I bought some great (and dangerous) baking stuff from my recent trip to Paris. Various types of Valrhona baking chocolates, cheap and good vanilla bean paste, Iranian pistachios, tonka beans and french butters… just to name a few. So yeah, I’m all ready for a big bake-out!
The chocolates are the first I put to use. Into these cookies.
These dark cocoa cookies were studded with a blend of unevenly chopped Noir Guanaja 70%, a dark and elegant chocolate and Liat Caramelia 36% chocolate with a caramel and salted butter notes, and finished off with sprinkling of smoked sea salt on top. Crunchy around the sides and softer towards the middle. It makes for a good companion with a tall glass of cold milk or a hot mug of unsweetened black coffee, just to offer some suggestion.
Very easy to make, the unbaked cookie dough can be kept well in the fridge for a few days when properly wrapped. Bake them as and when a craving hits, as the cookie is best eaten fresh out from the oven just minutes after cooling, where you will be promised with very crunchy sides and melty bits of the chocolates in every bite.
Do not worry if you can’t find Noir Guanaja and Liat Caramelia. It can be successfully replaced with any chocolate you fancy.
Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies
- 280g all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 250g unsalted butter, cut into chunks
- 180g caster sugar
- 60g brown sugar
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 2 tbsp hot water mix with 1 sachet (2g) ground espresso powder (I used Essenso Mandheling Blend)
- 100g Valrhorna Noir Guanaja 70% chocolate, chopped into uneven pieces
- 100g Valrhorna Liat Caramelia 36%, chopped into uneven pieces
- Maldon smoked sea salt flakes
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Line a baking sheet with waxed baking paper or silpat. Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and set aside.
Beat butter and both sugars on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add egg, vanilla bean paste and espresso. Beat on low speed until all the ingredients are blended. Add flour mixture and mix on low speed for about 10 seconds. It is ok if there are still streaks.
Remove bowl from the mixer and fold the dough with a spatula until no more flour streaks to be seen. Fold in the chocolates.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the cookie dough and place on the cookie sheet about 3 inches apart to allow space for the cookies to spread. Sprinkle sea salt flakes on top.
Bake for 12-18 mins depending on the size of your ice cream scoop and how soft you prefer the cookies to be. If you don’t want your cookies to spread too wide, place the sheet of unbaked cookies into the fridge for 15 minutes before baking.
Cool on wire rack and eat as soon as you can for best experience. The cooled cookies can be stored in airtight container and kept for a week.
