Guest Blogger -- Li'l Sis' Unsweetened Chocolate Chip Cookies

My little sister, Alex, made some delectable chocolate chip cookies for my baby shower last Sunday. I'm going to let her take over from here.

Hey there. This is my first post ever, and I'm honored to make my first step on my big sister's blog.  Now let me talk about cookies. Much like Tasha, I prefer cooking to baking, but chocolate chip cookies has always been an exception. During the winter,  I would make cookies nearly on a weekly basis with my best friend who lived down the street. As a result, I have the Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe memorized. The point is, I love chocolate chip cookies. Have I made that clear?

Last summer,  I found a cafe in my neighborhood in San Francisco. It served the best chocolate cookies I've ever tasted. I couldn't identify what particular element in them made them so remarkable. Then, after my third cookie (I only got one cookie per visit, I do have some self control), I figured out that the bakers used unsweetened baking chocolate. The sweet cookie dough contrasted with the sharpness of unsweetened cocoa makes for a pretty profound cookie experience. Since then, I've only made chocolate chip cookies à la SF cafe.  Here's what I did for Tasha's shower.

Makes about 36 cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. all purpose white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c white sugar
3/4 brown sugar
2 sticks of butter (substitute coconut oil if you feel adventurous.  Tastes yummy)
2 eggs
1tsp. vanilla
2 c chopped up unsweetened baking chocolate
Pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In one bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, mix the softened butter with the brown sugar, eggs, white sugar, and vanilla in that order (to avoid a clumpy mess). Slowly add in the flour/salt mixture until you have a soft, gooey, golden mixture. Finally, mix in your chocolate. I chop up the chocolate into small pieces. You'll inevitably end up with some chocolate powder, which is totally awesome. When you mix the in chocolate, you'll see that your cookies look speckled rather than just "chipped."

With a spoon, scoop out your cookie dough and place on lightly greased cookie sheets.  Let bake for 10 minutes.

Eat more than you expected.