Carbonatix Pre-Player Loader

Audio By Carbonatix

021114_bookcover  

I love dessert, particularly cookies. They’re the perfect end to a meal, and the possibilities are endless. They can be sweet, savory, sophisticated, nostalgic … whatever.

 

021114_dough Valerie Gordon’s new book, Sweet, has a chapter on cookies I knew I would tackle. (Although the celebration desserts chapter sounded cute, it looked too ambitious for a weekday.) The cookie chapter had something for everyone from classics like oatmeal raisin and gingersnaps to creative recipes like coconut-finger lime cookies. This is February though, and we’re all really into chocolate right now, so I made Gordon’s chocolate cookies.

 

021114_cookiedough  

 

Even though they are thin, fragile little things, chocolate dough studded with bittersweet chocolate chips makes for rich cocoa taste, and a mild hit of kosher salt rounds out the flavor. And best of all, they were really easy to make.

 

021114_readytoeat  

Chocolate Cookies
Makes 50 cookies

Some people might call this a brownie in a cookie because it tastes as chocolately as a fudgy brownie. Follow the directions closely – the cookies are exceptionally delicate when warm and will break if you try to move them too soon after baking.

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ tsp. baking powder
1½ tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1½ sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ cups 61-percent bittersweet chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

• Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl using a handheld mixer), cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the egg, mixing well. Add the dry ingredients and continue beating until the batter is smooth. Add the milk and vanilla, then add the chocolate chips, beating until combined.
• Turn the dough out onto a cool surface, form it into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, approximately 2 hours.
• Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two heavy, large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
• Using a 1-ounce scoop, scoop the dough onto the lined baking sheets, spacing the cookies 2 inches apart, or use a measuring spoon to scoop heaping tablespoons of dough on to the sheets. Let the dough come to room temperature.
• Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, or until they lose their shine. Let cool on the baking sheets on cooling racks for 10 minutes.
• Using an offset spatula, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
• The cookies can be stored in an airtight container up to 4 days (These cookies are quite fragile and do not freeze well.).

There’s a lot of mediocre cookies out there. What’s the best cookie you ever had and what made it so special? Tell us about it in the comments section below for a chance to win a copy of Sweet. We’ll announce the winner in next week’s By the Book column. And now, we’d like to congratulate Susan, whose comment on last week’s By the Book column has won a copy of Mast Brothers Chocolate: A Family Cookbook. Susan, keep an eye out for an email from the Sauce crew!  

 

 

 

This article appears in February 2014.

Subscribe!

Sign up. We hope you like us, but if you don’t, you can unsubscribe by following the links in the email, or by dropping us a note at pr@saucemagazine.com.

Meera began working at Sauce in 2008 and is responsible for the design of Sauce Magazine. She has a masters in journalism with an emphasis in magazine design from Mizzou and she has a habit of hoarding...