Flourless Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I've been thinking a lot about personality theory lately. (You can take the girl out of the psych classes, but you can't take the psych classes out of the girl.) Specifically, I've been thinking about introversion vs. extroversion.

Me? I'm a textbook introvert. I hate crowds. I get like social anxiety when I meet someone new. Small talk is not listed in my skillset. And I'm usually so wrapped up inside my own head that I have difficulty picking up on social clues. Like flirting. I never notice that someone's flirting with me until they're gone, and I'm like wait, was that flirting? Come back, I wasn't ready! Or when people mistakenly think I'm flirting with them, like the time the training class guy asked if I had any plans for the weekend, and I said, "not yet!" like in an excited voice, and there was this awkward silence, and in my head I'm like, "oh god, that wasn't a coy, flirty answer waiting for you to ask me out, I'm waiting for my friend to text me back to see if she wants to see Star Trek this weekend."

Socially awkward penguin, I am you.

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Somebody asked Neil Gaiman once how to seduce a writer, and he responded that while writers are very good at what happens inside their heads, we don't always notice what's happening outside of them, and will often fail to notice they are being flirted with, leaving everyone feeling very uncomfortable. He said the best way to do it is to give them a note that says, "You are invited to a seduction this Friday night."

Neil Gaiman gets me, you guys.

So while I like to pretend that if I ever met Felicia Day, I would be witty and interesting, and we'd become instant best friends, and she'd invite me to play tabletop games with her and Wil Wheaton, I know the reality is that I'd probably get very red in the face, say two coherent words, make a lot of incoherent vowel noise, and anything I do get out will most likely make me sound like a stalker. And then I'd probably trip and fall on my face (and I don't even want to think about what would happen if I met Benedict Cumberbatch in person. I've already got second-hand embarrassment from even considering the topic).

What does this have to do with cookies? Umm, nothing. I just thought I'd amuse you with the embarrassing details of my life.

These flourless cookies are surprisingly chewy, with a rich chocolate-y flavor. I've been a little obsessed with the idea of flourless peanut butter cookies lately, so when I needed a quick, mid-week chocolate fix, that's what I decided on. I used White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter for these, which gave me the "double chocolate" idea (chocolate and white chocolate). The cookies themselves are not overly sweet, which pairs well with the sweet white chocolate chips.

If you like your cookies chewy, these are most certainly for you. They are not delicate or gooey in the way flourless cookies often are. That bit of cocoa powder seems just enough to give these cookies proper structure. And, bonus, they are naturally gluten-free.

I usually prefer my cookies more on the softer side, so I might experiment more in the future with chilling or even freezing the dough, but for a quick and easy chocolate cookie recipe, these cannot be beat.

Flourless Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
Yield: 20 cookies

Ingredients
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (I used White Chocolate Wonderful)
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch salt
1 cup white chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients except chocolate chips until smooth. Fold in the chocolate chips. On a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silpat mat, drop the dough by rounded tablespoonful, leaving minimum 2 inches between each (cookies with spread). Bake about 10 minutes, until the edges are not quite set. Let cool on the pan until firm (about five minutes) before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe by Kim

Chocolate Raspberry Meringues

 I've mentioned a few times how I've never really had a tradition of cooking in my family, even though we're Italian and love food. Not only is that true, but it also colored my perception of how difficult things would be to cook and make. I never knew anyone who made frosting, so I always assumed that is would be really, really hard to do. Color me surprised the first time I tried it out and it was the easiest part of the baking process.

These meringues are another example of that sort of thinking. I have never made meringues before because my mother always swore that whipping egg whites was so difficult and it was so easy to overmix them that I always avoided any recipe that called for them. I was a nervous wreck the first time I made white cake. I watched the egg whites like a hawk, but they were fine. And then the next time something called for whipped egg whites, they were fine. And the next time, they were fine.

I'm still not completely sure if I'm some sort of meringue savant, or if my mother just has a meringue phobia. Either way, you will never catch me attending to something else while the egg whites are whipping, because my mother put the fear of god into me.

Despite all of this, these meringues were really easy to make and are naturally gluten and fat free. They are light and crispy and airy and full of melt-in-your-mouth goodness. And really, you can never go wrong with the chocolate/raspberry combination.

As for me, they're not really my favorite. I prefer my desserts a little more on the substantial side. But they're a great gift, and are super impressive, especially if you know someone with a meringue phobia.

Chocolate Raspberry Meringues {Printable Version}
Yield: Approx. 2 dozen meringues

Ingredients
4 egg whites, at room temperature
Pinch cream of tartar
1 cup sugar
3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted after measuring
1 tsp. raspberry extract
Red food coloring (optional)
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 250°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silpat mat. Place the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer. Using electric beaters, beat at medium speed until frothy. Increase speed to high and gradually add the sugar. Beat until stiff and glossy. Reduce speed to low and add the cocoa, extract, and food coloring, mixing until just incorporated. Carefully fold in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula.

Scoop the meringues onto the prepared cookie sheet by rounded tablespoonful, leaving about 1 inch between each. Bake for 1 hour 25 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma The Best of the Kitchen Library: Desserts