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Chocolate Fudge Cookies:
1 cup (110 grams) pecans or walnuts
1/2 cup (60 grams) Cake or All Purpose flour
1 teaspoon (4 grams) baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (1 gram) salt
1 teaspoon (1 gram) instant espresso powder or instant coffee powder (optional)
1 pound (450 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup (55 grams) unsalted butter, diced
1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated white sugar
4 large eggs (200 grams), at room temperature
1 tablespoon (12 grams) pure vanilla extract
1 cup (170 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup (170 grams) white chocolate chips
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Chocolate Fudge Cookies: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place the oven rack in the center of the oven.
Place the pecans (or walnuts) on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, or until lightly brown and fragrant. Let the nuts cool and then chop coarsely.
Next, sift or whisk the flour with the baking powder, salt, and instant espresso powder (if using).
Melt the chocolate and butter in a stainless steel (heatproof) bowl, placed over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool while you make the batter.
In the bowl of your electric stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), beat the sugar and eggs until pale yellow and thick (about 5 minutes). (When you slowly raise the beaters the batter will fall back into the bowl in slow ribbons.) Beat in the melted chocolate mixture and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour mixture and mix only until incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter just until firm, about 30-60 minutes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
For each cookie, place about 1/4 cup (60 grams) of batter onto your prepared cookie sheet, spacing several inches apart. With moist fingers, press batter to form a 3 inch (7.5 cm) round. Bake cookies for about 10 - 12 minutes or until just set around the edges, but the centers are still soft. The tops of the cookies will be cracked and shiny.
Remove from oven and place the baking sheet on a wire rack. The cookies will be quite soft so let them cool for about 5 to 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
These cookies are best the day they are baked but can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature (or in the refrigerator) for a few days. They can be frozen.
Makes about 26 cookies.
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The first time I tasted this cookie was in the early 1990s. I was living in Portland Oregon at the time and I had gone for coffee with a friend to a trendy coffee shop. Chocolate Fudge Cookies, also known as Chocolate Rads, are like a chocolate torte only in cookie form. They are instantly recognizable with their shiny cracked surface. When you break one open, you will find that the inside is wonderfully soft and fudgy. They have an intense chocolate flavor, and that comes from adding a whooping one pound (450 grams) of melted dark chocolate to the batter, along with dark and white chocolate chips. The chocolate lover is in for a real treat with this cookie.
This Chocolate Fudge Cookie batter is not like most cookie batters where we beat the butter and sugar until creamy, and then beat in the eggs and flour. Instead, the batter is made like a torte or sponge cake, that is, by first beating the sugar and eggs until the mixture is thick and pale yellow in color. Then the rest of the ingredients are simply folded in. First, a mixture of melted dark chocolate (can use semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate) and butter. Next, a little flour, baking powder, and salt. The final step is to fold in white and dark chocolate chips, along with some chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts or almonds). The batter does need to be chilled so it is firm enough to form into cookies. The important thing is not to over bake the cookies. They are done when they are set around the edges, yet the centers of the cookies are still soft. The top surface of the cookies will be shiny with cracks.