Travel Tuesdays: Molasses and Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Writing about ginger cookies and gingersnaps made me realize I've been deprived of molasses, and I finally went and bought some. And now that I think about it, I've actually seen molasses being made!

It was on a family road trip to Ratnagiri - a fascinating place on the west coast of India, with a history that includes everything from delicious mangoes (I could wax poetic about Alphonso mangoes for days, and would recommend that everyone should brave the Indian summer heat to drown themselves in their deliciousness - even if you melt to death, it will be a sweet sweet way to go) to being the birthplace of Lokmanya Tilak to having been the home of exiled Burmese King Thebaw.

Co-Conspirator Gift: Chocolate Chip Cookies for a Surprise Visit

This weekend I wanted to surprise my dear friend J (also known as Petite Extraordinaire) who has just returned after almost a year away in India working with local artisans, traveling, eating, exploring, and generally showing the world how it's done. So I planned out a visit with help from her mom. Of course, if you're planning a surprise and it wouldn't be possible without that key conspirator, you should show a little token of thanks for all the zipped-lippery and not-giving-things-away-ness that they engage in. You know what's a perfect cookie that expresses thanks for this exact situation (and really for any situation)? Smitten Kitchen's favorite chocolate chip cookie!

This recipe is pretty freaking perfect as it is, so no interpretation is necessary here. I didn't have nuts on hand so I just used extra chocolate chips, but since I basically reproduced it step for step otherwise, I'll just leave you with a little snapshot of how they turned out.

Go to SK's website for the recipe, make these immediately, inhale them all, then clean up so nobody will ever know you made them and didn't share. Do it now.

And remember them for the next time you're looking for a gift for a surprise co-conspirator!