Skip to main content

Cocoa Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies


If Kenji Alt-Lopez is my cooking spirit guide, then Stella Parks is the baker equivalent. Her recipes are inventive, delicious, and incredibly well-tested, researched and scientifically explained. A lot of people consider baking a science; Stella Parks has a PhD. The best thing about her is that she explains the reasons behind her ratios and ingredients, so that, should an aspiring baker (like me!) choose to riff on a recipe, they can make an informed choice.

This recipe sounded like my idea of heaven. I like chocolate chip cookies fine. I make them all the time, following the standard nestle’s Toll House cookie recipe. I always use milk chocolate chips because I don’t care for semi-sweet, a substitution I continue here. I recommend getting the best quality chocolate for this recipe- something that you would savor as a  special candy bar rather than your typical chips.  Listen, you’re already buying cocoa butter, you may as well splurge on the milk chocolate, too.

My favorite part of the cookie is the cookie part, not the chips, and that part of the cookie is so criminally undervalued and ignored. Not here.

In this recipe, the fat component of the cookie is split evenly between butter and cocoa butter. The result? A pale cookie, completely permeated with a chocolate aroma, and a lovely, meltingly ooey-gooey texture. Grab a big glass of whole milk, and dig in to a chocolate chip cookie unlike any you’ve had before.

Ingredients:
4 ounces raw cocoa butter
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 ounces softened butter
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk chocolate, chopped



Method:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Melt the cocoa butter in the microwave in ten second bursts. Let the cocoa butter cool to lukewarm temperature (but still be liquid). Add the sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and butter. Cream this mixture well, until it is pale, light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well. Add the flour and mix until just combined. Fold in the milk chocolate. For best results, refrigerate the dough, covered, overnight, and soften to room temperature before portioning. This ripens the dough, melding the flavors together.

Dollop baking sheets with 2 tablespoon rounds of cookie dough, leaving about 2 inches between each cookie. Bake for 15 minutes, until the cookies are puffed and firm around the edges. The cookies will still be quite pale because of the cocoa butter (all butter cookies brown more). 


Remove from the oven and cool on the cookie sheet until set, abut 6 minutes. Remove and enjoy warm right away (my favorite), or enjoy room temperature. Store in an airtight container (if you have any left over, that is).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Raspberry Pomegranate Jam

Tis the season to be making homemade gifts! Pomegranates are in season and their juice is a festive deep ruby red color. I knew I had to make them into a jam to give away. Straight pomegranate flavor is a little tart for me; I added raspberries for the texture of their seeds and their sweetness. This is a very simple recipe to make and will yield 6 to 7 8 ounces jars of jam or 12 to 14 4 ounce jars, if you like to give away sample sizes during the holidays. Enjoy! Ingredients: 3 1/2 cups pomegranate juice 1 cup mashed raspberries 7 cups sugar 1 tablespoon butter 1 1/75 ounce package Sure Jell Method: Sterilize your jars and lids. Set aside. In a heavy bottomed large stock pot, add the pomegranate juice, raspberries and butter. Mix well. Add in the sugar. Bring to a full rolling boil then stir in the Sure Jell. Allow to boil hard for 1 minutes. Remove from the heat and skim off any foam. Ladle into the sterile jars, twist on the lids and pr
Post a Comment
Read more

Peek-a-boo Squares

My grandma, Mimi, taught me this recipe. I used to make this with her and my mother as a child. It is my very favorite dessert. It is incredibly easy to make, and even easier to eat. My favorite part of making this as a child was dusting every bar generously with snowy white powdered sugar.  My favorite version of this dessert uses canned blueberry pie filling; I vastly prefer Libby brand over the store brand. You can make blueberry pie filling from scratch with sugar, cornstarch, bleberries, etc. but using the canned stuff is easy in a pinch and is much for nostalgic for me. Plus, I don’t notice a vast improvement over my homemade blueberry pie filling and the Libby brand; it just takes me longer to put this dessert together.  I have been known to whip up a pan of these Friday night and have them disappear by Saturday afternoon. Be warned, these things are addictive! Ingredients: 3 cups of all-purpose flour 2 cups of granulated sugar 4 eggs 2 sticks of
Post a Comment
Read more

Samosas with Yogurt Sauce

I love exploring many kinds of cuisine in my kitchen because I can control the spice level, and in the case of this recipe, the use of cilantro. Cilantro lovers out there- sub it info the parsley here. I have the gene that makes cilantro taste like soap, which limits my ability to enjoy some dishes in restaurants, but is easily rectified in my own kitchen. I hope you enjoy! Ingredients:  3 russet potatoes 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped 2 teaspoons curry powder 5 ounces peas Six 8 inch flour tortillas 4 ounces Greek yogurt Oil, salt, pepper, vinegar 4 tablespoons butter Method: Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a rimmed baking sheet. Scrub potatoes and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces. Place in a large saucepan with a generous pinch of salt and enough water to cover by 1 inch. Cover and bring to a boil over high; uncover and cook until tenderDrain potatoes and transfer to a bowl.  Heat 2 tablespoons oil in reserved saucepan over medium. Add chopped garlic and al
1 comment
Read more