It’s bad that I ate four of these for lunch, right?
Well, yes and no.
It’s bad in the sense that it’s always a bad idea to eat nothing but cookies for lunch. But thanks to a pair of extenuating circumstances, I’m OK with it. First, I actually had a healthy lunch ready to go, a sample refrigerated prepared meal sent to me for review. I heated it up, excited to dig in—it was super-healthy and quite delicious-looking. And then, I opened the package. Transferred the halibut to a plate so I could photograph it for you. That’s when I saw it.
A hair. There was a long, straight, black hair nestled in among the snow peas and the rice. I froze, uncertain about how to proceed. And about ten seconds later, the whole thing went into the trash. I was left disappointed and oddly guilty—this meal had been provided to me for free (full disclosure!) with the expectation that I’d write about it. I’m not in the business of slamming companies, especially a company like this one, which I’ve used and respected for years. You may have noticed that I haven’t named the company, and that’s because I don’t plan to until I’ve had a chance to actually taste some of the samples they sent. I’m not a gotcha-type writer. This was unfortunate for them, in the sense that these things happen more frequently than we’d probably like to think and they just happened to send a hair to a food writer. Even more importantly (cuz let’s face it, this blog is all about me), it left me without lunch.
Luckily, I’d already prepared the dough for these cookies, so all I had to do was bake them off. That’s where the second extenuating circumstance comes in: It’s a Weight Watchers recipe! Not that you’d know it by looking at—or tasting—them. These are decadently chocolatey, chewy-crisp cookies, my friends. And I ate four of them, yes, but for a grand total of just 5.5 points. I can live with that. Plus I followed them with a bunch of raw cauliflower. Let’s not talk about my weird eating habits, ok?
A note on the changes I made: For the most part, I followed WW’s recipe. I did two things different, both of which I’d recommend:
- I added some espresso powder, which helps to make chocolate baked goods even more chocolatey.
- I used Callebaut bittersweet chocolate, chopped into tiny bits in my mini-food processor. Most of them melted into the dough, which made the cookies chewier, but enough little studs remained whole to make it texturally interesting.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Weight Watchers
The recipe says it makes 40, but my yield was 32
Weight Watchers: if you get 40 cookies out of it, they’re 1 point each. For 32, they’re still 1 point, but the more you eat the quicker it adds up (it’s the WW algorithm at work, don’t ask me to explain it!)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
2 large egg whites
1/3 cup good-quality bittersweet chocolate (or miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips)
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease or line two baking sheets and set aside.
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, beat together the butter and brown sugar with a mixer on medium speed until well blended—it will be coarse. Add the white sugar and beat some more, until the mixture resembles wet sand.
- Add the cocoa, espresso powder, and egg whites, and beat well. Gradually add the flour, beating until it’s well-blended. Now add the chocolate.
- Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls (I used a small cookie scoop) onto the prepared cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, until cookies look glossy but dry. Let cool on the pans for 2 to 3 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool fully.