"Overachiever" Mocha Cookies

As mentioned in a previous post, some very good friends of ours recently had a baby. When trying to figure out what to bring for dinner, I came across a recipe in The Gourmet Cookie Book for mocha cookies and thought what could be better to help them stay awake than caffeine delivered via chocolate cookie? The mocha flavor comes from the espresso powder listed in the recipe, but me being me, I couldn't stop there. I remembered I had some espresso-bean chocolate I had picked up at a local store, so I decided to amp-up the caffeine quotient by using that in place of the chocolate chips.

My husband called while I was in the middle of chopping up my own chocolate chunks, and after explaining what I was doing, he said I was an overachiever. I would normally have scoffed at such a pronouncement, but about two-thirds of the way through the chopping process, I had to agree. You do not need to do all the chopping that I did and actually, I think these would've tasted a bit better if the texture of the cookie didn't include all those tiny espresso bean pieces that were in the chocolate bars I used.

Here's what I did: (While the process may seem long, it really didn't take that long. I think I had the batter put together in about 25 minutes, and this was with my carefully chopping up 4 chocolate bars and another 4 oz. chocolate)

Start by chopping up 4 oz. unsweetened chocolate:

Here's the overachiever part of the recipe. I needed 1½ c. of semisweet chocolate to be added to the double boiler (shown below), and 1½ c. to be chopped up and added to the batter later. I ended up using all 4 bars of chocolate to get the 3 c. of chocolate. Mini chocolate chips would have worked really well in place of the chocolate chunks that I made.

Add the 4 oz. of unsweetened chocolate, 1½ c. chocolate chips (or chopped up chocolate) and a stick of unsalted butter to the double boiler. Make sure you start out with a completely dry pot. Any water can cause your chocolate to seize, which pretty much destroys it.

While your chocolate is melting, get 4 eggs and 1½ c. sugar and beat it until it's very pale and thick.

The recipe uses only a bit of flour, mixed with baking powder and salt. Combine these while your eggs are beating.

Still beating. It takes at least a good 5 minutes of medium-high beating to get it really nice and thick.

Looks pretty good.

Add in the vanilla and espresso (or instant coffee) powder.

Fold in the chocolate mixture (from the double boiler), then the flour mixture. If you're unsure of what folding is, or how to fold, click here.

Stir in the remaining 1½ c. of chocolate chips and allow the batter to rest for 15 minutes. The batter can also be placed into the fridge for baking later. (This is about half of the total batter.)

Drop a heaping tablespoon on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake at 350° for about 10 minutes.

Very tasty hot out of the oven, but also will last for several days in an airtight container. These are extremely chocolaty, so if you love chocolate, make them. If you tolerate chocolate, try a chocolate chip cookie instead.

Mocha Cookies

Yields: ~3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips (mini would work very well)
• 1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, cut into bits
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon double-acting baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1½ cups sugar
• 1½ tablespoons instant espresso powder
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

In a metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the unsweetened chocolate, 1½ cups of the chocolate chips, and the butter, stirring until the mixture is smooth, and remove the bowl from the heat. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, the baking powder, and the salt. In a bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is thick and pale, and beat in the espresso powder and the vanilla. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, fold in the flour mixture, and stir in the remaining 1½ cups chocolate chips. Let the batter stand for 15 minutes.

Drop the batter by heaping tablespoons onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper and bake the cookies in the middle of a preheated 350ºF oven for 9 to 11 minutes, or until they are puffed and shiny and cracked on top. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets, transfer them to racks, and let them cool completely.


Source: The Gourmet Cookie Book