rich cocoa buttermilk cookies with dark chocolate chips

By general consensus, these are rather decent chocolate cookies. My roommate says they're some of the best she's eaten. Another friend requested the recipe before the bowl-ful was half gone. One fellow took a bite and said, mouth full, "Wow."

I had four cups of buttermilk left over from making my paternal grandmother's fantastic buttermilk pancakes. (The pancakes will be updated later; this is going up now, for the friend who asked for the recipe). I wanted to do something with it, so I looked up some recipes. I ended up making these buttermilk chocolate cookies, buttermilk shortbread with jam centers, and buttermilk cinnamon coffeecake. All of these turned out quite tasty; I think buttermilk will be showing up in my fridge more often...

The cookies were richly chocolate and not too sweet. The buttermilk made them tender and toothsome. My roommate calls them "heavenly" and says they remind her of chocolate sprinkles--harder on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. I recommend them, the next time you have buttermilk hanging about your fridge. Or when you don't. I hear they sell it in grocery stores.

Wowzies
adapted from Baking Bites's Melt-in-Your-Mouth Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies
makes about 4 dozen

1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup cocoa powder

2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 cup buttermilk

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

Turn your oven to 350.

Melt your butter and beat the cocoa powder into it until the mixture is smooth. Add sugar, vanilla, and buttermilk.

Dump the flour and baking soda on top and mix vigorously to incorporate. When you've beaten the lumps out with the strength of your will and the sweat of your brow (or the power of your stand mixer), stir in the chocolate chips. The darker, of course, the better. Add more or less chips to your taste. I think I added about two cups, but I didn't really measure.

Spoon the batter onto cookie sheets. Don't make them too big; the cookies will spread and rise a decent amount. 3/4-inch-diameter balls, 12 to a sheet, is about the right size I think.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. The centers will still be slightly soft, but the edges should be set. Let them cool and the centers should firm up into solid cookie.