Submitted by Tina Brown
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour (or mixture of white/wheat…doesn’t matter too much)
2 tbsp freshly ground espresso powder
3/4 tsp aluminum-free baking soda
3/4 tsp aluminum-free baking powder
3/4 tsp finely ground sea salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
Optional: dash of cinnamon (1-2 tsp)
1 cup unsalted butter (room temp, soft to the touch)
2 cups sugar (or 1 1/2 cups sugar + 1/2 cup brown sugar)
2 large eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (or more…)
Directions:
Preheat over to 375 degrees.
Assemble dry ingredients: In a medium bowl whisk together the whole wheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder. Set aside
Assemble to wet ingredients: In a big bowl or with an electric mixer beat the butter until it is fluffy and lightens a bit in color. Now beat in the sugar – it should have a thick frosting-like consistency. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure the first egg gets incorporated before adding the next. You will need to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as well. Add the vanilla and mix until it is incorporated.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients: Add the dry ingredients to the wet mix in about four waves. Stir a bit between each addition until the flour is just incorporated. You could add all the flour at once, but it tends to explode up and out of the mixing bowl and all over me every time I do that. At this point you should have a moist, brown dough that is uniform in color. Stir in the espresso beans and chocolate chips by hand and mix only until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Drop the cookies onto baking sheets: I like to make these cookies medium in size (they are rich!) and use roughly one heaping tablespoon of dough for each one. I leave the dough balls rough and raggy looking – I never roll them into perfect balls or anything like that – this way each cookie will have a bit of unique personality.
Place the cookies in the oven: Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 minutes on the middle rack. You don’t want to over bake these cookies at all or they will really dry out. If anything, under them just a bit. THIS IS KEY, IT IS HARD TO SEE IF THEY ARE DONE BUT YOU JUST HAVE TO TRUST THE TIME! They will still look very gooey but as they cook they look less gooey. When they are done, pull them out to cool.
Tip: If you don’t want to bake all the cookies at once, you can freeze some of the dough for quick cookies later. Instead of placing the cookies in the oven, put the cookie dough balls in to a freezer-quality plastic bag and toss them in the freezer. You can bake straight from the freezer at a later date by upping the baking time by a couple of minutes to compensate for the frozen dough.
Yield: 2-3 dozen chunky, medium cookies
