Mission: Chocolate

I had a craving this evening when I got home from work. Actually, craving is putting it lightly. It was more of an intense and urgent desire. It was a need for chocolate. Something triggered in a section of my brain as I sat at my desk waiting for the clock to strike 6:00 and my boss to sign my pay check. I tried to be good and soothe my craving with some handfuls of Special K Chocolate Delight cereal. But I'm only human. A human girl. A human girl who needed a serious chocolate fix. I made the decision to indulge myself with this chocolate cobbler. The best way to describe this is a large chocolate molten cake. The chocolate batter is spread in the baking dish, a mixture of sugars and cocoa powder is sprinkled over it, and then it's topped off with hot water before being baked. The original recipe doesn't call for chocolate chips, but I couldn't resist adding some to the batter. As soon as you cut into the cakey top of this cobbler, the perfect amount of rich chocolate oozes out for your delight. I'm telling you.. this is a dessert that was created to be served and melted into vanilla ice cream. Any flavor ice cream would be delicious (I'm sure), but there's something about vanilla that always seems to compliment certain flavors. After eating a two bowl(s) and vegging out on the couch rubbing my stomach with what I'm sure was a silly grin on my face, I felt quite satisfied. I've always been a fan of giving into cravings (seriously guys, whats a better word for this?), especially when it comes to desserts.

Another positive: this was so easy to bake. Honestly. After washing the 6 or 7 dishes that I used and wiping down the rouge cocoa powder from the counter, I thought to myself how weird/nice it was having such an easy clean up. Usually when I bake or cook anything, the kitchen looks like a twister blew through it. Not this time though. The cobbler was in the oven and everything was clean in under twenty minutes. Can you imagine?

Chocolate Cobbler
Adapted (if you can call it that..) from Tasty Kitchen

1 cup All-purpose Flour

7 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder, Divided
2 teaspoons Baking Powder

¼ teaspoons Salt

1-¼ cup Sugar, Divided

⅓ cups Melted Butter

1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed

1-½ cup Hot Tap Water

½ cups Milk

1 cup chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. First stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.

3. Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth. Gently stir in chocolate chips.

4. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish.

5. In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

6. Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR (no matter how tempting!)

7. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

8. Let stand for a few minutes if you can hold yourself back.