Double Chocolate Cashew Cookies, week 5

I woke up this morning groggy and bleary eyed as usual and as I thought over what needed to be done, two things stood out in my mind, my dentist appointment and baking my 5th week of Christmas cookies.  Wait, that can't be right, can it?  If I have a dentist appointment today, that means I was supposed to bake cookies yesterday.  What happened to yesterday?

That is one of the challenges of being a stay at home mom of a toddler and a baby.  The days start to run together and don't really mean as much.  You no longer have Monday, Wednesday, or Friday.  You have today, tomorrow, and yesterday.  Or sometimes just now because that is as far in any direction you can think.  I can safely say that yesterday was a now sort of day.  Which is why I have these cookies in the oven as I type this at 9 o'clock on a Friday morning.

The recipe is nice and simple, and can be a one bowl sort of recipe.  You don't need to wait for butter to soften, which is great for me because I usually fail to remember to take it out in a timely matter.  You do need to let the dough rest a bit before you bake it, but that just means that you can take some time to start your clean up before you pop the first tray in the oven.  I think that these cookies would be great with any number of add ins, white chocolate chips, various nuts, peanut butter chips, etc. but for today I chose what I had on hand, namely semi sweet chocolate chips and chopped cashews. 

Growing up ours wasn't a very chocolate household, we liked it in moderation as in a chocolate chip cookie, but this isn't a cookie we'd have made.  However, Hey, Babe's family really appreciates their chocolate, as I do now, so this double chocolate piece of heaven is right up their alley.  Too bad they aren't here to taste how incredible it is still warm from the oven.  Oh well, they will have to be satisfied with the almost as good cooled version.  If any last that long.

Double Chocolate Cashew Cookies
Ingredients
10 tablespoons Butter
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons instant coffee granules
3 eggs
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup chopped or broken cashews

Instructions
Set your mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water and melt together the butter and cocoa powder. When it is mostly melted, remove it from the pot and allow it to finish melting off of the heat. Attach it to your mixer and mix in the brown sugar until it is thoroughly combined.

In a small dish, mix together the vanilla and coffee granules until they are completely dissolved before adding them to the cocoa mixture.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.

To the mixing bowl, add one of the cups of flour, the baking powder, and the salt.  Mix until it is just incorporated and scrap down the sides of the bowl before adding the second cup of flour. Mix it in and then carefully stir in the chocolate chips and cashews (or your preferred add in).

Allow dough to sit for 30 minutes or so until it thickens.  While it is resting, preheat your oven to 350°F.  Using a 2 tablespoon scoop, leave about 1 1/2 -2 inches between each ball onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.  Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are set but the centers are still soft.  Allow the cookies to cool 10 minutes on the pan before removing them.  Leaving the cookies on the pan will allow the centers to finish cooking without overcooking the edges, thus giving the cookies a very fudgy texture.

Make sure you check out all the other goodies being baked!

Week 5 Twelve Weeks of Christmas: