- 1/2 pound butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon orange or lemon extract (see note)
- 3 large eggs
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt (less if using salted butter)
- 1 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 to 1 cup candy corn, mint chips, dried cranberries, mini-marshmallows, peanut butter chips or chocolate chips
2. In a mixer, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and orange or lemon extracts. (Note: if you are using mint or peanut butter chips, double the vanilla and omit the citrus extract.)
3. Add eggs one at a time, and beat until well incorporated.
4. Sift the cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt together, then fold the dry ingredients into the creamed butter mixture, just until combined.
5. Stir in the white chocolate and whatever mixture of extra treats you wish. Candy corn and white chocolate makes a colorful cookie for Halloween, especially if you tuck a candy corn into the top of each cookie (submerge it so a corner sticks out of the middle, so the color shows but it won't melt all over your cookie sheet). Note: if you add a full cup of something very sweet - the toffee bits, for example - you may want to decrease the amount of sugar in the recipe by another few tablespoons, unless you like your cookies very, very sweet.
6. Drop tablespoons of dough on the prepared baking sheet, using a small ice cream scoop (wet it first, so the dough doesn't stick) or two spoons. Pat the scoops down, so they're a little flatter. Then bake for 10 minutes, or until still gooey but just beginning to brown around the edges. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.
