Bittersweet Decadence Cookies

Bittersweet Decadence Cookies

1/4 cup AP flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups walnuts or pecans, broken or chopped into large pieces
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or store-bought chocolate chunks

Position the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350-degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment or wax paper.

In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together thoroughly; set aside.

Place the 8-ounces of chocolate and the butter in a large heatproof bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water and stir frequently just until melted and smooth. Remove the chocolate from the skillet and set it aside. Leave the heat on under the skillet.

In a large heatproff bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla together thoroughly. Set the bowl in the skillet and stir until the mixture is lukewarm to the touch. Stir the eggs into the warm (not hot) chocolate. Stir in the flour mixture, then the nuts and chocolate chunks.

Scoop slightly rounded tablespoons of 1 1/2-inches apart onto the cookie sheets. Bake until the surface of the cookies looks dry and set but the center is still gooey, 12-14 minutes. If you used parchment (or waxed paper), carefully slide the cookies, still on the parchment, onto racks, or set the pans on the racks. Otherwise, let the cookies firm up on the pans for a minute, then transfer them to the racks with a metal pancake turner. Let cool completely. Store in a tightly sealed container.

Note: These cookies will have the best flavour and texture if they are baked on sheets lined with parchmnet paper, or even waxed paper, which insulates them just enough but still allows the cookies to be a little crusty on the outside and soft within. Cushioned pans and silicone liners make the texture of the cookies too uniform for my taste. Pans with dark surfaces tend to scorch rich chocolate cookie bottoms before the centers are cooked.

Chocolate notes: I used a 70% bittersweet chocolate, rather than standard bittersweet. The change was to use 5 1/2 ounces of chocolate, increase the butter to 3 tablespoons, and the sugar to 3/4 cup.

Also, I completely forgot to add the nuts or chunked chocolate. These were like rich little chocolate brownie cookies.

from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet

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