Quick post today, as the little Humble and I are getting ready to go hunt for cars again.
Today I whipped up a big batch of cookies. Chocolate cookies. Serious chocolate cookies. A baking friend of mine gave me this cookie recipe a few months ago. They're absolutely wonderful and luckily, I have permission to share.
They're basically two pounds of chocolate bound together with a bit of butter and flour. Cooked just right, they're moist and fudgy like brownies, laden with bits of chocolate.
How can that be anything but great! Right?
On a quick blog-related note. Once again, I might be deviating a little from my normal blogging schedule this month. On Wednesdays--and possibly Friday's--I'll be setting aside my baking pans and doing some volunteer work. It has been too nice in Seattle to stay in the kitchen all week baking. So, I'm going to get out and be useful to others while the weather is nice. I do hope no one minds too much.
Alright, so let's get down to the chocolate...
Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Cookies!
yields 5-6 dozen cookies
1 cup (two sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cups extra dark, unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, chopped (I'm using 53% cacao)
2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/3 cups white chocolate morsels
2/3 cup milk chocolate (or semi-sweet) morsels
Pre-heat your oven to 350°F.
In a double-boiler, melt the pound of bittersweet chocolate. Set it aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa and salt in a large bowl and set aside.
In your mixer, using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and brown sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the cooled chocolate to the mixture and blend. Be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure the mixture is uniform.
Add half the flour mixture and combine on low speed, then add the remaining flour and mix until the batter comes together.
Now add the chocolate morsels--feel free to add a couple handfuls of nuts too, if that's your style--and stir them in by hand.
Line a baking sheet with parchment, or silicone baking sheets, and drop spoonfuls of the cookie batter onto the sheet. Give the cookies plenty of room to spread.
Bake the cookies for approximately 10 minutes until puffy and the edges start to crisp. Be careful not to over bake. These cookies should be moist and chewy.
Allow the cookies to cool and firm up on the baking sheet for a few minutes before attempting to move them to a wire rack.
The cookies are best enjoyed slightly warm from the oven. If you're not able to gobble up five dozen cookies fresh from the oven, allow them to cool completely and store in a air tight container for up to a week.
I have a friend with an egg allergy, can you think of a good substitute for this sort of cookie recipe? Like in muffins I can just use yogurt or somesuch since the egg is typically not structural, but I have the feeling that in this sort of recipe it may be one of the key binding agents. Any thoughts?
ReplyDeletethis wonderful recipe will have to wait until the nyc temp goes down from 103 degrees...way down!
ReplyDeletedoing volunteer work shows a generosity of spirit & kindness & those that you "touch" will be blessed.
the tray in the last photo is quite unusual...do tell...
Is it possible to make these without a stand mixer, or does so much chocolate require mechanical mixing?
ReplyDeletemmmm... they look delicious! I can't wait to tell my sister about these (she's a vegetarian and always looking for veg recipes, including for her blog http://chroniclesofahungryteen.blogspot.com/ ) either way thank you SO much for the recipe! can you do these with darker chocolate?
ReplyDeleteNOM!
ReplyDeleteThat is all. :)
ShonaK,
ReplyDeleteMixer is not a requirement for these cookies. You could make them with hand beaters or a wooden spoon (creaming builds muscles!). This cookie batter is fairly soft and easily workable by hand.
cfexrun,
This recipe really relies on the eggs as both a binder and a leavening agent.
As for substitutions, this is an area I really don't have much experience in. I know there are egg-less egg substitutes on the market for vegans... I suppose if those work in your average chocolate chip cookie recipe, they would do the job here as well.
ChocoMilk,
Yup, you can certainly customize the cacao levels to your own taste. Use dark chocolate chunks instead of white, etc.
linda,
We've had those trays around here for years. I can't remember exactly where we found them. They're bits of shell and black resin over a ordinary plain wood breakfast tray.
Those cookies look like pure, delicious evil. I may have to put them in my queue.
ReplyDeleteHello my friend. I would just like to let you know that your blog is finding a following in South Africa. How about that. As you probably know the Soccer world Cup is taking place in our country at the moment and I was thinking as you are such an artistic person it would be absolutely fantastic if you could honour us with a recepe that commerates this great event. God bless you my friend I look forward to reading your blog as often as I get a chance. Keep going.
ReplyDeleteYummy! Yummy! Yummy! Looks great.
ReplyDeleteAs we say here around the office, "CHOKKIT!!"
ReplyDeleteMmm, yummy. I may be dreaming of these tonight. Love the glasses of milk in the pics!
Interesting the question about eggs. My grandmother made the most wonderful ginger molasses cookies, and of course over the years never had to look at the recipe or measure anything. I called her once when I was a young bride and asked for the recipe; she recited it immediately, and I made them...and they were all wrong. I got her cookbook...and it didn't work. Obviously the recipe had varied a little bit as she scooped and tossed in ingredients, and I wasn't able to go cross-country to watch her actually make them...and then she died. I despaired that our family would never taste those wonderful cookies again.
ReplyDeleteFast-foward more than a decade, and my eight-year-old is making cookies from a recipe. (I started letting her "cook" as soon as she could stand up at her little table and push a potato around in a pan with a spatula.) I scooped up a finger-full of dough and stopped dead in my tracks. "You made G'anny's ginger snaps!" I cried. "How did you do that?"
"I made this recipe, but I forgot to put in the eggs," she said. Well, she baked them up and they were perfect G'anny's ginger snaps. And now I have an actual recipe for them...without the eggs.
Yummy!! Seriously if only i could pick them up now!!
ReplyDeleteThey seem absolutely decadent and delicious.
ReplyDeleteA quick question, I just bought a double boiler but haven't used it yet, it didn't come with instructions but is it true that the water underneath in the pot should not touch the bottom of the boiler? This doesn't seem to make any sense to me...
ReplyDeleteif you are taking these cookies to the car dealer to soften up the sales people, I think it just might work...good luck. What kind of cars are you looking at?
ReplyDeleteThat's correct. The water shouldn't touch the bottom of the second pan. The heat from the simmering water and steam below will warm the chocolate enough to melt.
ReplyDeleteChocolate and direct heat don't always play nice, it can scorch easily and turn into a grainy mess. So, gap between the top pan (or bowl) and the water acts as an insulator to keep the temperature favorable for melting chocolate.
Monica,
ReplyDeleteA car that is both fuel efficient and I can use to haul around kayaks. Basically something that doesn't exist yet (or at least not in my price range).
Made these for the office today- they are a huge hit! They were definitely best right out of the oven though. Don't have a mixer and they still came out beautifully (although my arms are still a little sore). I also added a little sea salt to the tops for a little extra sweet/salty punch. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeletethese cookies look divine!! Thats lot of chocolate!
ReplyDeleteI made these as a vacation treat for my boyfriend and family. They are a huge hit. I had to bake them a few extra minutes because it is so humid here in the Northeast right now, but definitely worth the oven heat :) Thanks for the recipe!
ReplyDeletePardon the ignorance, but is extra-dark cocoa powder the same thing as Dutch-processed? These look delicious, I can't wait to make them this weekend!
ReplyDeleteLibby,
ReplyDeleteVery similar, extra-dark is a dutch processed cocoa and is sometimes called extra-dutch or double-dutch cocoa.
Extra dark cocoa is darker and richer in flavor than a normal dutch processed cocoa. If you cannot find extra-dark cocoa powder (though Hershey's Extra Dark cocoa powder is usually available at most well stocked grocers in the U.S.) you can substitute dutch processed, though the color and flavor will not be quite as rich.
My all-time favorite midnight snack. I really love cookies and milk at the same time.
ReplyDeletedining room table
Too bad it isn't possible to reach into the monitor because I would definitely grab a couple of those delicious-looking cookies!
ReplyDelete