Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies

photo by Michelle Stiles

Hello Sunday afternoon! What better time to bake something yummy, feel virtuous, and spend the rest of the afternoon recuperating (and eating said fab cookies).




I can't take any credit for these delicious morsels. I came across the recipe  at a blog I read regularly- The Beauty of Life. I like Michelle's writing, her recipes are unusual, and her photos- well, they inspire and embarrass me (hence I'm using her photo of the cookie as opposed to the funky crumpled one I took).

I would call these grown-up chocolate chip cookies. The whole wheat flour, dark chocolate chips, coconut, and hint of molasses mean they are not your usual chocolate chip cookies. They're something different- less sweet, more complex, almost...sexy. As in, I want a glass of good red wine to drink with one not  glass of cold milk. OK, cold milk still works but you get what I mean.

Practical tips- putting the dough in the fridge overnight is a great tip for crispy outside soft inside cookies but it does mean you'll have to put some muscle behind scooping out the portions. And use your hands to shape the dough a bit as it gets a little crumbly. I'm not sure I used 3T per cookie so that's up to you but I did make the executive decision that, as the only sweets fiend in the house, I didn't want to bake everything today so 1/3 of the dough was wrapped up and stored in the freezer. Meaning I can indulge myself with minimal effort in the future!

I would write more but another pan is ready to come out of the oven and I am a firm believer in quality control- one cookie from each pan must be tasted. This is NOT why I bake on mini pans, all right?!



Toasted Coconut Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
Adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce
Yield: about 20 cookies

I like my cookies a bit thick rather than thin. I made half a batch straight from the mixer to the oven and they were nice and crisp, the second go around sat in the fridge for about a day and were baked cold producing a thicker cookie. I enjoyed the latter with a chewy interior and crisp edges.

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp. molasses
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup toasted coconut
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼- and ½-inch pieces, or bittersweet chips

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  On one baking sheet, spread out shredded coconut.  Toast coconut for about 6 minutes, until browned and fragrant.  Remove from the oven, place in a small bowl and let cool.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to blend.

Put the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and molasses. Add the flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the chocolate and coconut, mix on low speed until evenly combined. (If you have no stand mixer, you can do all of this with handheld electric beaters and/or a large, sturdy spoon.) Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then use your hands to turn and gently massage the dough, making sure all the flour is absorbed.

Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each cookie.

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly browned. Transfer the cookies, still on parchment, to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

Comments

  1. I am so glad you liked these! My kind of woman - I love wine with cookies! Confession: I keep a bag of cookie dough balls in the freezer and have been known to turn on the toaster oven and pop in a cookie just for myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ladies, great tips on storing cookie dough. Popping them in toaster oven, never thought of that but excited to try.

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