Two chocolate cookie recipes to try
Oh boy…December is only 2 weeks away, time to bake cookies everyone?
These past weeks, I made two different types of chocolate cookies. One was Dark Chocolate Crackles and the other one was Flourless Chocolate Cookies. My church friend, Danelle, has been bugging me to make cookies with her so she could warm up before the cookie exchange party in December. I think her real excuse was to eat the cookies I made 
So we decided last Saturday night was the perfect night to bake cookies together. We surely had fun together, because making cookies was meant to be more than 1 person’s job 
The recipe that I chose to make together was the Dark Chocolate Crackles. These cookies are similar to chocolate crackle cookies, the only difference was in this recipe the dough is rolled into granulated sugar instead of into confectioners’ sugar. Now you have dark chocolate crackles!
These cookies were crumbly, tender, and has very chocolaty flavor in them. Perfect for those who likes their cookies melt in their mouths. Please note, that the recipe specifies natural cocoa powder which means you should get the cocoa powder with alkali or what is commonly called Dutch-processed cocoa powder. This is important if you want to get your cookies look very dark.
Dark Chocolate Crackles
Yields about 5 dozen cookies
11 1/4 oz (2 1/2 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp table salt
8 oz (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 oz (2/3 cup) natural, unsweetened cocoa, sifted if lumpy
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled until barely warm
3/4 cup (4 oz) chopped semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup granulated sugar; more as needed
Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350 degree F. Line three large cookie sheets with parchment or nonstick baking liners.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with the paddle attachment (or in a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer), beat the butter, brown sugar, cocoa, orange zest, and vanilla on medium speed until well combined, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly between additions. Add the cooled chocolate and mix until blended, about 1 minute. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until almost completely blended, about 1 minute. Add the chopped chocolate and mix until blended, about 15 seconds.
Shape the dough into 1 1/4-inch balls with a small ice-cream scoop or two tablespoons. Pour the granulated sugar into a shallow dish. Dip the top of each ball in the sugar and set the balls sugar side up about 1 1/2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake one sheet at a time until the cookies are puffed and cracked on top, 11 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
Source: adapted from Fine Cooking magazine, December 2007
The other cookie recipe that I had made in the previous week was the Flourless Chocolate Cookies. I just bought François Payard’s book: Chocolate Epiphany, and was extremely pleased to try out one the cookie recipes. This book is really an excellent chocolate book because even it has a variety of recipes for everyone. Though some has lengthy instructions (not for the faint of heart!) but the result is almost always mouth watering.
Now, these cookies were only made with 6 ingredients but the results were incredible. They were crispy on the edges, chewy in the middle and since I used chopped hazelnuts, they tasted like Nutella. Not too mention their appearance, pretty with crackled and shiny surface. The books mentions that they taste almost brownie-like (I agree), hmmm…who doesn’t like brownies? I have to confess that this one is my favorite of the two.
Flourless Chocolate Cookies
Makes about twelve 4-inch cookies
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons (68 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3 cups (350 grams) confectioners’ sugar
Pinch of salt
2 3/4 cups (272 grams) hazelnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon (15 grams) pure vanilla extract
Place a rack each in the upper and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degree F. Line two baking sheets with parchmen paper or silicone baking mats.
Combine the cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, salt, and hazelnuts in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minutes. With the mixer running, slowly add the egg whites and vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes, until the mixture has slightly thickened. Do not overmix it, or the egg whites will thicken too much.
With a 2-ounce cookie or ice-cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheets, to make cookies that are 4 inches in diameter. Scoop 5 cookies on each pan, about 3 inches apart so that they don’t stick when they spread. If you have extra batter, wait until the first batch of cookies is baked before scooping the next batch.
Put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320 degree F. Bake fro 14 to 16 mintues, or until small think cracks appear on the surface of the cookies. Switch the pans halfway through baking. Pull the parchment paper with the cookies onto a wire cooling rack, and let cool completely before removing the cookies from the paper. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Source: adapted from Chocolate Epiphany by François Payard
Both of these cookies look so good they make my tummy growl! Great photography. Any tip to pass on? What sort of camera do you use? Beautiful, thanks for sharing your joy.
Dana Zia
http://danazia.wordpress.com/
hi Dana, first of all thanks for stopping by. I use Nikon D300 right now and I don’t think I’m a good teacher but so far the only requirements I look in my photos are good lighting, balanced composition and a straightforward approach to present the food as it is. hope these will help you.
Comment by Dana Zia — November 22, 2008 @ 10:26 pm
Had to say more, I see you are from the Portland Oregon area, cool! I live on the North Oregon Coast. Love the culinary scene in Northwest huh? So passionate and thriving. I will add you to my blog roll. Happy Holidays
Dana Zia
oh, great! we’re going to Seaside this weekend and hoping for good weather down there. i love how bountiful the seasonal produce in Pacific Northwest, so i’m pretty happy. thanks for adding me to your blogroll, i have to visit you sometime. same to you!
Comment by Dana Zia — November 22, 2008 @ 10:32 pm
happy thanksgiving…
hi Lee Ping, thanks so much for dropping by! happy thanksgiving to you and your family too. i hope you guys have a great time together!
Comment by Lee Ping Chong — November 22, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
those cookies look awesome! yum-now i’m really craving some chocolate
Comment by megan — November 23, 2008 @ 11:36 am
look delicious!! everything about chocolate in my family is a fav.
hehe….
Comment by dwiana — November 23, 2008 @ 11:39 am
I was under the impression that the cocoa powder that is processed with alkali is the one that makes the cookies darker, like oreos….no?
ooppss…you’re right! thanks so much, i’d better change my statement.
Comment by Veggie Wedgie — November 23, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
Gorgeous cookies! My fiance doesn’t understand why anyone would make any cookie not involving chocolate, so he’d surely love this post! I love the sheen on your flourless cookies!
he misses out all those yummy chocolate cookies out there! you have to convince him to eat some chocolate cookies right now
Comment by Andrea — November 23, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
Liz, these are wonderful! I’m always interested in cookie recipes, and these fit the bill beautifully!
Love them and will try them soon!
oh, Pat, i know you love making cookies, i’m hoping you’ll make tons of cookies for the holiday
Comment by Patricia Scarpin — November 24, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
I have the Payard book, but have yet to make these cookies. Now that I’ve seen them, I’ll have to set about making a batch right away. They look like the tops of brownies – crackled and crisp, but tender. My favourite part.
go ahead try it, they’re just wonderful, you’ll never regret you bought the book
Comment by tara — November 24, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
I just read a post on eggless milkless choc cake, and now I see flourless choc cookies! :O
i was skeptical before i tried this, but i wasn’t disappointed
Comment by tigerfish — November 25, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
wow. both of these recipes look delicious and totally like the kind of cookie I love to make. Forgive me if you have, but have you made Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies? I feel like these fall right in that camp. Beautiful job!
i haven’t Alexandra….i don’t have her book, maybe i should borrow it again from the library
Comment by alexandra\\\'s kitchen — November 26, 2008 @ 7:22 am
The flourless chocolate cookies look so good! Love your pics as well.
hi piggy…thanks for dropping by! i haven’t been blogwalking as usual, miss your blog
Comment by Piggy — November 26, 2008 @ 2:12 pm
Liz, I don’t like nutella! It is too sweet for me. So, if I’d like to make these cookies, should I cut down the sugar? And I can use other kind of nuts?
neng…kalo baca, dibaca dong
gue bilang kan combinasi rasanya (coklat & hazelnut) kayak Nutella, tapi bukan berarti manisnya kayak Nutella 
kalo elo mau kurangin gulanya sih terserah. pake kacang yg lain boleh, original resepnya pake walnuts. sorry gue belon bales email elo, besok mau pergi 
Comment by patricia — November 26, 2008 @ 8:49 pm
Hello Liz, Ive heard about flourless chocolate cookies before but haven’t tried them out myself. Your cookies sure look delicious! I’ll definitely try this out this weekend. If you have time will you drop by at Foodista ? We are building an online food and cooking encyclopedia ala wikipedia and i hope you can build your profile there share your recipes with us as well.
hi Alisa, thanks for the invitation. I’ll surely visit the site soon!
Comment by Alisa — December 3, 2008 @ 6:49 pm
Liz- I love the pics of these cookies. I got the Payard bok for Christmas this year and love it! We are having a party this weekend and one of the people attending is Gluten Free and I was planning on making these cookies as one of the desserts. However, she is also allergic to nuts, so I was going to leave them out all together. Do you think they will still come out okay or does the cookie depend on the strength of the nuts? I would love to hear what you have to say about this. Thanks so much!
Karen
i think it might not be okay to leave out the nuts. the ground nuts act like flour here, without it, you’ll have some kind of macaron (French cookies). then it’s wise to make macaron instead of this cookies without the nuts. that’s my opinion, anyone else who had tried this CMIIW.
Comment by Karen — January 29, 2009 @ 6:17 pm