Failure: Southern Chocolate Chewies

Updating bi-monthly didn't happen for the month of May. It'll be made up this month. Lots of stuff happened -- the end of school, friends graduating, the computer being put in the computer hospital, a ruined internet connection, a business trip… it was busy, and not a lot of time was spent around a computer. I think the worst part was the fact that I didn't bake at all in May (or, at least, not cookies!). I spent the end of April pulling together a handful of recipes, though, so have plenty to post, and now that it's summer, finally the time to do so.

When I was first thinking about starting up this blog my friends agreed that, besides posting delicious things I've made and blabbing about my love for baking cookies, they'd also like to see failures, and hear about the woes of the kitchen. Let me be the first to throw out the idea that everything I make is good -- heck, sometimes it's downright awful. The only way to get something good is to experiment and poke around with recipes; take risks, get in there with an idea and go for it, and suffer the horrible repercussions or revel in delicious rewards. The more you mess around with things, the more comfortable you get with doing it.

Some of my favorite foods are the ones that would, quite honestly, push my comfort zone to make. I am an avid Southern food lover, something about its seasonings and love for richness is something the resonates with me. I'm not from the South, though -- I was raised with Californian-fresh fare, and any gaps were filled with my mom's Chicagoan-Italian cooking. This sometimes makes the kitchen a dangerous place for me.

Enter Southern Chocolate Chewies. My love. My nemesis.

Delicate, fudgy, dense cookies with a crispy, hard shell and sticky insides, usually studded with walnuts. It is a dream. It's a cookie that is SO chocolatey and rich that it makes one sick to eat more than a couple, and yet the batch only lasts a couple days before hardening up.

I cannot make these cookies. I tried, and failed.



Total cookie failure! Chewies are supposed to be a little hard on the outside and thick, chewy, almost sticky, on the inside. These were not that. They were cracked shells on the outside and gooshy on the inside. GOOSHY. (Think mousse-texture, but eggier.) What's more, the cherries added for texture made them bitter and gross. (When chocolate/cherry goes bad! What a horrible day!) Oh well, not every cookie can be a success the first time around.

They'll be hitting the kitchen again, I have to make them. One day I'll conquer them. This time? Not so much.

But next time? These cookies are mine!