Brownies in Cookies?

At a dinner party last week (the one previously written about with David's experiment for his cooking contest) I made brownies with white chocolate and hazelnuts. The brownies were good but not exactly what I wanted. Regardless, they were tasty and I as well as company enjoyed eating them.

But there were so many of them left over. So so many. What could I possibly do with all of those brownies? I didn't want to keep eating them. I had already shared them. Yet they still sat on my counter and each night they spoke to me, saying, it's okay, eat me, you'll go to the gym tomorrow and work me off in two hours. Oy!

I knew I wanted to do something else with them. What could I do with left over brownies? Crumble them into ice cream? It's still a brownie. I wanted to take the brownie and create something completely new. Where the presence of the brownie would be a surprise. Not an expectation. How I came to a cookie I don't know. But I did. And in they went.

The basics: I took a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe I had tried many times before and am absolutely in love with. But I didn't want a standard chocolate chip cookie. I wanted the extra kick of more chocolate. I had a double chocolate chip cookie recipe I had tinkled with before but that I wasn't the biggest fan of (though others were ... that elusive "I like that cookie" response finally escaped from Crystal's lips). So, I thought, why not just add cocoa powder to the standard chocolate chip recipe and use the brownie as the kick instead of the chocolate chips. In went the cocoa powder, in went the crumbled brownies, and in went extra white chocolate chips (for color balance and to make it look more visually appealing).

The result: the cookie is moist, big and chunky, the contrasting white chocolate makes it look divine and scrumptious, and the brownie bites are little explosions of extra chocolate. Success. And my apartment smells like chocolate and freshly baked cookies. I don't think there is a better scent.