Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
When I was a teenager with baking aspirations, I set my sights on learning to make my Aunt Tanya’s Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I had the recipe. I gathered the ingredients. I (mostly) followed the directions. The end result was delicious but kind of strange. Not at all like hers. Not at all like cookies, actually. I pulled the cookie sheet out of the oven and the entire pan was one, thin slab of buttery, sweet, chewy goodness. This happened not just once, but time and time again. As I ripped chunks of the chewy stuff from the slab and gobble them down, I puzzled over how it could be so un-cookie like but still so tasty. I eventually gave up and shifted my baking efforts to bars and brownies, so the mystery of the flat cookies remained unsolved for many years.
It was during our first year of marriage that I decided to tackle cookies again. This time I was armed with my mother-in-law’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Surprise, surprise. They too, turned out flat as pancakes. After a couple failed batches and exasperated rants (“What in the world is wrong with these cookies?!”), my young husband decided he better step in to save my sanity. Together we carefully measured each ingredient. We considered oven temp and pan type and concluded that every variable was in order. The result? Flat cookies once again. Now he was up in arms, too. What could possibly be the problem? We tried again, and, this time, he noticed how I “softened” the butter.
“What are you doing?,” he cried.
“Softening the butter,” I replied just barely refraining from saying “duh.”
“That is not softening,” he said as he looked at the bowl of golden liquid I was pulling from the microwave. “That is melting.”
“So? It is making it really soft. Isn’t that even better than just soft?”
Even as I said the words, I realized that, no, it was not even better. At long last, the mystery was solved and I finally learned what perhaps should have been obvious from the start:
Softened butter makes nicely shaped cookies. Melted butter makes flat cookies.
Since those days I have grown by leaps and bounds as a cookie baker. When we made the switch to whole grains and unrefined sugars, I faced another learning curve, but guess what? It is totally possible to make delicious cookies using whole food ingredients. The most delicious of all are my Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. (Yes, the world chocolate is supposed to be there twice.)
Maybe for old-time’s sake, I’ll whip up a batch with melted butter, just for fun. But if you want your cookies to look like the beauties in the picture, I highly recommend that you use softened butter.
Recipe Notes
I use fresh ground whole wheat flour which usually yields better results than store bought whole wheat flour, but you could give it a try, use refined flour, or use a combination.
As the recipe notes, I use sucanat (an unrefined cane sugar) as the sweetener but brown sugar could be used as well.
I use grain-sweetened chocolate chips which are wonderful but pricey so I tend to be a little stingy with them. Feel free to add more if you want the cookies to be even gooier. I do recommend giving the chips a few pulses in a blender or food processor so that you have a variety of sizes of chocolate bits spread throughout. If you are stingy with the chocolate chips (like I am) that will help turn less into more.
I think stoneware cookie sheets and a lower oven temp yields the best result for a softer cookie (which I like), but if you prefer crispy try different pans and a hotter temperature.
Finally, if you are going to bake both pans at once, make sure you rotate oven position half way through baking time.
Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened to room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups sucanat or brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tbs pure maple syrup
- 4 cups whole wheat flour
- 3 tbs cocoa powder
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 - 2 cups of chocolate chips, chopped
Instructions
- Beat softened butter and sucanat (or brown sugar) together.
- Add eggs and syrup and beat until smooth.
- Add dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Form golf-ball sized balls and place on lightly greased cookie sheets or on parchment paper lined sheets. Press down slightly to make a disc shape.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes or until crinkles form on the top of the cookie.
