Borrowing recipes from other bloggers

I own stacks of cookbooks, which some day I may gather up and take a picture of. I also own stacks of cookbook magazines. But lately most of my inspirational recipes have come from other food bloggers.

My Bloglines feed seems to get bigger and bigger, almost all of it under the food catagory.

Tonights desire to bake came from a blog I have had open on my desktop for a few days. I just kept going back to it, looking at it, re-reading it. Then, without warning, I stopped cleaning up after dinner and started to bake. Never mind the mess already on the counter! Ignore the pile of dishes building up in the sink. These cookies needed to be made!


Mine don't look nearly as beautiful as Jenjen's do. It could be my kitchen lighting. I do seem to take alot of pictures at dusk when there isn't much light, using a close up setting that doesn't give alot of extra light. Looks, however, were not the only reason these cookies called out to be made.

Cocoa Cappuccino Cookies.

In other words, chocolate.

No one in this family likes coffee. Or cappuccino. And I may be an amature baker, but I know a bit of coffee can really make the flavor of chocolate jump out and bite you. Which is a good thing if you like chocolate!

I admit I reduced the amount of coffee by 1 teaspoon. I wanted the chocolate to shine, but did not want the flavor of the coffee to come through. And I also rolled my cookies in turbano, or raw, sugar to start. After about 6 cookies, however, I ran out of turbano and had to roll in regular granulated sugar. Maybe I should take a picture of those and compare them to the original recipe photo?

This recipe does not make alot of cookies, only 18 using my tablespoon scoop. The cookies are very rich, dense, though still moist, with a nice sugary crunch on the outside, so one cookie is actually sufficient for a snack or dessert, rather than the usual 2 or 3.

Of course the children complained when I limited them each to one, but not until they had praised me as the best cookie baker ever! I tried to disuade them from having these, telling them there was coffee in them, but their cookie senses told them they were still safe to eat. Oh well, better luck with that trick next time.

So to all the food bloggers out there, thank you for the ongoing inspiration you have been providing me. I may never be as adventurous as some, nor as competent, but I am going to keep trying. At least, I'll keep trying as long as I'm having fun!