NUTS!!! 100th POST WITH BROWNIE COOKIES!!

Hurray!! This is my 100th post here at Aroma which I started on January 2006 just to cook and post for events! It reached 100th post a tad bit faster that Foodies Hope which took exactly a whole year to reach that century! It has been a wonderful journey so far and will plan to keep it up in 2008 as well.

My thanks to all my readers/friends who come here to comment and to LOT of readers who don't comment as well!! Enjoy, cook, blog and EAT!! :))

Now, back to business...

Alrighty Ms.Bee and Mr.Jai, here are your Nuts!! Oops, my Nuts!!;D
There are loads and loads of all kinds of nuts on display for Christmas now, thought instead of cooking with these, why not click them in all their glory!
Here is my entry to JaiBee of "Jugalbandi" blog's "Click" event with a theme of "Nuts" this month. Enjoy and thanks for hosting Bee and Jai or Jai and Bee!

Cornucopia of nuts!!



Camera used: Canon PowerShot SD600

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Bindiya of "in love with food" blog started a new event called "These are a few of my favorite things" this month with a theme of "Chocolate". Although I am not very fond of Chocolates, I do like to have a few dark Belgian Chocolates with 60% Cocoa occasionally. I definitely enjoyed baking these cookies. Thanks for hosting Bindiya!:))



I am also sending these to "JFI-Chocolate" this month since I am running out of time to enter my dishes for events. This month's host is Deepa from "LETZ COOK" blog. Thanks for hosting Deepa!:)


Story behind these Brownies!
My daughter's friend Jessica had her birthday at her high school and she sent a message to me thru' Trisha asking me to bake some cookies for her. She didn't want any store bought cookies or anything else as gift!
Trisha wanted me to bake chocolate cookies for all her 22 friends/members in her Anime(Japanese art) club (which Trisha leads as president) for Christmas party and some for her friend Jessica too while I was at it.
I looked around the internet and found the recipe for Brownie cookies which sounded great. Since some kids are allergic to nuts, I skipped nuts and mint flavor from the recipe to keep it simple.I also doubled the recipe and made about 84 mini cookies by using smaller scoops, so the kids can have 2 to 3 cookies each and rest goes to Jessica to take home. I baked the cookies just until soft, not crisp and they tasted like Brownies but looked like cookies! I was not going to blog these, but then I saw Bindiya's and Deepa's theme which fitted these cookies perfectly, I said Hurray and here they are!! Enjoy!

Recipe for these delicious brownie cookies came from here with my own little changes. I skipped the mint extract, nuts and used dark brown sugar and a tsp of molasses to keep them purely dark and chocolatey!!:)

Brownie drop cookies!!


To make about 88 mini brownie cookies you need:
(Make sure you cut the recipe into half or 1/4th of this amount if you need less cookies!)
3 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate bits, divide these into half to melt, keep half aside as whole bits to mix.
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup good quality Cocoa powder,
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or Margarine(for chewy cookies), softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp dark molasses (optional)
4 large eggs

To bake:

Preheat the oven at 350F.
1. Melt half of the morsels in small, heavy saucepan over low heat. When they begin to melt, remove from heat, stir until smooth. (You can melt in the microwave too, but be very careful not to burn the chocolate bits.) Cool to room temperature.
2. Now mix flour, baking soda and salt together in a bowl, keep aside. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large blender bowl until creamy.
3. Add eggs one by one, beating well after each egg. Add in melted and cooled chocolate, mix well.
4. Slowly add in flour mix. When well mixed, stir in remaining chocolate bits. Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto 2 ungreased baking sheets, 2" apart.
5. You may have to use more sheets if you are making the above quantity.
6. Bake in preheated oven for 8 to 12 minutes. I bake for 8 mins and then keep checking the sides, since I like softer cookies. About 9 mins works for me perfectly. Take the sheet out, let it stand for 2 mins and then take the cookies out onto the cooling rack. Cool completely before storing.

Enjoy!:))