It's strange how your tastes change as you get older. My love of Bordeaux was replaced with the elegance of Burgundy.  My constant hankering for bratwurst has now changed to a constant craving for Malaysian sambal, Punjabi samosas and chocolate chip cookies - not necessarily all at the same time. Keebler, Chips Ahoy, Pepperidge Farms? Meh. Today, I'm on a quest to make the perfect gooey chocolate cookies. 

Fortunately, I have a good base to work from. This tried and true recipe is adapted from college mate of mine. I like it because the cookie base is incredibly versatile and consistently bakes well in just about any temperature or humidity condition. 

Today we are making chocolate chip cookies three-ways, dark chocolate and clementine oranges., chocolate chips with caramel, and straight up chocolate chips.

Cookie Base:

2 Cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 cup of brown sugar

1 stick of cold butter brunoise

1 farm fresh eggs

1/2 cup of Ghiradelli Large chocolate chips

Orange Peel

100 grams of candied Clementine orange peel finely chopped

Special thanks needs to go out to Tina Chen, a friend who is a product manager at Ghiradellis' chocolate lab in San Leandro. She always has the best interests of my belly in mind.  I am quite envious of her she has the fun job of creating and experimenting with new chocolate products.