Hot chocolate is considered one of the winter staples, am I right? It’s not officially winter until you’ve had a steaming mug of hot chocolate and if you’re feeling a bit more festive, maybe add a bit of whipped cream or marshmallows OR BOTH! I have been thinking about this recipe for a good two weeks now. The past about 4 months have not been very kind to me. My baking muse, which I like to refer to as Sugarnoms, was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she went on holiday? It’s quite possible she just needed a break from my incessant bantering. Nevertheless, I’m glad she’s back so I can finally get back to my baking.

Ingredients:
1/2 C of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 C of all-purpose flour
1/2 C of powdered hot chocolate mix (I used Chocolate Cortés)
1 1/2 sticks of butter
1/4 C of semisweet mini chocolate chips (once again, I used the Cortés brand)
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1. It has been a long time since you’ve roamed these parts. A sense of nostalgia hits you as soon as you see her square ivory shape. She knew you’d come. You knew you couldn’t stay away. Not a day passed that you did not think of her. Your thoughts riddled with guilt you can’t help to be consumed by shame. “I’m sorry… I just… I don’t know what happened” is all you can muster as you make your way towards the oven. You apprehensively, yet kindly raise her temperature to 350 degrees while whispering “I’ll be better”.
2. Once you are finished discussing your absence with the oven, grab a large bowl and add your butter, sugar, and vanilla extract. Mix the ingredients until they are as smooth as your oven’s glossy exterior. To this fluffy result, add the powdered chocolate and mix well.
3. Add the cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder, and egg to the fluffy mixture and mix until the concoction takes a cookie dough form. You know what cookie dough looks like. Don’t pretend like you don’t stuff your face with it.
4. The very last ingredient, yet one of the most important, are the mini chocolate chips. Before adding them, I would suggest you let them know how very important they are to the mixture and that without them, these cookies would not be nearly as tasty. This type of encouragement will motivate the chocolate morsels become even more delicious.

5. In an ungreased cookie sheet, preferably lined with parchment paper, roll 1 inch balls of cookie dough and place them on your sheet. Bake the cookies from 7-9 minutes.