Chocolate chip and almond cookies

chocochipcookies.jpg

The usual image of homebaked chocolate chip cookies, at least in the U.S., is that of large, thick cookies with a soft, rather gooey center. The soft and gooey texture is so desired by many people that commercial cookie manufacturers even manage to maintain that in cookies that have been on the shelf for months. This to me seems very wrong. And, I don't think that gooey-soft necessarily indicates a good quality chocolate chip cookie either.

Sure, when you take the cookies out of the oven and eat them right away, they are sort of gooey and soft. But once they cool down, I prefer them to be rather crispy, even lacy, and delicate. For this reason I add a bit more butter than is normal in the traditional Toll House type of chocolate chip cookie. This makes the dough spread out more during baking, making the cookies thinner. Using slivered almonds instead of chunky nuts also makes them lighter and crispier.

If you prefer the gooey type of cookie though, use more flour or less butter.

I also use raw (light brown) granulated sugar instead of the fluffy dense brown sugar used in the traditional recipe. This is mainly because we can't get that "packed" sort of soft brown sugar here. Also, the dark brown sugar has a very pronounced molasses-like taste to me, which I don't think really fits for this cookie.

These are very adult chocolate chip cookies, because of the almonds and the dark chocolate chips. Of course kids love them also. I made these with the lemon bars in the preceeding recipe and meringue kisses for Easter, and boy were they popular.

Chocolate chip and almond cookies

  • 2 cups of all-purpose or cake flour
  • 250g or 1 cup plus 2 Tbs of unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup raw (light brown) granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup slivered almonds
  • 3 100g / 3.5 oz bars darkest chocolate

Preheat the oven to 170°C /375° F.

Chop up the chocolate into chunks. Note I do not use ready-made chocolate chips, because I really want the darkest possible chocolate here, and they don't make really dark chocolate chips.

Toast the slivered almonds in the oven or in a dry frying pan until light brown. Let cool.

Cream together the softened unsalted butter and the sugars until the sugar is totally incorporated. Add the baking soda, salt and flour, and mix. Add the eggs and the vanilla. Mix well but don't overknead.

Stir in the chocolate chunks and the almonds.

Drop onto ungreased baking sheets with a spoon, or make balls with your hands and place these. Space them out well because they will spread quite a bit. Bake for about 20 minutes - you may have to rotate the pans, unless you have a convection oven. You want the cookies to a medium brown, as in the picture.

Cool the cookies on racks, after sampling one or two of course.

Filed under:  chocolate party food snack baking cookies sweet nuts

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Comments

"after sampling one or two"???

You better plan for a second batch after the "quality control" ;-)

mmmm these look sooooo good.
so i'm not the only person who has noticed that soft brown sugar isn't available here! when we first arrived in zürich i searched high and low for it. now i have to resort to getting friends in the uk to ship it to me. there's just no substitute for it for things like porridge, sticky date pudding and ginger cake....

I admit it-- I'm a big fan of gooey soft cookies, and always put in extra flour in my dough to compensate. I like the idea of dark chocolate and almonds very much-- I'll have to give that a try very soon.

I like my cookies to be rather cakey -- usually this means making them gooey-style and then refrigerating them. I know, I'm a weirdo.

For brown sugar...I try to ship it home from the US when I go there also. I guess you could try mixing rohzucker with Melasse (molasses)...but there's no real substitute for that texture and flavor.

Another thing which is impossible to get here is golden syrup... or corn syrup, though for that it is possible to make a syrup from sugar. It takes some skill to make a syrup with the right consistency though...

yeah, golden syrup! *sigh* i've been using birneldicksaft, but it's quite a bit thinner in taste and thickness. it works, but i'd give it up for golden syrup any day!

TrackBack from Mind of Mog:
i was just really very hungry. is my BOTD, why, cause it's full of yummy food. I want that pesto. Cookies too, yum.

Hi! I just wanted to let you know that this is now my favorite cookie. I also love thin, crispy cookies that aren't overly sweet and these were absolutely perfect! They were so easy to make and yielded quite a big batch, so I shared a bunch with family and friends. It was unanimous - everyone LOVED them and are wondering when I'm making them again. Thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe!