Deep, rich, fudge-y, these Midnight Cocoa Cookies are a beautiful way to celebrate the New Year, New Beginnings, and a New Layout for The Intrepid Cookie!

A week into this New Year, and already I am feeling pretty accomplished. Much like how I did when I was younger, organizing my school supplies. The ruler goes here, the mechanical pencils filled with the little graphite sticks that sounded like a Tic Tac box when shaken, and the precisely counted sheaths of paper in-between carefully labeled dividers. My Type A personality was developed pretty early on, and some of those ingrained trans carry over into my more adult years. Everything has a home in my house, and it drives me up the wall if it scampers to the wrong drawer or sometimes, a random shoe is joyously dragged through the house and left in unexpected places by my smaller cat, Brie. I think Brie appreciates my tendency to want to make sure things go together and in their proper home. We bought the cats two mini matching scratching posts, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. Every time we leave for longer than a half an hour, we return to either or both scratching posts haphazardly dragged to the top and bottom of the stairs - we think she is trying to get them to live next to each other. It’s exasperating and hysterical at the same time, which I imagine (hope!) some people I know who are more relaxed about things being out of place may feel about my OCD tendencies. :)

Four different types of Chocolate are used in these Midnight Cocoa Cookies, which makes for a Chocolate Lovers Dream.

When I started this website back in July, I was unhappy about the layout I created as I had no idea what I was doing. I felt it was cluttered, less user friendly, and I knew there were a heck of a lot of spelling errors and random autocorrect/voiceover non-sensicals that made it onto the page. I figured that for right then, it was good enough, and forced myself to be okay with the errors for the time being as I became more comfortable with voice assistive technology on my phone and computer. I knew I wanted to really figure out how to present a more comprehensive web design, and I was determined to figure it out by myself. I attempted the start of a different web design a few months ago, and following the tutorials, I foolishly deleted the demo pages as they said I should before I actually understood how they were layered and worked. So that attempt took a lot of time and energy with no real understanding still of what I was doing. Literally, it was the blind leading my blind self ha. But this past month and a half I have been painstakingly learning how to use the program properly through trial and error. So The Intrepid Cookie has a new look, a more user friendly design layout, an Archives section, and links to my Facebook Page, Instagram Profile, Pinterest Profile, as well as the email account for this site, which is iris@theintrepidcookie.com

My goal this year is to create a monthly Newsletter that subscribers receive in their inbox, with a few extra recipes or things I find really helpful in the kitchen/lifestyle aspect. I am in the process of decorating/styling the house (excruciatingly slow process, finding things I like, checking then double checking with people who have a true color palate to make sure things match/designs complement each other) so I could include things about that as well if it is something that people have interest in. There is a subscribe form on my Contact Page, and I think that would be a really interesting project to focus on as well as continuing to develop my writing, recipe development skills, and photography skills.

I am much happier with the new layout of The Intrepid Cookie. It is very compatible with Voice Assistive Technology which was a HUGE factor for me choosing this style. I also liked that for myself, the big picture under the title is easier for the vision I do have to see. On mobile devices it finally shows pictures of the individual entries in list format, which the old format did not do. I updated some of the older sections and will continue to slowly correct the grammatical errors on NMO FAQ, Blind Cooking Tips, and my Diagnosis Story, but I have made the conscious decision to leave the errors and typos in my earlier blog posts. This is because I am slightly (hugely) sentimental and like to see (hear, too) the progress I have personally made with learning to navigate the voice assistive technology. I have come a long way from the original “Pp” text I sent my husband back in the hospital when we first switched my phone to Vouceover, and I no longer feel the urge to throw my phone against the wall like I did then.

An extra Egg Yolk is the secret weapon in helping these Midnight Cocoa Cookies stay so dense and rich.

So to celebrate all of these new changes - New Year, New Layout, New Mini Goals for the site, I offer you a Midnight Cocoa Cookie recipe. These cookies are incredibly, give you the chocolate sweats (in a good way) rich, and hover between a a good gooey brownie and chewy cookie. With four different types of chocolate used, these Midnight Cocoa Cookies mean serious business, and make me think they are the cultured, adult version of the Subway double chocolate chip cookie.

First, you take the Dark Cocoa Powder and incorporate it in your dry ingredients to have that deep, dark flavor that permeates the cookie base. It also has the added bonus of turning these cookies into a beautiful, midnight color. Then, to develop the flavors in the dough, three types of sugarer used - a trick I picked up from the recipe for the Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then, you chop some Semi-Sweet Chocolate, add some Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (I used Ghirardelli brand for both) to have a mixture of bigger chunks of chocolate and melty rivets of chocolate in the cookie itself. Then, as you are rolling out the dough balls, just press a few White Chocolate Chips into the top of the cookie and chill for a minimum of two hours. Chilling the dough helps the cookies keep from spreading out too much when baking in the hot oven, otherwise you can end up with crepe thin cookies (Nooooo!!) if the flour to wet ingredient ratio is not high enough. Once the cookies are baked, your end result is dense, deeply nuanced in the chocolate notes, fudge-y, and the sprinkle of salt just intensifies the chocolate while helping break up the insane richness of the cookie. These cookies are an excellent start to the New Year, a fabulous celebration cookie for myself as they are outrageously decadent, and the perfect little nugget to brighten anyone’s day

Perfect paired with a frosty glass of ice cold milk, the Midnight Cocoa Cookies will satisfy any chocolate craving you may have.

Midnight Cocoa Cookies

Author: Iris Anna Gohn

Servings: 18-20 medium sized cookies

These cookies are heart stompingly full of different chocolate flavors - 4 types of chocolate are utilized. I use Ghirardelli Chocolate most of the time as it is extremely consistent, well balanced, and economical. It is also extremely easy to find if you decide to bake these cookies on a whim.

I strongly believe that if a recipe calls for chilling the dough, there are two reasons. One, as mentioned above, is to help the cookies stay nice and plump while baking. The other is to help develop flavor - this cookie has an unusual amount of different notes that come through - some caramel notes from the dark brown sugar, varying amounts of sweetness/fruitiness from the chocolates, and the subtle punch of salt that accentuates each of the other flavors.

The cookie dough can be frozen once you shape them into balls if you would like to make them ahead - just defrost them in the fridge before proceeding to bake.

Ingredients

1 Cup All Purpose Flour
2/3 Cup Cocoa Powder (I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa)
3/4 Tsp Baking SODA
1/4 Tsp Sea Salt
10 Tbsp Salted Butter (1 stick plus 2 Tbsp) softened
1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/4 Cup Granulated White Sugar
1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
1 1/2 Tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
4 Oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate, chopped (Bar Form)
4 Oz (1/2 Cup) Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
2 Oz (1/4 Cup) White Chocolate Chips
Coarse Sea Salt, for Sprinkling

Directions

To prepare the Midnight Cocoa Cookie Dough:

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a Stand Mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, light brown sugar, dark brown sugar, and white sugar on medium high speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a Spatula as needed. This should take about 3-4 minutes.
To the dough, add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and mix on medium speed until thoroughly incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. This should take roughly 2 minutes.
Turn the mixer speed to medium low, then slowly add the reserved dry ingredients until dough just comes together. I do this in two batches to prevent flour flying everywhere in the kitchen.
Turn off the mixer, release the paddle attachment, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Fold in the chopped Semi-Sweet Chocolate and Bittersweet Chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
Scoop out dough into rounded Tablespoon balls. You should end up with roughly 18-20 cookies. Dot each of the dough balls with the reserved White Chocolate Chips, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours.

To Bake:

Preheat Oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with Parchment Paper.
Place 8 cookie dough balls on each sheet, 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with a bit of coarse or flake sea salt.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time to allow even browning (even though you cannot see the browning because of the cocoa in the dough, there is a difference in texture for the cookies on the top rack if you do not rotate them). Cookie tops will be just set when done baking. They will look underdone - do not fear!
Let the cookies cool ON THE PAN for an additional 5 minutes. This allows the undersides of the cookies to continue cooking to help create a nice, chewy yet crisped edges texture.
Cool completely on wire rack, then store in an airtight container for up to 4 days - if they last that long!