The Best Chocolate Cookies Ever.

 So, I made these for my book club.  I cook for them a lot.  :-)  I can take no credit for these because I followed this recipe exactly, but these were way too good to not share.  I picked this recipe because I had buttermilk that needed to be used and I wasn't really interested in making biscuits.  These turned out to be a fabulous find!  They were crispy, yet chewy.  They stayed soft for days, literally.  And, the best part, the chocolate chips stayed melty (even days later) so that when you bit into them you got that fabulous taste of just baked cookies.  And they're chocolate on chocolate.  Beat that. 

Seriously, I think I'm going to have to make more of these tonight.  That. Good. 

Source: Baking Bites

Here's what I used:

2 Cups Flour

1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Cup Butter

3/4 Cup Cocoa Powder

2 Cups Sugar

1 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

2/3 Cup Buttermilk

2+ Cups Chocolate Chips

Here's what I did:

1.  Preheated the oven to 350 degrees.  Lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

2.  Whisked together the flour, baking soda and salt.  Set that bowl aside.

3.  In a small bowl, I melted the butter.

4.  In a large bowl, I combined the melted butter and the cocoa powder.  Do this while the butter is still warm.

5.  Whisked together the butter and the cocoa powder until the mixture was smooth.

6.  Whisked the sugar, vanilla, and buttermilk into the cocoa powder mixture.

7.  Stirred the dry ingredients into the wet ones.  I did this slowly, pouring a fraction of the dry ingredients into the wet ones and stirring until completely combined and then pouring in more.

8.  Stirred the chocolate chips into the cookie dough.  ** This is the only place I deviated from the recipe.  The recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips.  I happened to be craving chocolate the day I made these, so I threw in an extra handful or two.  Because, clearly, chocolate chocolate chip cookies would not have enough chocolate in them if made as directed.**

9. Spooned the cookie dough onto the parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  Be sure to leave plenty of room between the cookies as they do spread out quite a bit while cooking.

10.  Baked for 11 minutes.  Remove them from the oven when they are set along the edges.  Don't cook them for too long or you'll end up with dry cookies.

11.  Let them stand on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire cooling rack to cool.

I think I'm going to try these with chocolate chips and peanut butter chips -- I'll let you know how it goes.

Enjoy!