Chocolate Mania

Today was laundry day and baking day. It started out as a gorgeous day for both, sunny, windy, and much cooler than it has been, barely 65 degrees. Couldn't be a nicer fall day. It was really quiet at Daddy's, too. Dad was doing chores around the house. Everyone else was at work or running errands.

When the laundry was in the dryer, I went back to my place. My cookie jar had been empty for a while, so I decided it was time to refill it. Most of the recipes in Mom's Big Book of Baking (as well as Alton Brown's baking book) make cookies in huge batches, as much as 60 cookies. That's a heck of a lot more than I need! One of the few that didn't was Chocolate Sprinkles Cookies.

The recipe was simple - cocoa powder, sugar, flour, baking soda, salt, butter. Alas, I remembered I was out of regular sugar. I substituted dark brown sugar, which gave it a rich, deep flavor, used one stick of Smart Balance 50/50 butter instead of 1 1/2 of regular unsalted butter, and added the last of a jar of applesauce to replace some of the butter and to finish off that jar. I rolled the first batch in brown chocolate sprinkles and yellow sugar crystal sprinkles for fall, then used the second batch to empty a bottle of rainbow ball sprinkles. They came out delicious, moist and chocolate-y, yet not too heavy or oily.

I went back to my apartment for the laundry, which took longer than usual due to towels, then headed home. Baked the cookies, put the laundry away, and had a quick lunch of Peanut Butter and Pumpkin Butter on home-made bread and carrot sticks. I tossed an apple in my lunch bag for a snack, changed into my now-clean uniform, and hurried off to work as best I could in the increasing wind.

Work was on-and-off busy, but not quite as bad as yesterday, probably due to the end of that 4-day sale. I just made it in on time, and my relief was on time as well. Though it remains windy and dark clouds started gathering around 5PM, so far, there's been no repeat of last night's storms.