It was only a few weeks ago that I made the C.C. cookies from Anna’s recipe, over at Cookie Madness. The ones with one tablespoon of cornstarch added. L-o-v-e-d them. Unequivocally. Unilaterally. Absolutely. Positively. Or as my dad used to say, abso-posi-tootly. That means over-the-top agreement. YES! Even though I had a bit of a problem with the baking time – is it 8, 9, 9 ½ or 10 minutes? Some were a bit more done than others, but, the cookies disappeared in a flash around here. There were many hands (youngsters, mid-sters and oldsters) dipping into the cookie bag in the freezer. They were gone in a few days, but then the recipe only made about 30 or so. 

Another variety of C.C. cookie made advances in the freezer (with some Splenda replacing the sugar), and they’re still there, relegated to a wayward corner. Ignored. Nobody much likes them, me included. So, there was no question, since we’re going down to our boat for a couple of days that I wanted just a few good cookies to enjoy while we’re there.

The cookies were made exactly as written except I added walnuts, as I did before. But this time I put them on a piece of parchment paper on a regular rimmed baking sheet (not an insulated one, as Anna recommended). At 8 minutes they were still a bit mushy in the middle. I had to re-bake those for another couple of minutes. I carefully pulled the parchment paper with cookies still attached right onto a cooling rack and reused the baking sheet. With the second pan (very warm pan, new parchment) I baked them for 9 minutes. Still not enough. I tried 9 ½ minutes. That seemed right. The centers of the cookies were still soft and the outside edges were nicely browned. My oven runs a tad hot, so I had set it at 365 (I can set mine at 5 degree increments).

My take this time – 365 degree oven, parchment paper on the non-insulated pans, 10 minutes for the first tray, and subsequent two trays (hot) at 9 ½ minutes. We’ll see how these compare. I’m not certain I like the parchment. I don’t know if Anna has ever used it. It made the cookies look too buttery and less like one would think a cookie should. Taste wise, these were just as delicious as before, although we had an extremely humid day here when I made these. Well, it’s humid for California – 55%. After cooling on the racks, they were soft. And a day later, at room temp, the cookies are still soft. So I don’t know if that was because of the humidity, the parchment or insufficient baking. Maybe it needs the full 375 degree oven. And, as one commenter mentioned over at Anna’s site, cookies are better if they’re baked on a flat sheet, not a rimmed one (like I did). You see, this is still an ongoing quest. A chemistry experiment, if you will.

I will get these right.
I WILL get these right.
I WILL GET THESE RIGHT.

In the process of making them I discovered that some critters (little itty-bitty round black bugs about the size of a pinhead) were devouring my chocolate inventory. I’d seen a couple of the little black dots, moving black dots, clinging to vertical shelves in my pantry, but had no idea where they were dining. Would you believe they like my Valrhona chocolate the best? The nerve of them! And chocolate chips. And any bar type chocolate. They even got into an unopened new bag of Nestle’s chips. Darn! I’d never heard of a little bug that eats chocolate. Have any of you?

I probably tossed out about $30.00 worth of chocolate. The bugs don’t like cocoa, Dutch cocoa, or peanut butter chips. And they hadn’t gotten into the ScharffenBerger tins, thankfully. But, I had to do a bit of housecleaning, as they’d left their gritty poop all over in the unlidded plastic bin, but at least it was all contained within it. All chips are now in a sealing type plastic box and other chocolate items in two layers of freezer-ply plastic bags. I had a couple of opened bags of chocolate pieces (not chips, but square shapes) that hadn’t been touched for awhile. They were happily munching away in there too. Those were buried under a stack of other chocolate things like bags of cocoa. I have another place in my pantry where I keep bar type (German chocolate), and so far they haven’t infiltrated that space. (Although, since those are in paper wrappers, I might not notice it looking at the outside of the package. Likely I’m going to have to put all the chocolate in a well-sealing large box. Darn those critters. Container Store here I come. On Monday.