Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches...

It feels like an eternity since my last post, two weeks to be exact but I'm not counting. It's just been a naturally busy time of year which I enjoy but it does feel good to be able to write a post. In that two week hiatus we enjoyed all of the excitement of Christmas and an awesome snow trip to the mountains (and a visit to the e.r. after losing a fight with a bungee cord) with some great friends. On New Years Eve we attended a kids size party which ended when the ball dropped on the east coast but I'm happy to say I did manage to stay awake for our real west coast midnight time only to roll into bed five minutes later. If this was a Tweet it would be followed by #feelingold.

Inspiration for new posts always come in various forms and this was no different. I have been meaning to make a cookie sandwich for  a while and after watching this Jacques Torres video clip on a friends blog, Fudge Ripple I knew I had to use his recipe. Jacques Torres is the French pastry chef whom I'm convinced has chocolate for blood. I could watch and listen to him all day long in awe of his mad pastry skills. I used his chocolate chip cookie recipe which should be called chunks instead of chips because of the abundance of blocks and shards of chocolate which are swirled all through the brown sugary dough of freaking awesomeness! I sandwiched them together with a dark chocolate ganache, yeah you could use butter cream but I prefer ganache with it's silky soft truffle like feeling on my tongue but I wont shoot you if you choose a good chocolate butter cream. Ganache is way easier and faster to make than butter cream, whip it up in a mixer after its cooled and you have a deep, decadent topping for anything from cupcakes to your fingers!

I hope 2012 is a great year for everyone. I plan to give Foodness Gracious a makeover very soon and continue blogging for my fantastic followers. I really appreciate the comments and advice you leave me post after post. I have met some other amazing bloggers since beginning this journey and love the camaraderie among the blogging community. I wish all of you a fantastic and healthy New Year!

Here's the recipe from Jacques Torres: I halved the recipe and still have leftover dough in the fridge, darn it I'll fix that problem soon enough :) so beware unless you want to be eating cookies 24/7 which is not really a bad thing with these cookies!

1 pound unsalted butter

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar

4 large eggs

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour

3 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2lbs of good quality semi sweet or bitter sweet chocolate roughly chopped

Ganache:

1 cup of heavy cream

12 ozs of chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 and get your cookie sheet ready with parchment paper or a cookie mat.

Cream the butter and sugars together until fluffy and add the eggs one at a time. Reduce speed to low and add the flours. I didn't have bread flour so I just used AP flour and couldn't really see a difference. Add all of the other ingredients and mix gently until incorporated.

The dough will be soft so I put mine in the fridge for 10 minutes just to make hand roilling easier. Roll into small (or big,youre the boss) balls and place on the tray. Bake for about 15 minutes or 20 if larger until crisp on the outside but still soft and gooey in the middle. Sprinkle with sea salt as soon as they come out of the oven.

For the ganache, heat the cream until it bubbles around the sides of the pot, add the chocolate and gently stir until it becomes well mixed and shiny. Dont worry it will come together. Keep it in the fridge or wait until completely cool and beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy and ready for piping.