Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are from Bon Appetit Magazine. They are my favorite chocolate cookies so far. They have a little almond extract and it gives them a wonderful flavor, different than most other chocolate cookies. Plus they are soft all the time, even after being pulled right out of the fridge. We like to use these as sandwich cookies with frosting in the middle, but I think they would be great alone, maybe with some white chocolate chips added in with the semi-sweet chips.

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup semi sweet, 1 cup white)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter until fluffy. Beat in both sugars, then eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in extracts then dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing dough 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake 2 sheets together for 5 minutes, then switch sheets and cook for another 5 minutes. I cook these for exactly 10 minutes switching the sheets and they are perfect every time.

I made these for Ryan's work party last night and used them as sandwich cookies. For frosting I used:

1/4 cup butter
4 oz. cream cheese
about 3 cups powdered sugar (sorry, I didnt measure, I just used all that was in my container and dumped it in)
vanilla
milk
beat until smooth and blended, then add 1 jar marshmallow cream. I let the cookies cool then spread the frosting and put the sandwiches in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Leave any extra cookies in the fridge. Adios!