Take a bite, please.: Chewy Chocolate Cookies

I've discovered my new goal in life, ok maybe not life, maybe just this month. Perfect. These. Cookies. They are inches away from mind-blowing. I'm not exaggerating. Part of it is the fact that you can whip these up in a matter of minutes and you probably have the 5 main ingredients in your pantry right now.

I just baked my second batch of these in three days. They were only half batches, don't judge. I had to shove a stick of gum in my mouth so that I'd stop eating them. That's how good they are.

The first time I made these I used walnuts, like the original recipe calls for, and they were good, but I knew they could be better. Today I decided to try almonds. I had a bag of almonds, dried cherries and dark chocolate covered almonds from Back to Nature (love that brand), so I decided to chop everything up and throw it in the batter. I usually don't like fruit and chocolate together in my cookies, but the zing from the cherries was nice. The almonds were a little chewy, so think I need to toss them into the food processor next time and pulse them to get a finer result.

This recipe yielded 12 cookies. I wouldn't trust myself with 24 of these chocolate pieces of heaven, but go right on ahead and double it up if you dare.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used a combination of dark cocoa and regular cocoa)

pinch of salt (omit if you're using salted nuts)

1 cup nuts, dried fruit, chopped

2 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 320.

2. Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and grease the parchment paper. Do not skip either of these steps.

3. Whisk together sugar, cocoa, salt and nuts. Pour in egg whites and vanilla. Mix with wooden spoon until blended. Batter should be wet, but not runny. Let batter sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes. I'm not sure what this does, but it gave me a thicker cookie that didn't spread as much.

4. Spoon onto prepared baking sheet. Bake 14-16 minutes. Cookies should be glossy and slightly cracked. Transfer cookies, still on the parchment paper, onto wire rack. Cool completely. Enjoy.