Shaved Chocolate Chunk Cookies

It all started with a chocolate bunny. Okay, it all started with a tea date with my friend, Janine, who brought the dark chocolate bunny. No, wait it goes further back than that … it was just the chocolate bunny – a Purdy’s dark ‘Hopkins’ – that triggered it all. Some time in 1995 – I told you we were going WAY back – we got ’email’ through the University. I place the word email in quotes because I am not sure that it was actually email, maybe it was just some sort of messaging system that connected Canadian or other Universities? Anyway, an old friend, Richard, and I some how connected through this system, and he sent me a cookie recipe – yes, my reputation for baking cookies was firmly cemented even then. The recipe had some story attached to it that I have mostly forgotten, something about a woman eating these cookies at Neiman Marcus and then getting charged $500 ($5000?) dollars for it, and the store refusing to reverse the charge so the woman was now deliberately sharing the recipe with the entire world …

This story, even hastily sketched out here, sounds suspect, but the cookies sounded delicious. I wrote the recipe in my book and made the cookies … looking at my notes, I omitted the nuts (as I always do) but didn’t change anything else back in 1995. Someone – I’m not sure that is my printing – has written the note, ‘good!’ in pencil (see below) beside the ingredients, so I guess they were good, but, ultimately, too time consuming for me to bake often.

Back to the bunny. Yes, the bunny made me want to make these cookies again, but of course, I can’t ever follow a recipe, so I modified it to taste.

Yes, I chomped off his ears and gnawed on his head a couple of days ago ... can you blame me? — Yes, I chomped off the bunny’s ears and gnawed on his head a couple of days ago … can you blame me?

grated dark chocolate — This is what 10oz of dark chocolate bunny looks like grated. YUM!

first batch of rolled dough — I hand rolled the first batch, as the original recipe suggested.

First batch – tasting notes – hand rolled, baked for 12 minutes and allowed to cool on the rack for 10 minutes. They were a little too dry for my tastes, and maybe I didn’t use enough chocolate chunks? So:

Second batch – tasting notes – dropped by mounded tablespoons, baked for 10 minutes. Allowed to cool for 5 minutes. Better.

Third batch – chilled the dough for 24 hours. Ate fresh from the oven, dipped in milk – YUM!

Fourth batch – chilled another 24 hours (48 total). I do think these do get better with extra refrigeration.

hand rolled cookie, baked and broken... — hand rolled cookie, baked and broken…

So, all in all, this was a fun and tasty experiment. I’m about to dropped off the final batch to the neighbours across the street, as I need to get them out of the house. Did I mention the recipe yields DOZENS of cookies? Too many dozens!! These don’t rank in the top five of my all time favourites – they are still too much work – but they are super tasty and a good use of a chocolate bunny.

You can find a PDF of the recipe & notes here: shaved chocolate chunk cookies recipe, if you are at all interested.

cherry blossoms in the rain

This morning we had a wicked rainstorm in Vancouver, but, by the time I was walking home from my errands, the sun was burning off the clouds and the air was so, so sweet. The cherry and magnolia trees all along the boulevards are (almost) in full bloom; their heavenly scent triggered even further by the rain.

In the garden my dwarf stella cherry tree is just starting to bloom … I snapped this with my iPhone right before I came inside to – once again – chain myself to the computer.

Now the sun is out and I’m inputing numbers into spreadsheets. Death and taxes, right?
————-
WIP: taxes – yuck!
On the headphones: “Don’t You Worry Child” by Swedish House Mafia
Pen of the day: blue ink bic
Chocolate of the day: fresco 214 (74% single origin Madagascar). I’m attempting to savour the last piece as I write this, damn!

It’s the little pleasures that buoy up this large canvas of life

This week I am transcribing my handwritten 1st draft of my new novel, Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic, into the computer. Once this process is completed, I’ll have a 2nd draft ready for story editing (etc). I’ve done this for all my novels, excepting After The Virus, and I’m rather attached to the process … it forces me to write the 1st draft with little – or minor – editing … I fix everything – or expand or subtract – in my second pass.

Bear sketch business card by Jessica Gowling — The Bear holds my place patiently and without judgement of pace or quality.

Last December I purchased some ‘let it snow’ notecards from Jessica Gowling‘s Etsy shop, and, when I received the package in the mail, she had included this mini bear sketch business card. I adored the mini card so much I immediately put in on the magnet board next to my desk. Now I am using it as a notebook marker to hold my place after I finish a day of transcribing. I love bears in general, and this one specifically.

So, thank you, Jessica for sharing your art with me (and the world, of course).

It’s the little pleasures that buoy up this large canvas of life.

Tegan and Sara’s new single “Closer”

I wrote a pivotal scene of my new work-in-progress, an urban fantasy novel, Cupcakes, Trinkets and Other Deadly Magic, this afternoon while listening to Tegan and Sara’s new single, Closer. I went looking for new music and found this song on iTunes Top 100 (or so) chart. It was just so perfect for my main character, Jade, a witch who likes to play with magic and a little bit of danger without committing herself to either. Not necessarily literal, but in the emotion the song evokes. The iTunes player informs me that it took 27 noncontinuous plays via headphones to brainstorm and write the first draft of this scene. I’m not surprised, it’s a long, important scene. You know, the scene where the main character makes an error in judgement that’s going to screw her life up really badly, but she doesn’t know it yet. That scene.

Thank you Tegan and Sara, for the creative support this afternoon. Thank you to all the artists who enrich me with their music, words, and energy.

Tegan and Sara. – this is the video of the song on Tegan and Sara’s website – I was hoping it would embed here, but it didn’t – click through to view!