Chocolate^2 Chip Espresso Cookies

If there is such thing as a sweet tooth, I would like to suggest that there may also be such thing as a coffee tooth. Going with that assumption, my coffee tooth has been acting up lately, and that led me to this recipe for double chocolate espresso cookies from Demolition Desserts. The cookie dough was made with cocoa powder and finely ground espresso, and dark chocolate and white chocolate chips were added. You might think a dark, chocolaty, coffee-flavored cookie like that would be slightly bitter, but this one wasn’t. I suspect it’s the brown sugar that smoothes out the flavors in the dough. The tender, almost-cakey texture is a nice surprise about them too. You can use any ratio you wish of white to dark chocolate chips, and I went with a whole cup of white to one-third cup of dark chocolate.

In the recipe, the suggested method for preparing the dough is to stir it by hand with a large wooden spoon. I prefer the hands-free method of tossing everything into a mixer, so I went that route. The flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and ground espresso were sifted while the butter and dark brown and granulated sugars were mixed. One egg, vanilla, and salt were added to the butter before the flour mixture was mixed in just until combined. I folded in the white and dark chocolate chips, and then the dough was refrigerated for 30 minutes. Small, one-inch balls of dough were formed and baked for about ten minutes.

These cookies are found at the beginning of the book with a few other versions of the chocolate chip variety like the chocolate chip cookies xs. This particular chocolate chip espresso cookie is also used in the chocolate chip mania dessert found on page 35 of the book. For that, the cookies are baked as minis and are stacked on top of a blondie with brown sugar-chocolate chunk ice cream and chipped cream with dark and white chocolate sauces. That sounds like a great way to satisfy a sweet tooth, a coffee tooth, and a chocolate tooth all at once, but for now, the cookies by themselves made me and my coffee tooth very happy.

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Ganache-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

I saw these cookies on the last page of the September issue of Food and Wine. Kurt loves chocolate chip cookies, so I immediately decided I should make these for him. Yes, these were all for Kurt. At any time, when asked what kind of cookie he would like, the answer is always chocolate chip. I hoped he wouldn’t mind the usual simplicity being ruined by a chocolate ganache filling, but I thought he would probably be able to deal with it. So, yes, these cute, little, crunchy cookies with a rich chocolate ganache sandwiched between them were not something I would want. Not at all. This baking endeavor was entirely for Kurt.

The cookie dough recipe is straightforward. Walnuts were added to the dough, and if you prefer your chocolate chip cookies without nuts you could omit them. The walnuts were particularly enjoyable in this cookie though. I mean it seems like they would be since these cookies were for Kurt not me. The ganache filling was started in the usual way. Cream was warmed with corn syrup, and that was poured over chocolate. The chocolate was whisked to a smooth state, and then the recipe called for creme fraiche to be added. I had never added creme fraiche to a ganache before. Butter, yes, but not creme fraiche. The finished ganache was chilled for 30 minutes before being spread on half the cookies. I noticed that my cookies turned a little darker than those pictured in the magazine. Next time, I’ll check on them before the end of the 12 minute baking time.

So, after baking the cookies, making the ganache, and filling the sandwiches, I gave up the notion that these were just for Kurt. I had tasted a plain cookie and quite liked it, but the sandwiched cookies with this chocolate filling were just crazy. I want to say the creme fraiche made the ganache a little more like chocolate pudding, but I really didn’t think about it for long. I was too busy trying to prevent myself from devouring every last cookie before Kurt even got home.

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World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie

Yes, I too read the David Leite article in The NY Times, and of course had to test the recipe. Then, today, I read on The Motley Fool that in these troubling economic times we need comfort food, and that’s why this was the most emailed article from that day. I wasn’t really pondering the state of the stock market when I decided to bake these cookies, but maybe it was a subliminal influence. I know I was thinking that these had to be better than the vegan cookie I bought with my lunch last Thursday. There’s nothing wrong with a vegan cookie in general, and maybe that one just wasn’t the best of the batch, but sometimes a classic is in order.

I followed the Jacques Torres recipe. But, if you would prefer to stick to your favorite recipe, the most important tips here are chilling the dough for 36 hours and using excellent chocolate disks instead of chips. I used Colombian chocolate disks with 65% cacao. A third intriguing tip is sprinkling the shaped cookie dough with sea salt just before placing in the oven. Since I’m a freak for sweets accented by sea salt, of course I did that as well.

Result? Kurt is the chocolate chip cookie connoisseur in our house, so the judgment was up to him. Being the logical sort, he felt that to make an adequate decision he needed to compare samples of all his favorite chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. That didn’t happen, so his best guess was this was one of the finest he’s had. Definitely very good. Highly recommended. Those chocolate disks or feves are a bit pricier than standard chocolate chips, but they make for a wonderful cookie.

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Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

It's fair to say that I bake a lot more cookies than I eat. Usually, the fun is in the baking and the sharing. These cookies are different. I first tried this recipe when it appeared in Living magazine, and it became a favorite of mine. I typed it into my file, with one small change, and kept it for future use. My little change was to increase the amount of whole wheat flour to 3/4 cup to bring the dough together a bit more. Something I wouldn't change is the use of natural peanut butter. Most recipes assume regular, sugary, hydrogenated oil-filled peanut butter will be used, and when I use natural instead I have guess at the right amount of sugar and make other alterations. It's so rare, but fantastic, to see real peanut butter used. This weekend I purchased a copy of the new Martha Stewart's Cookies book and was delighted to find the recipe included in it. Apparently, everyone at MSLO knew it was a keeper too. I baked a batch yesterday, put several in the freezer to enjoy as needed, and brought a few to work to share. Kurt completely disagrees with me about the use of peanut butter in baked goods. He gave this cookie a seven out of ten after eating four of them and claims to only ever want chocolate chip. No matter, this is a cookie I enjoy eating as much as baking.

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