Baking with Jessie

One evening Jessie and I made cookies for a dinner we were going to the next day. We were at the grocery store discussing what we should make and she started talking about chocolate and almonds. Sounds good to me! We went back to my house and found this recipe online. Of course, I added my own touches to it. Since she is a novice baker, I wanted to do something simple, yet delicious, to show her how less can be more when cooking/baking.

Ingredients for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Almond Cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup softened butter
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup cut up almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift the flour, cocoa powder, and baking soda.

Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. We used Dean's trusty kitchen aide mixer. I just love that thing! [I need to just get married so I can put that on my registry! :-)] Beat in one egg until completely incorporated. Beat in the last egg along with the almond extract. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated.


Fold in the chocolate chips & nuts with a spatula, not the mixer; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Drop dough by heaped tablespoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. The size of our tablespoonfuls were more the size of a very large egg.

Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.



I had a lot of fun baking with Jessie. She wanted to learn so that made it exciting for me to share my tips. I've had a sous-chef in the past that didn't particularly care about the food we were making and the end product was atrocious.



Thank you Jessie for baking with me! :-)