Sunday, January 29, 2006


dilemma solved!

regarding yesterday's chocolate-chocolate chunk dilemma -- once again, m.b. steps through the breach with a solution!

of course, being as that i'm completely incorrigible, once i see a nice recipe, i have to immediately tinker with it to make it even more decadent. despite my small changes to m.b.'s recipe, i'm still calling these "m.b.'s miracle chunk marvels:"

2 oz. unsweetened chocolate (valrhona extra 100% if you can get it, but since i had a scrap of ghirardelli 100% around, i knew it would be fine)
6.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate (callebaut 60%)
2 oz. butter (i used plugra)
1/4 cup flour (i used king arthur high-protein bread flour to make the cookies a tad chewier)
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla paste (i didn't want to add any more liquid to the recipe, you see, while at the same time increasing the vanilla flavor)
2 large eggs (pete & gerry's as usual)
3/4 cup sugar (i used 1/2 cup white and 1/4 cup light brown)
12 oz. chocolate chunks (i used schokinag semisweet 50%)

in sum, i basically doubled the butter and the vanilla, while pushing the envelope on the chocolate all around. ok, so here's the technique: preheat oven to 325 degrees f (m.b. originally said 350, but with this much chocolate and butter, i don't want to scorch or overbake the cookies so i turned it down) and line your cookie sheets with baking parchment.

break up the 100% and 60% chocolate; place in a microwave safe bowl with the butter. i use med.-high power for 2 mins. to melt the chocolate, and stirring for another minute dissolves the remaining bits completely into a smooth pool of yumminess.

while the chocolate cools a bit, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda together well in a second bowl.

in the big bowl of your stand mixer, begin beating the eggs. gradually add the sugar and beat until they form a thickish ribbon, maybe 3 or 4 minutes.

stir the vanilla paste into the cooling chocolate mixture. gradually add the chocolate into the eggs -- make sure the chocolate is cool enough, or else you'll get scrambled chocolate eggs! beat to combine, 1 minute.

add the flour mixture and mix gently but thoroughly, not even a minute.

now look at your dough. it may look more like cake batter than cookie dough. that's ok.

stir the chocolate chunks in by hand. if the dough is still too soft to drop into cookies, just pop it in the freezer for 20 mins. to firm it up -- which i did myself.

i used a soup spoon to make big cookies, which i put 6 on a sheet. this recipe made 18 cookies, which spread into palm size.

m.b.'s original recipe says to bake for 10-12 minutes. but because my cookies were large, cold, and i'd turned the oven down, it was more like 14-16 mins. for me.

these cookies can be baked hard and crispy, or slightly underbaked to be fudgy in the middle. obviously i took m.b.'s advice and underbaked.

you'll know they are done when the tops are nearly dry and the edges show small cracks. don't burn these, i beg you!

you won't be able to get these off the sheets in 1 piece until they've cooled for 5-10 mins to firm up and finish congealing in the center.

what you get are large, shiny, slightly puffy, super-chunky cookies with a thin brittle sugar crust. and the amount of chocolate intensity should knock you back in your socks.

all good! m.b.'s original recipe offered 1/2 cup walnutes and 2 teaspoons instant coffee as options.

i love coffee, but decided against it. yummy!!!

thanks again, m.b.

posted by fortune | 7:03 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 2 comments