Does anyone love chocolate as much as I do?! I love chocolate candy bars, chocolate ice cream, chocolate covered fruit, hot chocolate, chocolate milk, chocolate cake and cookies, Nutella.... Chocolate is just great! So, I was pretty excited when I found a new recipe online at Dana's blog: Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies. Gosh, are they delicious... Really easy to make and her advice on how to get those pomegranate arils out was just great - no big mess, clean kitchen, just awesome!!! (You should look at Dana's pictures on her blog).
In case you are interested, here is Dana's recipe:
Double Dark Chocolate Pomegranate Cookies
Makes 2-3 dozen
bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes
1/2 Cup (1 stick) Butter--don't use margarine
1/2 Cup Vegetable Shortening--you can substitute more butter or Coconut Shortening here but shortening gives cookies a flaky crisp
3/4 cups White Sugar3/4 cups Brown Sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cups Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
2 to 2 1/2 cups choc chips--appx 1 bag of chips. (I prefer mixing 1/2 bag of semi-sweet and 1/2 bag of milk chips)
1 cup pomegranate arils (those red seeds. 1 Pomegranate is more than enough)
In a Kitchenaid mixer (or in a bowl with a handmixer) cream together the butter, shortening, 2 sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Beat the mixture on medium-high for a full 3 minutes--this is important. During that time you'll watch the chemistry of the ingredients change into a very creamy mixture.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine it with the butter mixture and mix till everything is incorporated.
Then comes my favorite part...
Add the pomegranate arils and chocolate chips. In my opinion, more chips is better than less. So I add about 2 1/2 cups of chips (or 1 bag of chips). And I prefer using a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chips. Dump in the chips and arils and mix briefly to incorporate everything. A few seeds may burst while mixing but that's fine.
Scoop the dough into 15 small balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes (10 mins was perfect in my oven). And you have tasty rich cookies!
Makes 2-3 dozen
bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes
1/2 Cup (1 stick) Butter--don't use margarine
1/2 Cup Vegetable Shortening--you can substitute more butter or Coconut Shortening here but shortening gives cookies a flaky crisp
3/4 cups White Sugar3/4 cups Brown Sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
2 cups Flour
3/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1 tsp Baking Soda
3/4 tsp Salt
2 to 2 1/2 cups choc chips--appx 1 bag of chips. (I prefer mixing 1/2 bag of semi-sweet and 1/2 bag of milk chips)
1 cup pomegranate arils (those red seeds. 1 Pomegranate is more than enough)
In a Kitchenaid mixer (or in a bowl with a handmixer) cream together the butter, shortening, 2 sugars, vanilla, and eggs. Beat the mixture on medium-high for a full 3 minutes--this is important. During that time you'll watch the chemistry of the ingredients change into a very creamy mixture.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Combine it with the butter mixture and mix till everything is incorporated.
Then comes my favorite part...
Add the pomegranate arils and chocolate chips. In my opinion, more chips is better than less. So I add about 2 1/2 cups of chips (or 1 bag of chips). And I prefer using a mixture of semi-sweet and milk chips. Dump in the chips and arils and mix briefly to incorporate everything. A few seeds may burst while mixing but that's fine.
Scoop the dough into 15 small balls on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes (10 mins was perfect in my oven). And you have tasty rich cookies!
I used more butter and less shortening (shortening = Palmin Soft) because I like my cookies chewy and not as flaky... I also used all the arils of one pomegranate and instead of the chocolate chips (which you can't really get here in Germany) I use two bars of "Zartbitter Schokolade" (the cheapest kind works fine) cut up into small pieces... If you live in Europe, bake your cookies at about 180°C. I baked mine for 10 minutes and let them cool off briefly. Then I placed them into a Tupperware container. That way they stay chewy!
