When I was pregnant with Graham, over eight years ago, I discovered the perfect chocolate biscotti. It was sliced very thin, had nice height, crunched with a lovely snap but not so much that you hurt your teeth, and a beautiful subtle cocoa flavor studded with tiny chocolate chips. Because I was pregnant, the craving for that biscotti became a necessity. My perfect biscotti could be found at the then newly opened Dahlia Bakery, just next door to the Dahlia Lounge, a longtime favorite restaurant in Seattle. The duo sit side by side on 5th Avenue just under the monorail. It is just far enough away from the department stores that parking is not terrible, especially if you go around 3pm which I did, just about every day.

I am pretty careful about my weight and don’t allow myself afternoon treats – unless I am pregnant. (There is a post brewing on this topic.) After I delivered Graham, I continued to eat the biscotti during the first few months of nursing, seeing as chocolate was a requirement both times I nursed, and then I gave up the habit. Soon after getting the positive pregnancy test with Spencer, I trudged downtown to the bakery, toddler Graham in tow, only to find that they no longer made my precious biscotti. I was heartbroken but, of course, found other things in that lovely bakery to enjoy. The problem was none of them satisfied me in the same way. I was looking for a sweet treat – crunch, snap, chocolate. Too many of their goodies where of the dinner-ruining variety. I carried both of my babies really high, and I am not all that tall to begin with, so as I got into my third trimester, the amount of room I had in my body for food diminished.  Every day it was a choice between dinner and snacks and dinner always won out.

All this to say that when I received a copy of the Dahlia Lounge Bakery Cookbook, the first thing I did was look to see whether the biscotti recipe was in there. Sadly, the answer is no. There are many treasures inside though and the things I have made have been lovely. Not exactly subtle though. These cookies, which boast a whopping 2 pounds of chocolate, are pretty much the opposite of those delicate biscotti. They are large, heavy for their size, and fully of pure chocolate flavor. The texture is great, soft enough but with some crisp on the outside, and the whole cookie is punctuated with bits of more chocolate. My husband, who continues to profess that he does not like chocolate, inhaled these. By the way, if you have a recipe that you like for chocolate biscotti, one that more or less fits the description above, will you send it my way?

One Year Ago:  Yellow Birthday Cake with Chocolate Frosting, Sesame Snap Peas, Green Curry Noodles, Wasabi Dip, Corn Muffins with Raspberry Jam, Watercress Salad with Marinated Figs, Sambal Talur
Two Years Ago:  White Chocolate Tiramisu, Red, White, and Green Lasagne, Somen Noodle Soup with Spring Vegetables, Asparagus Risotto
Three Years Ago:  Apple Torte, Honey Roasted Pear Salad, Paparadelle with Lemon, Herbs, and Ricotta Salata, Red Lentil Dhal, Grilled Haloumi Cheese and Lemon
Four Years Ago:  Mushroom Enchiladas, Winter Thai Curry, Palmiers, Rosemary Flatbread with Blue Cheese and Grapes, Smoky Cashews,

Chocolate Truffle Cookies with Crackly Crust
The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook
Makes about 30 cookies

I have made these a couple of times now and I will give two tips.  One is to sprinkle a little fleur de sel over the top of the unbaked cookies, just after you have flattened them.  That much chocolate needs a little salt.  Also, they are easy to underbake.  They will start to look crackly early but let them have the full 14 minutes in the oven – at least. 

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 pound plus 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract
Generous 2 cups (12 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In a bwol, sift together the flour, cocoa, and baking powder. Stir in the salt and set aside. Place the chopped chocolat ein a heaproof bowl over a saucepan of very hot water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water), stirring occasionally until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove the bowl from the water and allow to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and cream on medium speed until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, mising on medium speed unti the eggs are incorporated.

Increase the speed to high and beat for a few minutes until the mixture is very light, creamy and pale in color, scraping the bowl down as needed. Add the melted chocolate and the vanilla extract and mix just until combined. Remove the bowl form the mixer and fold in the dry ingredients using a rubber spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips.

Start scooping the cookies as soon as you finish making the batter. The batter is very soft at first, but it starts firming up quickly as it sits, which will make it more difficult to portion. The easiest way to portion the cookies is with a 2-ounce ice cream scoop. Pack the scoop only about three-quarters full. Or use a scant 1/4 cup of cookie dough for each cookie.

Scoop the cookies onto parchment-lined baking sheets, placing them about 2 inches apart. Flatten each mount of dough slightly with your hand. (Tip: You can use a dampened hand, because the dough is sticky.)

Soon after the cookies are scooped, put them in the oven and bake them. If you are baking in batches, don’t refrigerate the scooped dough, but leave them at room temperature. These cookies will not spread properly if the dough is chilled first.

Bake the cookies until they are evenly cracked all over the tops and softly set, 14 to 16 minutes, rotating the pan about halfway through the baking time. If you have 2 pans of cookies in the oven at the same time, also switch them between racks.

Remove pans from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing them from the baking sheets with a metal spatula. They stick to the paper a bit, but you can scrape them off with a sturdy metal spatula easily enough.

In the 28 months that I have been making what I consider to be the best chocolate chip cookie in the universe, I have rarely considered making another.  Recipes come my way all the time, via books and the internet, and the only time I was tempted to stray was for this recipe.  We liked that one very much too.  But after they cleared out of the cookie jar, I went back to my favorite.  I make a lot of cookies and I have many that I like, but Ashley’s are my the tippy top favorite.

So why stray?  Why mess with perfection?  I am a recent subscriber to Saveur and it only comes out 10 times a year so it feels like a pleasant surprise when it arrives in my mailbox.  The most recent issue is terrific, 101 Classic Recipes.  Of course there is a chocolate chip cookie.  I would have just turned the page, chuckling that they got their recipe so wrong.  But when I saw how different it is from any other I have made, I decided to give it a try.  Unlike Ashley’s there is only one kind of sugar and unlike the New York Times (another very good cookie), there is only one kind of flour.  But there are four egg yolks and a completely different method for shaping the cookies.  Rather than scooping the dough out of the bowl and onto cookie sheets, you essentially roll out three sheets of dough, sprinkling chocolate in between them, and then use a biscuit or cookie cutter to cut them out.  Revolutionary or ridiculous?

I’m on the fence.  I found the method to be a royal pain in the butt.  I don’t like rolling out cookie dough.  The only cookie dough I roll out on a regular basis is for holiday cookies and that is because there would be a coup in my house if I didn’t make them.  There is a lot of chocolate and not a lot of dough in this recipe which means they make for lovely eating but are a little difficult to manhandle while you are stamping them out.  I like a cookie with some height and those three layers of dough work wonders for the height of the cookie.  They are soft in the middle and crisp around the edges and if I had remembered to sprinkle sea salt on top of each one, I might have been tempted to introduce this cookie into our family permanently.  Why don’t you bake up a batch of Ashley’s and a batch of these and bring them both over for an official taste test.

And at the end of this post, I have to say one thing.  As I was sitting here, writing about dough and cookies and the quest for the best, I pulled away to get inspiration.  It is something I often do when I get stuck.  I go to my favorite blogs to check in.  See what they are cooking, photographing, and writing about.  I read this post and I laughed and sobbed in the space of a few paragraphs.  And I came back here, feeling silly that I was writing about cookies.  My kids are growing so fast – why am I writing about cookies??  But in the end, cookies are important, especially to my little guys who love them so deeply.

One Year Ago:  Corn Chowder with Coconut Milk, Cocoa Nib Brownies
Two Years Ago:  Savory Rugelach, Ratatouille, Mushroom and Herb Polenta, Bittersweet Chocolate Pudding Pie
Three Years Ago:  Smoky Chard over Grilled Bread, Asian Coconut Noodle Soup, Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Arugula, Almond Praline Scones
Four Years Ago:  Five Lentil and Chard Soup, Quick Olive and Cheese Bread

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Saveur
Makes about 2 dozen

The recipe suggests you use a hand mixer, I used my stand mixer.  It also suggests you roll the dough into the desired shape, I thought it was easier to smoosh (technical term) and pat it into shape.  I kept patting the scraps out over and over again to maximize the number of cookies and they lost their height but not their taste.

2¼ cups flour
¾ tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. kosher salt
16 tbsp. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl; set aside.  Combine butter, both sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl; beat on medium-high speed with a hand mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add yolks two at a time, beating after each addition; add dry ingredients; beat on low speed until just combined.  Transfer dough to a work surface; divide into 3 equal pieces.  Flatten each into a 4″ x 6″ rectangle; wrap in plastic wrap.  Chill for 30 minutes.

Place one dough rectangle on flour work surface; sprinkle with half the chocolate.  Top with another rectangle, sprinkle with remaining chocolate, and cover with last rectangle.  Using a floured rolling pin, flatten rectangles into a 9″ x 6″ x 1½” rectangle.  Using a 2″ round cutter, cut out cookies; transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spaced 3″ apart.  Gather scraps, reroll into a 1½” thick disk; cut out more cookies.  (See headnote.)  Bake, rotating baking sheets halfway through cooking, until lightly browned and set, about 15 minutes.

Let me say this, I love my KitchenAid mixer.  It has a permanent home on my counter in this house and will in the next house.  I got my first one in my mid 20′s and it saw me through countless cookies, cakes, and confections of all sorts.  Once I started working as a personal chef, I decided to upgrade and get the professional one.  It is larger and has a different way of uniting the bowl and the paddle, but otherwise it is the same machine.  To tell you the truth, I kind of miss my old one.  I can’t recommend a KitchenAid mixer highly enough.  I can also tell you that most recipes that tell you to use a stand mixer can also be made by hand.  An exception would be something like brioche which requires long periods of mixing at high speeds.

Once in a while, I find it nice to bake with minimal equipment.  I am drawn to recipes that tell you to stir things in a bowl.  This is just one of those recipes.  It comes from Alice Medrich – an undisputed genius baker and cookbook author.  We had her at Book Larder and I loved what she had to say about her new book Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts.  She wrote it for cooks – not bakers.  So it is heavy on play and options and light on hard fast rules.  I loved that idea.

And now, in case you haven’t been reading along for 4+ years on this blog, a short summary of my feelings about cookies.  I love chocolate!  I like white chocolate!  Cookies should be chocolate!  Most of the time!  I don’t like nuts in my sweets! 

I think that about does it.  My brother Michael, an avid reader of this site and someone who has been eating cookies with me for his whole life, said, after gulping one of these down, “I thought you don’t like nuts in cookies.”  True.  But these are very rich little buggers and for some reason that little crunch and nuttiness is welcome for me here.  I had some odd bits and bobs of chocolate so I used a variety, including these huge white chocolate disks.  I really liked what they did for the cookie.

One Year Ago:  Soft Lettuces with Herbs and Avocado,
Two Years Ago:  Soft Tacos, Holly B’s Fruit Scones
Three Years Ago:  Indian Spiced Chickpeas with Yogurt and Herbs, Muhummara Dip, Zesty Tofu Wraps

Bittersweet Brownie Drops
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts
Makes about 30 cookies

This is one of the very few recipes where my yield matched the expected yield.  And the title is perfect, these taste like brownies in cookie form.  Thank you Ms. Medrich!

4 tbsp. (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate (70 to 72% cacao), coarsely chopped
1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp. (1.75 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. baking soda
Scant 1 cup (6.5 ounces) sugar
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup (3.5 ounces) walnut or pecan pieces
6 ounces bittersweet, semisweet, milk, or white chocolate, coarsely chopped or 1 cup (6 ounces) chocolate chips

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Line the cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Put the butter and bittersweet chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl, preferably stainless steel, set in a wide skillet of barely simmer water, and stir frequently until the mixture is melted, smooth, and fairly hot to the touch.

Meanwhile, whisk the flour and baking soda together.

When the chocolate mixture is ready, remove the bowl from the water bath and stir in the sugar, salt, and vanilla.  Add the eggs one at a time, stirring until incorporated.  Add the flour mixture and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon or spatula until the batter is smooth and glossy and comes away from the sides of the bowl; it is critical that the batter pull itself together, so don’t stop mixing until it does.  Make sure that the batter is completely cool, then stir in the nuts and chopped chocolate or chocolate chips.

Scoop slightly rounded tablespoons of the batter 2 inches apart onto the lined sheets.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies are puffed and crackled on the surface but feel slightly soft when touched with a fingertip; rotate the sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking.  Set the pans on racks to cool completely or slide the pan liners onto racks.  The cookies keep in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.

Some food bloggers have props.  And by props I don’t mean theatre props, like plastic guns and fake mustaches.  I mean table linens and fabric napkins and special forks and pretty plates.  They use these props in photographs that look like mini works of art.  I admire those people who have props and envy those of them who have prop cupboards.  I don’t have props.  I have a few plates that I bought when I first started this blog (the white ones), I have random things I’ve picked up over the years, and I have my everyday plates.  Occasionally, I use my grandmother’s china, like in this post.  You’ve seen all my plates and such ad nauseum.  I do love tableware and in my next life, I will have a collection of lots of different patterns and my photos will be a lot more interesting.

In this state of prop envy, you can probably imagine my delight when my mom brought over this little treat of a platter on Thanksgiving.  It was sitting in her armoire (where there are probably countless other treasures) and it is Limoges.  Old Limoges, mostly likely from my grandmother.  Why it was just sitting in there and why I have never seen it are questions I can’t answer.  No matter.  It’s mine now and I love it.  I find cookies a little hard to photograph – it’s kind of Here they are!  Three or four to a plate!  Round!  Bumpy!  Very similar looking to the ones I made last week!  But I think this little plate might help make them look more appetizing.

So, I have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I link to it all the time.  This is not that recipe.  This is the chocolate chip cookie recipe from Kim Boyce’s book Good to the Grain.  It is a well-loved recipe.  Some people, who I respect immensely, have sung this cookie’s praises.  It was only a matter of time until I made it.  And I am here to tell you that I like this cookie very much.  The dough behaves well and you can use it right after mixing it – no 24-72 hour waiting period like the one you will see with the New York Times recipe.  There is a nice nuttiness that the whole wheat flour brings to this cookie but without those pesky nuts.  Plus, with 100% whole wheat flour and heart healthy bittersweet chocolate, why, this cookie is practically health food.

I would tell you about this cookie anyway – it’s a nice one.  But the real reason I am offering you yet another chocolate chip cookie recipe and the reason I am writing about a recipe that has been written about by better writers and bakers than myself, is because Randy asked me to make these again.  Randy.  My husband who says he does not like chocolate.  This was not a someday request, as in “someday after you’ve made 25 other cookie recipes, make this one again”.  This was a “the cookie jar is almost empty and I’m getting nervous and I want the very same cookies we are about to run out of” request.  November 26th marked the 11th anniversary of our first date and I knew that day that I would marry him.  I did not know that life would be full of surprises like moving to London, having two boys, and requests for unlikely (for him) cookies.

One Year Ago:  Snickerdoodle Cupcakes
Two Years Ago:  Spicy Tomato Jam
Three Years Ago:  Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies
With very slight changes from Good to the Grain
Makes about 32 cookies

The recipe was written to make huge cookies, I prefer to have plain old large ones instead.  I have three baking sheets, so I baked these on convection all at the same time.  If you only have two, either make the cookies larger, or make them in two batches.

Dry Mix
3 cups whole wheat flour
1½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1½ kosher salt

Wet Mix
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼-inch and ½-inch pieces

Place three racks in the oven and preheat to 350ºF.  Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.  (DT: I was out of parchment paper and my cookies released from the sheets just fine.)

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl, pouring back into the bowl any bits of grain or other ingredients that may remain in the sifter.

Add the butter and the sugars to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes.  Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined.  Mix in the vanilla.  Add the flour mixture to the bowl and blend on low speed until the flour in barely combined, about 30 seconds.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Remove the bowl from the standing mixer.

Add the chocolate all at once to the batter.  Using your rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate by hand.  Make sure it is evenly incorporated and there are no floury bits on the bottom of the bowl.  Using a large ice cream scoop, scoop out mounds of dough and place them, three to a row, on the prepared baking sheets.  These cookies spread significantly so be sure to leave enough room.

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through.  (Rotating is not necessary if you are using convection.)  You want the cookies to be evenly dark brown.  Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on a rack.  Boyce says the cookies will keep for 3 days in an airtight container, but they kept for over a week in my cookie jar.