert situation in TRLEOOB (=the real life equivalent of our blog) during the summer months...

    G6 - That's EXACTLY the idea...
    ;-)

    Ilana-Davita - True. Nutritious and dietetic: this isn't...
    :-)

    Leora - Let me know how it comes out, if he does decide to make it...

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  12. well, there was *never* any doubt in my mind that they would taste good!! i'll let you know how they turn out-- we're making them next weekend for a pot luck and, can i just say, i think everyone's jaws will drop! :)

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  13. You're in the me-ander: The Pre-Holiday Kosher Cooking Carnival. Visit and spread the word! Chodesh Tov. If you'd like to host one, please let me know. Thanks

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