Chocolate Chubbies

Do you like chocolate? This is a serious question. If you don't, you must at least like dessert, right? Right...? Just a little bit?

These cookies... Whoa, I need to think of a better introduction. Let me start again.

These magical wonders filled with three types of gorgeous chocolate, two kinds of crunchy nuts, rich butter, and sweet, sweet sugar are little fireworks lining the road to flavortown. They are the epitome of love, friendship, and peace. They could save the world!

You think it's too much? Okay, maybe it's a little too much.

Now really, be honest. You can't look at this picture and tell me you don't want a chocolate chubby right now. Right? Don't break my heart.

This recipe requires double boiling of the chocolate to prevent it burning. You may remember I used this method when making the "Baked" Brownies.

The butter is melted in the double boiler before adding the chocolate. The butter makes the chocolate super silky and delicious.

Look at that. Don't you just want to stick your hand, I mean a spoon, in there?

Unsweetened and semisweet chocolate is added to the butter and melts up into this amazing mixture.

I didn't have any unsweetened chocolate baking squares in my apartment because it's not something I bake with often and it isn't an eating chocolate. A great substitution is using unsweetened cocoa powder and oil. Most  cocoa powders will have the recipe on the back of the container, but if it doesn't, use three tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder mixed with 1 tablespoon of oil to equal 1 baking square.

So for three baking squares, I used 9 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons of oil. It will be like a really thick chocolatey sauce.

The eggs are whisked until a little foamy. It should look something like this.

Sugar and vanilla are added and the mixture becomes much more thick and pale. It will be kind of similar to meringue.

After that, the melted chocolate is added mixture is added.

And then the mix-ins!

Trader Joes Chocolate Chips!!!

By now you may have realized that I have an unusual obsession with Trader Joes. But really, it's all very legitimate. There aren't any Trader Joes in my little hometown in Tennessee. And Trader Joes adds a special ingredient to their chocolate chips, happiness and joy. You can't find that in Nestle. But if you must use regular chocolate chips because you are from small town Tennessee, you have to add extra joy and happiness.

I joke.

Not really.

This recipe calls for a healthy dose of nuts. I know sometimes people aren't crazy about lots of nuts in baked goods, but they are really delicious and give the cookies a great crunch.

The nuts and chocolate are added to the chocolate batter and gently folded in. Yummmmm.

The cookie dough/batter mixture is very chunky (and messy) as you can probably tell.

The original recipe mentions that the batter should be baked soon after preparing, that way your cookies stay shiny. I wasn't able to fit all of them in the oven at one time at one time and baked the second batch after about 30 minutes. They appeared to come out just fine though.

The dough is much looser than a traditional cookie. That's probably why they are more like a brownie-cookie hybrid than a cookie-cookie.

The recipe apparently makes 2 dozen cookies. Those are going to be BIG cookies if you decide to make two dozen. I got about 50 cookies when I made it, and I thought they were decently sized. It's up to you and your sweet tooth though :)

I think I may have "overcooked" these a bit. By overcook, I mean that they were cooked perfectly for a regular cookie, but the recipe mentions they need to be a little underdone. I think they would probably be delicious either way, but I'd like to try the underdone ones too because I love gooey desserts.

It's hard to describe the exact texture of these cookies. They reminded me of cookies, of course. But they were also a bit brownie-like in the center and had a merengue-y crunch on the outside.

Don't trust my explanation. Make them yourself. Give them to your friends. Or save them for yourself and just tell your friends about them. That way it's win-win for everyone.

Chocolate Chubbies (lightly adapted from Serious Eats)

Yields 2 dozen LARGE cookies or 4 dozen regular cookies

Ingredients

• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
• 9 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped or in "chip form"
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped (or using the method described above)
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped pecans
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Method

1. Position oven racks so they are in the center and top third of the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Bring about 1-in of water to boil over medium-high in a medium sauce pan. Place a heat-proof dish over sauce pan, making sure that the dish sits on top and does not touch the water, and add cubed butter. Stir often until melted. Add the first 9 ounces of semisweet chocolate and the unsweetened chocolate to the melted butter. Stir frequently until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and let cool slightly, about 15 minutes (this way your eggs aren't cooked when you add the chocolate)
3. In a medium bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
4. In a stand mixer, whip on the eggs medium-high speed with the whisk attachment until light and foamy, about 30 seconds. Add sugar and vanilla (you may need to turn off the miser to do this) and increase speed to high. Whip until egg mixture is thick and light, pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add the warm chocolate mixture, very slowly at first. Make sure it is completely incorporated. Change to the paddle attachment slowly add the four mixture on low speed.
5. Remove mixing bowl and fold in chocolate chips and nuts using a plastic spatula or wooden spoon. Make sure the mix-ins are evenly distributed.
6. Spoon cookies onto baking sheet (mine were about 2 tablespoons) about 1-1/2 inches apart. Bake cookies, switching positions halfway through, rotating from front to back and switching pans from top to bottom until the cookies are set around the edges, 14-18 minutes. *The larger the cookie, the longer the cooking time.* Try not to overbake. Let cool completely on baking sheets. Keep cookies wrapped for up to one week.