Worst Cookie EVER!!

Since 'S' posted the countdown to Christmas, I've been feeling a little stressed! So lately I have been on the hunt for the perfect Christmas cookie to make for our famous seven sisters cookie exchange party! A lot have come close, but I don't think there is a winner yet.

The other day, my little girl L and I embarked on a totally new cookie, one that we had never made before. The chocolate meringue cookie. They look absolutely fabulous in the picture. Melt in your mouth delicious! However, don't be fooled by appearances. This is how our adventure proceeded. First, while attempting to make the Swiss meringue over the stove poor little L burned the entire tip of her thumb on the stove! Poor baby was crying and holding her thumb in the cold running water while still with my other hand I was trying desperately to whisk the meringue. Then once all the sugar was melted I had to whisk it in the electric mixer, slowly increasing the speed until I got the stiff glossy peaks the recipe called for. So while attempting to bandage my poor little L's tiny thumb I had to keep increasing the speed on the mixer. Extremely stressful I must add, this is defiantly not the cookie for multi-taskers! Once I bandaged little L's thumb and gave her a treat for being so brave the glossy peaks had formed and I had to painstakingly fill a pastry bag and pipe the cookies perfectly onto the baking sheets. Then as I continued to read the recipe I found that you would need 2 hours to bake the cookies! 2 HOURS!!! Who in their right mind wants to wait 2 hours for their cookies to be done! Never the less we waited, watching the clock for 2 hours because we really wanted to taste those beautiful looking chocolate meringues. Finally 2 hours were over and the cookies were ready to come out of the oven. I opened the oven door and realized that the cookies were not done yet. NOT DONE YET! It had already been two hours and the directions said after two hours the cookies should be able to be lifted easily off the parchment paper, but mine were still very soft. So I added another 10 minutes to the timer, and then another 10 minutes. Finally the cookies came easily off the parchment paper. Little L and I waited patiently for them to cool down and then it was time to taste them. Yippee!! But wait...Oh my... they were the most disgusting sticky cookie I have ever tasted! After all that work I felt like yelling at Martha for misleading me into making the most disgusting cookie in the world! But after realizing how foolish that would look I looked at Little L and realized that she too had spit out the cookie into her hand. " Uh.. Mom.. I don't really like these"..she said. I just started to laugh! "Me neither L, me neither". Needless to say we are still on the hunt! But on a better note Martha does have a fabulous recipe for double chocolate chunk cookies that are to die for!

Double Chocolate Cookies

(makes about 3 dozen)

* 1 cup all purpose flour

* 1/2 cup unsweetened dutch process cocoa powder

*1/2 tsp baking soda

*1/2 tsp salt

*1/2 pound good quality milk chocolate (4 oz coarsely chopped, 4 oz cut into 1/4 inch chunks)

* 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

*1 1/2 cups sugar

*2 large eggs

*1 tsp pure vanilla extract

-Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Melt 4 oz coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter in a small heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; let cool slightly.

- Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks.
- Using a 1 1/2 inch ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are flat and surfaces crack, about 15 minutes (cookies should appear soft). Let cool on parchment on wire racks (or counter).
*These are the best chocolate cookie I have ever eaten!*