Clinging Onto My Youth

Well, tomorrow's the big day - yup, as of 10:28 on April 4, 2009, I will officially be the age of majority worldwide. And the funny thing is, I don't particularly care all that much about my own birthday... in all honesty, I'd much rather spend my time baking and decorating cakes and other goodies en masse for everyone else than churning out a single, otherwise unspectacular excuse for a celebratory birthday sweet. Gone are the birthdays past, filled with La Rocca fudge cakes and pizza. Yup, tomorrow will be (a new incarnation of) the chocolate beet cake and sushi.

But enough about tomorrow's squanderings. It is, after all, almost tomorrow! I made these cookies a while back as a total excuse to expend some academic stress energy (and get some more use out of my awesome SilPats) while cleaning out the pantry a bit. An added bonus was being able to send in some sugary goodness to mom's office and the gals at school while experimenting willy-nilly! At the risk (or guarantee) of sounding like a braggart, I pretty much knew these cookies would be a total hit. Dark chocolate - always a hit. Peanut butter chips - yup, pretty much don't know any PB haters out there! And the twist, which really was the screwball in terms of how it would behave in the cookies - dehydrated banana chips. I crushed them up a little bit, so they'd still add texture but not be slabs in the dough balls, and they softened just slightly so that they were mostly chewy but still a touch crisp on the edges. The banana flavour balanced perfectly with the ever so slightly salty cookie dough, bitter chocolate and rich peanut butter too.

Though my cookie-eating days may be over (at least for the moment) I'm sure that my inner child would find comfort in these morsels. Stay tuned, folks... the next post (no promises when, now!) will be the version nouveau of SusanV's beet cake (which I have officially take over, *evil laugh*). Eventually I'll even wind up catching up with all the other stuff I've done too!

Triple - Chip Cookies
Makes 26
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup miniature (if you can find them) bittersweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup peanut butter chips
1 cup banana chips, lightly crushed

1. Whisk together the flours, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, beat together the melted butter and sugars until well blended.
3. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk.
4. Gently mix in the dry ingredients until just blended.
5. Fold in all the chips.
6. Wrap dough in plastic wrap, chill 12 hours.
7. Preheat the oven to 325F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, but do not grease.
8. Space cookies about 2" apart on sheets.
9. Bake 15 minutes.
10. Cool completely on baking sheets.

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 177.6

Total Fat: 8.1 g

Cholesterol: 30.1 mg

Sodium: 54.5 mg

Total Carbs: 24.7 g

Dietary Fiber: 1.3 g

Protein: 2.7 g