Amazing Chocolate Cookie

As the pandemic continues, so does my perusal of old Bon Appetit magazines. About a week ago I was looking at an issue from 2001 and I came across an ad from Baker's chocolate that had a wonderful looking recipe for intensely chocolate cookies, which they called Death by Chocolate. Even though I had to translate the recipe a bit for another brand of chocolate which I had on hand, I knew it would be an outstanding cookie...and it was.

This is a moist, deeply chocolate drop cookie with walnuts. It's oversized and has chunks of chocolate that are still melted if you eat the cookies while still a bit warm. I had made up the batter in advance and baked up a dozen of these babies yesterday with my sous chef Raine. I scooped out the dough (still pretty firm from being in the fridge) and he made them into dough balls by rolling them in his palms. The second batch were flattened a bit after being put on the foil-lined baking sheet (we baked six at a time in my counter-top convection oven) because the first, round, batch were too tall. Since it was a new recipe I wasn't sure if they would spread, but they really don't.

Do make these if you really, really love chocolate and cookies! You could probably leave out the nuts but I love nuts and think they really add a great element to these cookies. Oh, yes, these cookies are made in one bowl and mixed by hand. Kinda old school, but less to clean up.

Death By Chocolate Cookies
based on a Baker's Chocolate recipe

8 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I use Scharfenberger but use your favorite quality chocolate)
4 oz. semisweet chocolate chunks or chips - chunks are better
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon espresso powder
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-2 cups chopped walnuts (optional) - I used 1 cup

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Chop the 8 oz of bittersweet chocolate. In a large microwavable bowl, melt the chocolate on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir with a heatproof spatula (I use a small silicone one), then microwave again for another minute. Stir until smooth and completely melted.

Add the butter and brown sugar and stir to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and stir to combine.

In a medium bowl whisk or stir together the flour, espresso powder, baking powder, and salt. Add the mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir just until combined.

Stir in the chunks or chips of semisweet chocolate and the walnuts if using. Stir thoroughly to combine. (At this point I refrigerated the mixture in a closed container for 4 days.)

Drop by 1/4 cupfuls or make similar sized balls of chilled dough onto lightly greased foil lined cookie sheets. Leave about an inch between dough mounds.  Flatten a bit.

Bake in preheated oven for 12-13 minutes. Cookies will be puffed and feel set to the touch. Cool for 1 minute on the sheet, then move to a wire cooling rack to cool completely...or as long as you can stand...they smell really good! Makes about 1 1/2 dozen (18) cookies.

Deeply Darkly Chocolate

It's always fun to make a treat for a friend for their birthday. Since I'm no longer doing dairy, it's extra nice to be able to bake with butter since the resulting sweet will be given away and not tempt me.

Yesterday I made these dark chocolate, intensely chocolate brownies to give away, but saved a few for Straight Shooter, who told me that they were delicious and very chocolaty. They were moist and fairly dense, but still had crumbs and the stout just intensified the chocolate sensation. You wouldn't know there was stout in them if no one told you. They were fine as is, but I suspect that a nice ganache topping wouldn't go amiss, either, should you choose to make them very decadent.

Except for chopping the chocolate these are really easy to make. I didn't even use a mixer. I just stirred everything together. If you cut these out with a heart cutter after they baked it would make an awesome Valentine's gift...and you could eat the scraps.

Stout Brownies
From Cooking Light Magazine

1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 teaspoon salt
4.5 oz. bittersweet chocolate, divided
1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
2 tablespoons canola oil
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2/3 cup stout

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 8"x8" baking pan with aluminum foil, then spray pan with cooking spray. Set aside.

Sift together the flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl or onto a sheet of waxed paper. Set aside.

Divide the chocolate into a 3 oz. portion and a 1.5 oz. portion. Finely chop the 1/5 oz portion.

In a large bowl, melt the butter and chunked up 3 oz. of the chocolate. I used a microwave on 1/2 power, 1 minute at a time, stirring well after each minute. Add the oil and stir to combine. Cool slightly.

Add the sugars and mix well. Add the vanilla, egg and egg yolk and mix well. Add the stout and mix well. Add the flour mixture and mix just to combine. Fold in the remaining 1.5 oz. chocolate, chopped fine.

Put the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the center should have a few moist crumbs clinging to it when brownies are done.

Remove from oven and cool on a rack 10 minutes. Use foil to remove brownies from pan. Cut into squares and serve.

Note: The ingredients are as listed in the magazine, but the instructions are just a bit different.