Chocolate + Orange = Yum

Every time I looked out [someone else's] office window today, I got the urge to bake cookies. Delicious stormy weather. Virtually as soon as I got home and changed into dry clothes, I pulled out the ol' cookbooks and picked out a recipe. Although I waffled for a while between pumpkin spice and chocolate, Danny's vote went to chocolate and so I picked it.
The recipe (in my beloved Fannie Farmer Baking Book) called for chocolate chips, of which I had none, and for instant coffee, which I think is disgusting (although I recognize its value in baking, I just think it's too gross to have in my house.) A little improvising resulted in these nummy cookies:

Chocolate Orange Cookies
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1 stick butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 c white flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 dark chocolate orange, coarsely chopped- my pieces were about 1/4 inch chunks

Preheat oven to 350. Break chocolate into chunks and melt it in a glass or ceramic bowl in your microwave. Cream together butter and sugar; add eggs, vanilla and mix well. Stir in melted chocolate (make sure it's pretty cool, but not hardened.)
Throw in flour and baking soda, mix, and stir in chocolate orange chunks.
Drop in little lumps about 1/2- 1 inch in diameter on greased or non-stick cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes. Even if they don't seem very done, take them out-- just make sure the tops aren't sticky.















Yep, that's my burner grate pulling double duty, along with some wax paper, as a baking rack.















See?