Chocolate chunk cookies! Or the cookie cake. (It’s the same recipe. Gotcha!) Not a bad alternative to pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving. Like my other recipes I have posted here, there is a bit of user beware: I have scaled this down as best I could, and am skeptical you will get the same results that you have experienced with such joy and enthusiasm in the store. I only say this because I don’t anyone to try this and be disappointed. I am happy to troubleshoot these recipes via PM. (But please don’t make substitutions and then be stunned that they are not the same.) Ingredient notes: We use Callebaut 54.5% chocolate. You can change the chocolate you use, but I would really not recommend using chocolate chips or chunks in a bag. You will get a far too consistent result. We chop the chocolate from an 11 pound block, and that is where you get the wonderful variety of chunks and textures of chocolate contrasted against the soft cookie part. Also, most manufactured chips or chunks are designed to retain their shape during baking. It’s just not the same. You may have to poke around in the chocolate aisle to find what you need. Do not, under any circumstances, use anything called candy coating. Same goes for trying to use margarine in these cookies. So help me, use real butter. Here is what you need. 4 ¼ cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 3 sticks of butter, melted and cooled (don’t you dare use anything but butter.) 2 cups of packed brown sugar 1 cup white sugar ¾ teaspoon real vanilla extract 2 eggs 2 egg yolks 2 ½ cups chopped semi-sweet chocolate The best results for these cookies or the cookie cake will be the result of proper temperature manipulation. I bake them both from the frozen state to achieve the proper gooey interior to contrast with the crisp exterior. I never bake them right out of the mixer. You should really at least chill the cookies before baking them. In the bowl of your mixer, combine the two sugars. (If you are using a stand mixer, be sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as you go and use the paddle attachment. If you are using a hand mixer, do the same. I haven’t made these by hand, but I would totally try. I think they would be fine. ) Before you add each new ingredient, scrape down the sides and bottom of whatever you are mixing it in. Add the melted, cooled butter. Note: Your butter should be warmish to the touch, still liquid, and *not* hot. If your butter is too hot, you will melt the chocolate and have chocolate chocolate chunk cookies. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Proceed if you like; add more chunked chocolate to compensate for what melted. Add the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla. Gently mix; scrape the sides and bottom; mix again; scrape it again. (Now, imagine doing this in a 20 quart mixer.) Thorough and careful mixing is critical. Add the flour, soda, and salt. Mix and scrape; mix and scrape. You want to mix this long enough so you don’t see any streaks of flour but don’t over mix. Over mixing would start to develop the gluten in the flour which would result in a tough cookie. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and add the chopped chocolate. Mix very, very briefly. At this point, I would scoop the cookies on to a parchment lined sheet tray and freeze them. If you need to get your tray back, you can carefully wrap them or store them in something else once they are totally frozen. For cookie cake: Spray a 9 inch cake pan with baking spray. Blob in the cookie dough. Don’t pack it in there, because it will overflow when it bakes. Keep it kinda fluffy. Fill it to about a half inch away from the top of the pan. Freeze it solid, and bake from frozen. As for oven temperature and baking times, ugh. I have no idea what to tell you. For the cookies, bake them in your home oven at 325 from frozen. Don’t over bake them unless you want them crunchy. I like a little crunch on the outside and a soft middle. To achieve this, take them out of the oven when they are poofy and only lightly browned. They will look a little under baked in the middle. They will continue to bake on the trays after you take them out of the oven. For baking the cookie cake: I would do it at 300 straight from the freezer. This is going to take forever to bake since you are thawing at the same time. However, this process is what results in that solid but gooey center and crunchy top. It takes at least an hour, if not longer, in my big convection oven. It will have risen and browned on the top but just oh so gently wiggly in the center. It will deflate some when it comes out. That’s totally fine. Be sure to slip a pan underneath the cookie cake in case it overflows. Don’t try to cut this thing any time soon. Chill it overnight for best results. If you can’t stand it, just dig it out at the table with a spoon. How to get a cookie cake out of the pan: If you have used a metal pan, flip over the cake and warm the bottom of it with a propane torch. Don’t have a torch? Set it on a warm stove burner to gently melt the chocolate and butter that are making it stick. Don’t wanna mess with any of that? Use those silicone cake pans. Those are awesome because you can peel off the pan like a pair of socks. Yeah, that’s right, I said socks. Other things you can do with this recipe: Add a mix of chopped white chocolate and chopped pecans; throw in some oats and dried fruit; pretty much anything is good in this.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 21:13:56 +0000