Double Chocolate Cookies

I got a stack of cookbooks for Christmas that I'm slowly working my way through.  One of them was Flour by Joanne Chang.  She owns Flour bakery in Boston, which I've actually never been to, but I'm loving the book so far.  Brioche and sticky buns and cookies and donuts.  Everything is drool-worthy.

My husband had a work lunch from Flour bakery recently and had a chocolate cookie that was amaaazing (he snuck one home for me because he knew I wanted to try something from there after getting the book).  They're super chewy in the middle.  I suggested making them for one of his friends for her birthday.  I didn't really read the instructions before I started making them and they are pretty time consuming and I was cursing them a little while I was making them but I think they were worth it.  They're almost like a flourless chocolate cookie, there's only 1/2 cup flour in the whole batch of cookie batter.  Because there's so much chocolate in here, the quality of the chocolate is really important.  Don't just substitute store brand semisweet chips here.


Double-Chocolate Cookies
From Flour

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely shaved
9 ounces (5 ounces and 4 ounces, separated) bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unbleached flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee
3/4 cup walnuts (optional, I left these out)


1. Combine 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and butter in bowl of double boiler (or a metal bowl on top of a pan of boiling water).  Stir until melted and smooth, remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Beat together sugar and eggs in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for about 5 minutes until a light pale yellow.  Slowly add cooled chocolate mix on low speed until just barely combined.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, espresso powder, shaved chocolate, the remaining 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, and walnuts.

Side note here, you can shave the chocolate with the fine part of a grater or with a microplaner.  It's kind of a pain in the ass step, it makes quite the mess (you try to wipe up bits of shaved chocolate and it just melts and smears everywhere).  I might try the recipe next time without this step or by just adding additional unsweetened chocolate to the melted mixture.

4. Fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula until evenly mixed.

5. Refrigerate the dough overnight or at least a few hours.  When ready to bake, set oven to 350 degrees.

6. Drop dough in 1/4 cup balls onto baking sheet.  The dough will be REALLY sticky.  It gummed up my cookie scoop and got alllll over my hands when I tried just using my fingers.  The best strategy I found was to use 2 spoons, one to scoop out the dough and one to push the dough off the other spoon onto the cookie sheet.  Don't worry about the dough being in perfect ball shapes.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until you see some crinkles on the tops of the cookies and the middle looks soft but not liquidy.  Cool on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, these will fall apart if you try to take them off too soon, you have to let the chocolate set.

Eat them warm with a BIG glass of milk!