IRRESISTIBLE
My favourite cookie with a grown-up twist
Back when I was in high school, there was a café in SoHo I loved for its over-the-top sweets.
Billowing cakes towered over the counter, the cream cheese frosting between the layers thicker than the cakes themselves. They had golden coconut macaroons as big as my palm, and soup bowls full of rice pudding, mounded with thick, cinnamonflecked whipped cream.
But to my teenage self, the best treats of all were saucer-size dark chocolate cookies loaded with white chocolate chunks and pecans. Fudgy in the centre, with a brittle, crackling crust, they were sort of like the corner squares from a pan of brownies — both chewy and crisp.
Even better, any white chocolate bits that seeped through the cookie batter and hit the baking pan caramelized, turning butterscotch-rich. Who cares if the cookies were sweet enough to make my gums ache? I loved them fully and completely.
This recipe is a more grown-up interpretation. All the components are there — the chewy chocolate cookie filled with nuts and caramelized white chocolate. But I’ve tempered the sweetness by mixing white chocolate chips with bittersweet chocolate chips, and by melting bittersweet chocolate into the batter instead of the usual semisweet.
This means you’ll have to track down chocolate with a high percentage of cocoa solids, ideally 60 to 72 per cent. The higher the percentage of cocoa solids a chocolate bar has, the less sugar it contains. This isn’t going to make a huge difference with a small amount of chocolate, but when a recipe calls for a whopping halfpound, sweetness level matters.
If you can’t find bittersweet chocolate, you could reduce the amount of granulated sugar in the recipe. But keep in mind that
sugar not only adds sweetness, it also contributes to the chewiness factor. You’ll still get a great cookie, but a less glossy, brownielike one.
Speaking of chewy, another change I made from the original cookies was to add dried cherries. The sweet-tart pockets remind me of the raisins in a Chunky candy bar, though I suppose that doesn’t seem very restrained or grown up. But it’s very, very good. Dried fruit haters can just leave the cherries out, or substitute more nuts or chocolate chips.
And cookie eaters of all ages and predilections be advised: dunking these in your beverage of choice will always be the right and entirely over-the-top way to go.
Chocolate Cookies with White Chocolate and Cherries
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, 60 to 72 per cent cocoa solids, chopped
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, either Dutch-process or natural
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ tsp fine sea salt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup white chocolate chunks or chips
1/3 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup pecan halves Flaky sea salt, for topping (optional)
Time: 45 minutes
Step 1: Heat oven to 350 F and lightly grease two or three baking sheets.
Step 2: In a heavy saucepan, melt chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring constantly. (Make sure to scrape sides and bottom of pan to prevent scorching.) Once melted, remove from heat, stir well and set aside to cool slightly. (You can also melt the butter and chocolate together in the microwave on low heat.)
Step 3: In a small bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
Step 4: In a large bowl, using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat eggs and sugar until mixture is pale and very fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in vanilla extract. Scrape melted chocolate into egg foam and beat until just incorporated, scraping down sides of mixer bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in flour mixture until no traces of flour remain, scraping sides of mixer bowl with spatula.
Step 5: Using a spatula, fold in chips, cherries and nuts. Drop scant tablespoons of batter, 2 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. Sprinkle with sea salt if you like. Bake until slightly risen and a thin crackling crust forms on the tops of cookies, nine to 13 minutes, depending on size. Do not overbake; the cookies can dry out.
Step 6: Using a metal spatula, immediately transfer hot cookies to a wire rack. Let cool completely before serving.