This might be my new go-to cookie recipe. Dan gets a bit cross whenever I suggest anything other than the Original Toll House cookie recipe and I have to agree to an extent – when making simple chocolate chip cookies, that recipe is a classic for a good reason. These cookies are a whole different beast.
Whole wheat flour, molasses-y dark brown sugar, sea salt, and great quality bittersweet chunks of chocolate. They have an extremely deep flavour with a rich nuttiness from the whole wheat flour and dark brown sugar. You can detect a hint of saltiness in every bite which sets off the dark chocolate so amazingly well. If you haven’t experienced a hint of sea salt in your cookies yet, you’re about to have your mind blown. These are absolute keepers.
This book
only offers quantities in cups so for my metric system users I weighed all the ingredients out on my scale for you and have included the exact weights below. You are most welcome :)
As a side note, I’d like to make a little argument for weighing ingredients using a scale. I feel comfortable using both systems, but I prefer to weigh for baking because there’s much less risk of human error (also the weight of flour, for example, can vary considerably depending on the quality of the flour, how much you pack into the cup, and the humidity of the air). I bought mine for about $20 (here’s a similar one) and it’s revolutionized my baking.
Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours
Ingredients
- 454g/ 16oz/ 3 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
- 226g/ 80z/ 2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
- 145g/ 5oz/ 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 226g/ 8oz/ 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 226g/ 8oz bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼- and ½- inch chunks
Directions
- Place an oven rack in the centre of the oven. Preheat oven to 180C/ 350F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- Sift whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium sized bowl. Pour any grainy bits that remain in the sifter into your bowl as well.
- In a large bowl, add the butter, dark brown sugar, and white sugar, and beat until butter and sugars are just blended. If you don’t have a stand mixer get ready for an epic arm workout.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, making sure the first is combined before adding the second. Mix in the vanilla.
- Gradually add the flour mixture to the large bowl and use a rubber spatula to combine. You’ll notice that the mixture is fairly dry and thick for cookie dough. Don’t panic – all is going according to plan! Add the chocolate chunks to the batter and mix until combined evenly.
- Scrape the batter out onto the work surface and use your hands to finish incorporating the all the ingredients.
- Scoops mounds of batter (about 3 tbsp each) onto your baking sheet, leaving a good 3 inches in between them (about 6 to a sheet). Bake for 16-20 minutes, until evenly dark brown. Transfer the cookies still on the parchment to a rack to cool. Continue with the rest of the batter. Eat cookies warm from the oven or later that same day. Makes about 20 cookies, the size of your palm.
Friends, this is it. The only hot chocolate recipe you’ll ever need for snuggly nights curled up in your pjs. You might remember that I linked to this article on The Guardian about how to make the perfect hot chocolate a couple of weeks ago. Well, I mulled it over for a while (meaning I ran to the store to stock up on cream and good chocolate immediately) and played around until I found perfection.
Perfection, in case you were wondering, involves 70% dark chocolate (Green & Blacks Organic is my favourite), really good milk chocolate, normal milk (we use skimmed at home) and a healthy slog of heavy cream. Add a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of salt and you have yourself a cup of perfect hot chocolate.
Perfect Hot Chocolate
adapted from Felicity Cloake via The Guardian
Ingredients
- 225ml skimmed milk
- 35g 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 15g good-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
- 30ml heavy (double) cream
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
Directions
- Warm about a quarter of your milk in a pan over a medium heat and stir in the chocolate. Continue to stir until the chocolate has melted into the milk, then whisk in the remaining milk and the cream.
- Continue to heat until the mixture is hot, but not boiling, then add the cinnamon and salt. Taste, adjust if necessary, and serve. For a frothier cup, whisk vigorously just before pouring. Serves 1.
Again with the “biscuits” instead of cookies. Am I making you cross-eyed yet? The thing is that I’ve adapted to so many Americanisms since moving to this side of the pond but Christmas is stuck in my bones. It’s what I grew up with. I can let go of some things, but Christmas chocolate biscuits with festive sprinkles is not one of them.
These are super simple to make and as Nigella says, meltingly gorgeous to eat. They’re dark, soft pillows of chocolate shortbread – thicker than any cookie or biscuit you’ll have had in a while and so very, very chocolate-y – I love them.
Brits call this kind of topping to a biscuit/cookie “icing”. There’s no butter involved as with American frosting, instead it’s usually made with icing/confectioner’s sugar and boiling water. It’s still a very sweet topping but less rich and of a thinner consistency. Quite delightful really.
Add a bit of a Christmas joy to your life with all those multi-coloured sprinkles and you’re good to go. Merry, merry!
Christmas Chocolate Biscuits
from Nigella Lawson
Ingredients
- 250g / 8.8oz soft butter
- 150g caster sugar / 5.3oz white sugar
- 40g / 1.4oz cocoa powder, sifted
- 300g plain flour / 10.6oz all purpose flour, sifted
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda /baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
For the topping:
- 2 x 15ml tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
- 175g icing sugar / 6.2oz confectioner’s sugar, sifted
- 60ml/ 2fl oz boiling water, from a kettle
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Christmas sprinkles
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 170°C/350F and line a baking sheet with a Silpat or baking parchment.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is soft and light. Add the cocoa powder and mix in. Add the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and beat again until incorporated.
- Scoop up pieces of dough about the size of a large walnut and roll them into balls, then slightly flatten into fat discs placing them well spaced on your baking sheet; you should get about 12 on at a time.
- Bake for 15 minutes (they might not look baked through but they’ll continue to cook as they cool). Remove the baking sheet to a cold surface and let it sit for 15 minutes before transferring the biscuits to a wire rack, with a sheet of newspaper under it (to catch drips while topping them).
To make the topping:
- Put the cocoa powder, icing sugar, water and vanilla extract into a small saucepan and whisk over a low heat until everything’s smoothly combined. Take off the heat and let cool for 10 minutes.
- When the biscuits are cool, drizzle each one with a tablespoonful of chocolate glaze using the back of the spoon to help spread the mixture, though an uneven dribbly look is part of their charm.
- After you’ve iced 6 biscuits, scatter with some of the Christmas sprinkles, and continue until all the biscuits are topped. If you ice them all before sprinkling, you will find the cocoa “glue” has dried and the sprinkles won’t stick on. Makes approx. 24.
Note: As I mentioned on this post, British measurements are listed first with American adaptations second. If you don’t own a measuring scale I highly recommend buying a cheap digital one so that you can weigh ingredients accurately for baking. Most have the option for grams and ounces. Here’s a reasonably priced option. Also, the argument for using a scale :)
