I'm not sure if it's been a stressful week or people are just having sugar cravings but I have had numerous requests for chocolate recipes this week. I have some cake recipes which I want to make but I just haven't had a free moment. I tend to lean towards cookie recipes, especially during the week, because I can make them and bake them in less than an hour...clean up included.
As I mentioned when I made the Chocolate Cloudsa few weeks ago, I ordered and received Sarabeth Levine's cookbook, Sarabeth's Bakery - From My Hands to Yours. I have been having a ball identifying my next baking projects from cakes to breads, cookies and pies. I'm eager to take on some yeast and pastry dough recipes. I really need some baking challenges.
When I started receiving requests for chocolate, I picked up Sarabeth's cookbook and found Chocolate Chubbies. They had three different types of chocolate (unsweetened, bittersweet and semi-sweet) and I thought...what better! The recipe worked up pretty quickly with melted chocolate, sugar and eggs colliding. The recipe had little flour which reminded me of a flour less chocolate cake. Lots of nuts and a bit of semi-sweet chocolate and you have Chocolate Chubbies.
The cookies looked amazing coming out of the oven. They were very fragile while they were hot, but as they cooled they became more solid and chewy. We all tasted them hot as well as cooled. They were very sweet, fudgy, nutty...heaven! My daughter, Danielle, kept saying, "Why did you make these? I can't stop eating them!" I got to try them as batter...which is always good, hot and cooled. Truthfully, they all tasted GREAT! Add a little vanilla ice cream, YUM!
So, I dedicate Chocolate Chubbies to all my friends craving chocolate this week. Everyone needs a little bit of chocolate heaven!
Ingredients:
8 tablespoons (1 stick) of unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
9 ounces of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (no more than 62% cacao), finely chopped
3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup of unbleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon of baking powder
¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ¼ cups of superfine sugar
2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
2 cups (12 ounces) of semisweet chocolate chips
1 ½ cups (5 ½ ounces) of coarsely chopped pecans
1 ¼ cups (4 ½ ounces) of coarsely chopped walnuts
Preparation:
Position racks in the center and top third of the oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two half-sheet pans with parchment paper.
Bring 1 inch of water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over low heat. Put the butter in a wide, heatproof bowl, and melt the butter over the hot water in the saucepan. Add the semisweet and unsweetened chocolate, stirring often, until melted and the mixture is smooth. Remove the bowl from the heat and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cooled slightly but still warm, about 5 minutes.
Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl. Whip the eggs in the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment on medium-high speed until the eggs are foamy and lightly thickened, about 30 seconds. Increase the speed to high and gradually add the sugar, then the vanilla. Whip until the eggs are very thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and beat in the tepid chocolate, making sure it is completely incorporated. Change to the paddle attachment and reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually add the flour mixture. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips, pecans, and walnuts, making sure the chunky ingredients are evenly distributed at the bottom of the bowl. The dough will be somewhat soft.
Using a 2-inch ice-cream scoop, portion the batter onto the prepared pans, placing the cookies about 1 ½ inches apart. Bake the cookies immediately—if you wait, they won’t be shiny after baking. Bake, switching the position of the pans from top to bottom and front to back about halfway through baking, until the cookies are set around the edges (if you lift a cookie from the pan, the edges should release easily, even if the center of the cookie seems underdone), 17 to 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Cool completely on the baking pans. (The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature, with the layers separated by parchment paper, for up to 3 days.)
