Oreo Chocolate Chunk Cookies & World AIDS Day 2011

Hi everyone.  It's not often that I'll get up on a soapbox in this forum, and I promise to keep it brief.  And I know that this is a food blog, and that HIV/AIDS and tasty food aren't the most palatable combination.  But today is World AIDS Day 2011.  For those of you who do not know me in real life, the majority of my time is taken up by working on my PhD at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where I am extremely interested in  HIV prevention and working to improve the lives and health of persons living with HIV/AIDS.  


World AIDS Day is about raising money, increasing awareness, fighting prejudice, and improving education regarding HIV-related issues.


2011 marks 30 years since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.  Since 1981, more than 60 million people have become infected with HIV, and more than 25 million lives have been claimed by AIDS.  Currently, it is estimated that 33 million people are living with HIV worldwide, yet only about half of these people know their HIV status.  Not a single country in the world has escaped the devastation of this truly global epidemic.


Please consider joining the effort and doing your part in Getting to Zero.  Your can get involved in a wide variety of ways: Become informed, get tested, be compassionate, donate, and so on.


Alright *stepping off of soapbox and putting it away*.


Actually, one more thing... Not that I've run into this kind of negativity yet (no one cares enough to be negative, hahaha), but if HIV/AIDS prevention is not something that's important to you or if you have some disparaging remark to make, please save your fingers the extra work and keep it to yourself.  K?  Thanks!


Now, to the cookies!


I really wish I had had enough time this week to come up with something World AIDS Day-related... but alas, these cookies are all I have for you.  Next year I'll try to budget my time a little better.  Anyway, I found the recipe for these ridonkulous Oreo Chocolate Chunk Cookies here, at Butter Baking.  Looking at the recipe now makes me want to whip up another batch right now.  If you haven't yet, go check out her blog!  She has some other cookies similar to these ones that look ah-ma-zing too!


You'll need:


2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
15 Oreos, roughly chopped into ~6 pieces each


Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.  Beat the butter and sugars together using your stand mixer (or handheld electric mixer) until combined.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated.


Mix in the flour, salt, and baking soda on low speed until combined.  Add the chocolate chips and the Oreo pieces and mix until just combined.  Try to resist eating all of the dough right now.  Seriously, it is so so good!  Try it! 

Scoop tablespoons of the mixture onto the parchment-lined cookie sheets and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the edges are just golden.

Honestly, these are some of the best cookies I've ever made and eaten.  They taste like cookies and cream.  Please try them, you won't be disappointed!!

When telling my mom about these cookies, she (in a stroke of genius) suggested that I use those mint-flavored holiday Oreos or Trader Joe's Joe-Joes in place of the plain Oreo cookies to jazz them up for Christmas.  Don't think that I won't be doing that in just a few weeks.