Black Gold Cookies - in honor of the 49ers, the NFC Champs

Black Gold Cookies - made January 19, 2013 from Hugs & Cookies

I'm blogging a little out of order as I had decided on these cookies yesterday, the day before the NFC Championship game.  I adapted them from Hugs & Cookies but added Milky Way Caramels and am re-naming them Black Gold Cookies in honor of the NFC Champs, the San Francisco 49ers.  I've been a 49er fan since the 1982 NFC Championship game, 49ers vs the Cowboys, when Joe Montana threw the winning touchdown to Dwight Clark, aka The Catch.  I've hung in there with the Niners over the years through thick (Montana, Clark, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Ronnie Lott, Steve Young, Coach Bill Walsh) and thin....and thin and emaciation (we won't name names for these periods).  We're getting back into "thick" territory again with a trip to the Superbowl in 2 weeks!  So cookies in their honor seem apropos.

Why black gold?  Because that's what chocolate is, of course.  At least to me.  But to make it more color literal, I added the Milky Way Caramels and you can just see liquid gold peeking out from this cookie.  This is a pretty rich cookie - we're talking 5-mile run kind of cookie.  As with most chocolate cookies, I actually prefer these at room temperature when the chocolate has a chance to set.  Try to cover the caramels with the cookie dough as much as feasible so the caramel doesn't leak out too much during baking.  A little peeking out looks pretty, a lot makes for overly chewy caramel once it's baked.  The dough is rather soft but does become more firm as the melted chocolate chips cool in the batter.  You want to scoop these out fairly soon after mixing the dough so it doesn't become too difficult to portion them out into dough balls.

1 cup + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
5 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Milky Way Caramels, chopped
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Melt the 8 ounces of chocolate chips in the microwave or in a double boiler over hot water until smooth.  Let cool slightly.
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and vanilla. Set aside. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute.  Beat in the sugars. 
4. Mix in the beaten egg/vanilla until incorporated.  Add the melted chocolate and beat until combined.  Add the dry ingredients on slow speed.  Fold in the chocolate chips and Milky Way Caramels.
5. Scoop into dough balls and chill for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies have just begun to set with the centers still appearing very soft.  They will firm up as they cool.
7. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.