Truth be told, I entered the contest on the last day for entries on a whim. It was a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie contest to be baked by a parent and child.   Sponsored by Bill Hutton in memory of Suzanne Frank at the San Mateo County Fair.

Today was the day to enter our cookies.  6 cookies on a paper plate.  2 copies of the recipe, one with our names on it and one without (I didn’t read the instructions carefully enough, therefore we forgot to bring this, so I sat down and wrote the recipe from memory at the fair two times)

We discussed the contest.  We didn’t know what the judges’ tastes would be like.  One of our family favorites in the Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie category is Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookie, from Baking: From My Home to Yours, which includes a noticeable bit of fleur de sel salt mixed in with bittersweet chocolate.

We decided on something a bit more conservative and easily understandable by all though it turns out the judges would’ve appreciated the World Peace Cookies being California Culinary Academy trained cooks and bakers, an executive chef, and a Williams Sonoma cookbook author and recipe writer.

We won 2nd place – the difference between 1st and 2nd was one point out of I think 60 total.  And we had two of the judges whispering that they liked ours best to us as we went up to get the rosette.

We all had dinner on sticks(corn dogs and chicken skewers); We looked at quilts, pigs, chickens, bunnies, sheep and pig racing; We learned about judging criteria in the baking section; We won a 2nd place ribbon; The kids are enthused about baking and entering more contests; I avoided all spinning barfy rides; And we have some mighty fine cookies on the counter…Not bad for a day’s work.

Here’s the recipe for the cookies:

The Cookie Part:

• 1 C Butter (preferably unsalted) at room temperature
• 1 C Dark Brown Sugar
• 1 C White Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 C All purpose Flour
• 1/2 C Natural Cocoa Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 C Chopped Dark Chocolate – we used 1/2 bar of Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate sold in large bars chopped into pieces

Combine the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat until light.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat again until light.  Add in flour, salt, soda, and cocoa – sift ahead of time if the cocoa is lumpy – to the butter mixture and mix.  Mix in the chopped chocolate.

Chill the mixture in the refrigerator at least one hour, but up to 1 day.

Portion the dough by tablespoonfuls onto Silpat lined cookie sheets.  We put 12 pieces per pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes.  Cool the cookies.

This recipe mades about 48 cookies if you make them the same size as we did and do not fill them.  We filled them with fudgey ganache for the contest, so our 48 cookies became 24 cookies.

These cookies are great as is without the filling .  They’re also great used as the cookie sides for ice cream sandwiches. They have a crisp outside and a chewy inside.

Fudgey Chocolate Filling Part:

• 2-1/2 C Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
• 1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Melt the chips with the condensed milk in a heavy bottomed saucepan over low heat stirring frequently until the chips are melted. (By the way, this is the same recipe that we used for the Sticky Frosting on the Chocolate Bundt Cake)

Dollop a tablespoon full of the warm fudge onto the back side of one cookie and cover with another cookie.  The fudge will cool and firm up.