January 13, 2008

"All Hyped Up and Nowhere to Go"



I went to Cost Plus a few days ago and bought some Guittard Cappuccino Chips, not really knowing what I’d do with them, but they were on sale, so I got them along with some anchovy-stuffed olives, curry flavored potato chips, and a dust mop. Hey, do I know how to shop or what??? Cost Plus is the most RANDOM store! Lots of great stuff - where else can you buy a coconut monkey and wine glasses at the same time?

Last Thursday night I watched “30 Rock” (Thursday night is MY television night…first there’s “My Name is Earl”, then “30 Rock”, then “Scrubs”, all big favorites of mine), and it was an hilarious episode because “Kenneth the Page” had a cappuccino machine installed at his desk and he began drinking cappuccinos non-stop with predictable results…completely buzzed out, freaky, and well, I was laughing so hard, I had to change the channel briefly so I could catch my breath!


Cappuccino inspiration by Kenneth!!!


These cookies are awesome…not too sweet, very grown-up, and not recommended for coffee dunking…probably safer with milk! You don’t want to end up like Kenneth!


"Cappuccino Chip Cookies with Chocolate Espresso Frosting" –
{Subtitled, "Kenneth the Page Goes Nuts" Cookies}

Makes 36-40 cookies

Cookies:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened at room temperature
¾ cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 ¼ cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 pkg. (12 oz) Guittard Cappuccino Chips

Frosting:
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 teaspoons shortening
3 teaspoons instant espresso powder
About 2 teaspoons hot water

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the softened butter, and both sugars. Add eggs, beating well after each egg. Stir in vanilla.
3. In another smaller mixing bowl, place the flour, soda, and salt and stir with fork to incorporate together.
4. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar/egg mixture in 2 or 3 additions, blending well.
Add the cappuccino chips and stir until well blended.
5. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven, let cool slightly on baking sheet, then transfer cookies to rack to cool completely before frosting.

For Frosting:
1. In medium sized microwaveable bowl, place chocolate chips and shortening. Microwave for 10 seconds, stir, then repeat process until mixture is melted and creamy.
2. To a small bowl, add the espresso powder and hot water and stir until it’s a nice thick, syrupy consistency. Add to melted chocolate chips and stir well. Microwave for a few seconds if needed.
3. Using your favorite method (mine is a butter knife), frost the cookies with the warm frosting….it will “set up” in a few minutes.



2 comments:

Emily said...

I watched 30 rock on Thursday. I recently just started watching it, but I think it's really funny.

Your cookies look scrumptious. We don't have Guittard chips/chocolate here. :( Or cappuccino chips in general. We do have cinnamon chips and cherry chips.

Anonymous said...

Hi Cathy,

We were watching Anthony Bourdain and he brought up David Hasselhoff!! Can you believe it? He's in Germany tonight on the season premier. Also, I finally organized book shelves and just re-read your short story this past weekend. Talk about coincidence.

Andrea

 
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"The Dish" by Catherine Wilkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.