Sugar Cube (11 page)

These cookies let you choose your own adventure. Hazelnut flour gives these classic chocolate chip cookies an incredible nutty flavor. But since it’s oily, the more you use, the thinner the cookies get. Personally I love my cookies thin and crispy, as in this recipe, but if you prefer yours on the chubby side, follow the variation below. Either direction you go in, you can’t go wrong.
MAKES ABOUT 24 COOKIES

• 1
  ³
  /
  ₄
  cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• ¹
  /
  ₂
  cup hazelnut flour (see tip, following)
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
  
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (see tip, following)
  
• ³
  /
  ₄
  cup granulated sugar
  
• ³
  /
  ₄
  cup packed dark brown sugar
  
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  
• 1
  ³
  /
  ₄
  cups to 2 cups (about 10 ounces) finely chopped 70 percent bittersweet chocolate
  
• Fleur de sel for sprinkling
  

• IN A MEDIUM BOWL
  , whisk together the all-purpose flour, hazelnut flour, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients and beat just until combined. Stir in the chopped chocolate, using the larger amount if you’re a chocolate fanatic. Chill the dough for at least several hours, or, if you can resist, overnight to give the flavors a chance to mature.
  
• PREHEAT THE OVEN
  to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Drop the dough by 2-tablespoon portions (I use a 2-ounce ice-cream scoop)about 2 inches apart (they spread) onto the prepared baking sheets.
  
• BAKE UNTIL GOLDEN BROWN
  , 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the sheets from front to back and between upper and lower racks after about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the cookies with fleur de sel while still warm and let cool on the baking sheets for a minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies will keep in an airtight container for several days.
  

VARIATION:

• TO MAKE THE COOKIES
  thicker and more like a classic Toll House cookie, increase the all-purpose flour to 2 cups, reduce the hazelnut flour to
  ¹
  /
  ₄
  cup, and add
  ³
  /
  ₄
  cup chopped lightly toasted hazelnuts. Instead of finely chopped chocolate, use 1
  ³
  /
  ₄
  cups to 2 cups dark bittersweet chocolate chips.
  

•
Hazelnut flour is finely ground hazelnuts. Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur Flour both sell it. But you can also make it yourself. Toast the hazelnuts in a preheated 350°F oven until fragrant and beginning to color, 8 to 10 minutes. Rub them between two kitchen towels to rub off as much of their dark, papery skins as you can. Let them cool before putting them in a food processor with 2 to 4 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour and pulsing until they are very finely chopped.

•
To soften butter in a hurry, beat the crap out of it. Seriously. Just give it a couple of good whacks right in the wrapper. Get your aggression out. Peel off the wrapper, break off pieces by hand, and throw them in the mixer.

Chocolate cookies flecked with chocolate chips sandwiching a filling of chocolate ganache—these aren’t called “triple threat” for nothing. Prepare to become addicted. The cookies are best when still soft after baking, so be careful not to overbake them. You might want to bake just one or two at first, to test how long it takes in your oven. These cookies do not freeze well.
MAKES 16 SANDWICH COOKIES

• 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  
• ¹
  /
  ₄
  cup (
  ¹
  /
  ₂
  stick) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
  
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
  
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  
• ¹
  /
  ₄
  cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
  
• ³
  /
  ₄
  teaspoon baking powder
  
• ¹
  /
  ₄
  teaspoon sea salt
  
• 1
  ¹
  /
  ₂
  cups bittersweet chocolate chips
  
• 1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans (
  see tip, in Marionberry “Crack” Coffee Cake
  )
  
• ¹
  /
  ₂
  recipe
  Sexy Bittersweet Chocolate Ganache
  

• PUT BOTH CHOPPED CHOCOLATES
  and the butter in a medium metal bowl and put the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Heat, stirring, until the chocolate is just melted. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
  
• IN A SMALL BOWL
  , whisk together the eggs, sugar, espresso powder, and vanilla. Add to the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture and stir until evenly mixed. Stir in the chocolate chips and pecans. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill until firm enough to scoop, several hours. If the dough ends up too firm to scoop, let it stand at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes.
  
• PREHEAT THE OVEN
  to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats. Drop the dough by 2-tablespoon portions (I use a 2-ounce ice-cream scoop)about 1 inch apart onto the prepared baking sheets. With your hand, flatten each portion into an even
  ¹
  /
  ₂
  -inch-thick round. (Don’t make them too flat, or they won’t end up fudgy. Also, if the dough seems soft or sticky, lightly wet your fingers first to keep the dough from sticking.) Bake until the edges are cooked, the centers are soft but not wet, and you can feel a slight crust on top, 5 to 10 minutes, rotating the sheets from front to back and between upper and lower racks halfway through, (In my convection oven, they take just 5 minutes. They should be soft and fudgy, slightly underbaked but not raw. They will firm up as they cool.) Cool completely on the baking sheets on wire racks before removing the cookies with an offset spatula.
  
• SPREAD THE FLAT SIDE OF HALF OF THE COOKIES
  with
  ¹
  /
  ₂
  to 1 tablespoon slightly warm, soft ganache and top with the remaining cookies, pressing to help them stick. The filled cookies will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two days, but be sure to serve them at room temperature for the best flavor.
  

•
If you have a little leftover ganache, rejoice! You can melt it and drizzle it over ice cream or freeze it and use it later to make truffles or more cookies.

Choosing Chocolate

There’s no shortage of chocolate in the world, and that means there’s a lot to consider when choosing one to cook with. First things first: Check out the percentage. The higher its percentage, the less sugar and the more chocolate liquor (i.e., the chocolate solids and cocoa butter derived from the cocoa bean) the chocolate contains. For example, a bar labeled 70 percent is made of 70 percent chocolate liquor and about 30 percent sugar. Unsweetened chocolate can be labeled 99 percent (with 1 percent made up of vanilla and lecithin). For most recipes in this book, you’ll want a high-percentage bittersweet (a.k.a. dark) chocolate, something in the range of 64 percent to 74 percent.

Another thing to consider is how much cocoa butter the chocolate contains. Cocoa butter is fat, and fat helps you taste flavors better and offers a richer, smoother mouthfeel, so the more of it the better. The amount of cocoa butter in a bar isn’t reflected in the percentage, and the amount varies from brand to brand, so check the labels. As long as there aren’t any other additives like cream or cookies and as long as you’re dealing with dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate, the fat content on the nutrition label will just reflect the amount of cocoa butter in the bar, and the higher the better.

Next you should consider how you plan to use the chocolate. If it’s going into something with lots of other ingredients, you likely won’t be able to taste the nuances of super-pricey premium chocolate, so go for something a step down that’s still high quality. Callebaut and Guittard are good workhorse brands, while Valrhona, Scharffen Berger, and Green & Black’s are a little better and just as widely available.

When you’re making something that’s primarily chocolate, like truffles, go for the good stuff, maybe something made from a single-origin of bean, so you can really taste the fruity, nutty, or earthy notes the chocolate has to offer. There are many tiny top-notch producers in this category such as Felchlin in Switzerland, which I’ve discovered through shopping at Cacao in Portland. I love going to Cacao and geeking out with the shop’s owners, Jesse and Aubrey. They’re so good at helping me pick just the right varietal of chocolate for the dessert I have in mind. If you have a boutique chocolate shop in your neck of the woods, I highly recommend getting well acquainted with it.