Chocolate Cocoa Nib Cookies . . . (Cocoa Nibs: A Startling and Delightful Flavor Conundrum!)

Maybe this is too personal, but I just have to ask . . . Are you into cocoa (aka cacao) nibs? Because I am. And I love 'em. What are they, exactly? They're fragments of shelled, winnowed, roasted cacao (pronounced kuh-KOW) beans, the precious beans that bring us chocolate. Okay, big deal, you say. So what makes them remarkable? Well, I'll tell you. Each tiny nib is its own special-delivery parcel of profound flavor. Bite down, and it's like a little grenade going off in your mouth--intensely bright and dark at the same time. Ka-boom!

The effect a modest sprinkling of nibs can have on an otherwise mundane recipe is startling. Stir a handful into cookie dough. Sprinkle them judiciously over waves of whipped-cream on a mocha cream pie. Swirl them into homemade ice cream before you put it into the freezer to ripen. Add them into that buttery almond brittle recipe you're so famous for. Do you see where I'm going with this? Limitless possibilities, fellow bakers!

They taste kind of like coffee, but not as bitter, with a complex and curious finish that evokes tropical fruit. Sometimes I can even picture a banana in there! No kidding. And, of course, they also taste like dark chocolate, but not overtly so. You'd think they'd be chocolate-chocolate-chocolate all the way through, but that's not always the case. They're a mysterious and delightful conundrum.

And as for texture? Nibs, while hard and crunchy, are apt to shatter between your teeth more readily than something like a roasted coffee bean or a toasted almond. If you're unfamiliar with them and a little gun shy, try this: Put a few nibs on your tongue--not too many--close your eyes, and concentrate. Pay attention when you bite into them. If the grenade analogy is too scary for you, think of it as a flavor-parade marching through your mouth. You can't ignore a parade, can you? Definitely not. Cocoa nibs are like that. Once they're in food, they won't be ignored.

Though they're scarce in regular markets, you can often find them in health/gourmet food stores, where they're sometimes sold in bulk and are not necessarily too pricey. Maybe you, too, should add them to your baking arsenal?

About this recipe . . . 

Adapted from the luscious new cookbook, Milk & Cookies, by pastry chef Tina Casaceli of New York city's Milk & Cookies Bakery, these treats are easy to toss together and will more than satisfy your cocoa craving. I customized the book's "base chocolate dough" recipe by adding in a half cup of nibs, along with dark chocolate chips and semisweet chunks. I also  increased the amount of salt, and used coarse kosher; the very subtle saltiness is a critical component of this cookie's character. And, as usual, I fiddled with the recipe's directions, reflecting exactly what I did.

I'd initially hoped for cookies that would be thicker and not quite so spread out, but their thin, chewy/crispy quality was actually rather appealing. (But the next time I make them, I think I might add in a few more tablespoons of flour and see if that helps reduce the spreading.) Even after a couple of days, the baked cookies didn't harden completely but remained chewy-crispy. Tuck one of these babies into a petite scoop of vanilla ice cream, and it makes a mighty satisfying dessert.

Chocolate Cocoa-Nib Cookies . . . with Chocolate Chips

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2 and 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch processed cocoa powder (I used Penzey's brand. Really good.)
1 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt (I used coarse kosher salt.)
1/2 cup cocoa nibs
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
1 and 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips (I used Ghirardelli brand.)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (Actually, I used Nestle semisweet chunks; they're about twice the size of regular chips.)


In a medium size bowl, gently whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder, and cocoa nibs. Set aside.

In the large bowl of your mixer, using the paddle attachment, beat the butter for about three minutes or just until light and creamy. Still on medium speed, gradually pour in the white and brown sugars; keep beating until the mixture again looks light and creamy.

In a small bowl, break up the egg yolks, and lightly mix the eggs together with the vanilla. Pour this into the mixer bowl in two parts, beating to incorporate the liquid. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl after each addition.

On low speed, slowly add in the flour mixture, and beat just to combine. Take the bowl off the mixer and briefly stir by hand, using a spatula or wooden spoon. Add in all of the chocolate chips, just to evenly combine.

Chill the dough for at least an hour if it's extremely soft.

Use a small scoop or tablespoon to portion the dough onto the parchment, and leave plenty of room between each cookie (a couple of inches) since they spread quite a bit. Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes. They are done when they seem slightly browned/dry around the edges but still slightly soft in the middle. Let them cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet before removing them to a cooling rack.

The cookie dough can be successfully frozen for about a month, or kept in the fridge for about a week.


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Did He Just Ask for Brownies? . . . (Dark Chocolate Brownies, Two Ways!)

Last Sunday afternoon I was busy at the kitchen sink, scrubbing away at an encrusted pan, when my 17-year old son, Charlie, called to me from his comfy perch on the living room couch. "Mommm! Will you make some brownies??"

Now, Charlie very rarely makes specific baking-related requests of me. The one predictable exception to this being his birthday cherry pie which, naturally, is required only once a year. The rest of the time, he's not under the mystical spell of sweets like the rest of us seem to be, and it shows. He's the skinniest one in the family. You know, the kind of boy who's so busy he forgets to eat? (Yeah. That's a rare talent I've never managed to develop.)

So, you'll understand when I say that his spontaneous brownie query startled me to the extent that I ceased my scrubbing, gazed out the window a moment to gain my bearings, and replied in all seriousness, "What for?"

What for, indeed . . . 

My simple response, translated, actually meant: "Are you asking for brownies right now because you need them for some sort of official function for which you will be rushing off very soon? Are you asking me to whip up homemade baked goods at the absolute last minute because of an event about which you have neglected to inform me, dude?" The fact is, Charlie and his friends--all high school seniors--have more events to attend than you can possibly shake a stick at and, sometimes, it's just better to surrender to it like an incoming tidal wave.

Anyway, Charlie caught my suspicious tone. He righteously replied, "For us to EAT!"

Well, that was that. As you can see, I did indeed comply. I made brownies that afternoon. And here they are. One recipe, finished two ways--half the batter with toasted walnuts, baked in a round cake pan, and the other half with semi-sweet chocolate chips, baked in a square pan.

About this recipe . . .

This formula is adapted from The SoNo Baking Company Cookbook, a shiny and appealing book by John Barricelli. My little changes included doubling the recipe; adding in a smidgen of coffee flavor, not too much; using Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa for two-thirds of the cocoa powder; and adding in nuts to half the brownies. These are soft, with a semi-chewy, semi-cakey texture and they're not-overwhelmingly sweet like some brownies tend to be. And, luckily, they satisfied Charlie's rare craving for a treat.

Dark Chocolate Brownies

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush with softened butter, or spray with baking spray, one 9" x 13" pan, or two smaller pans (I used one 9" round cake pan, and one 8" square pan).

1 cup All Purpose flour (I used unbleached)
1 cup cocoa powder (I used 2/3 cup Hershey's Special Dark, and 1/3 cup natural cocoa powder)
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 pinches baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
3/4 tsp. instant coffee, or 1/2 tsp. (or less) espresso powder (omit if you don't like coffee!)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional; I put these in half of the batter, into one pan)
2/3 cup chopped toasted walnuts (optional; I put these in the other half of the batter, into the other pan)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Remove the pan from the heat, and whisk in the sugar and corn syrup. Add in the eggs one at a time, whisking until well combined. In a very small bowl, stir together the vanilla extract and the coffee/espresso powder until it dissolves. Stir this into the liquid mixture in the pan. Add the dry ingredients into the pan as well, and fold with a spatula until the flour has been incorporated.

If you're making the brownies "two ways," now is the time to divide the batter equally into two parts, pouring one half into the bowl you used for the dry ingredients. Into one half of the batter, stir in the chocolate chips. Into the other half of the batter stir the walnut pieces.

Pour the batter into the pans, smooth the tops with your spatula, and bake them on the middle rack of your oven for about 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out pretty clean. (If you're making one large pan, you may need to bake them longer as they'll probably be a little thicker.) Let the brownies cool on a rack before cutting them.

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Triple-Chocolate Chip Cookies and a Snow Fortress Extraordinaire . . .

Last Monday didn't turn out as I'd expected. But that was okay, because a couple of things--one of them quite remarkable--were created here instead. It all commenced when I came down the stairs at about 6 a.m. that morning and found my husband, who was preparing to leave for the airport on a business trip, reading a message on his Blackberry. Glancing toward me, he announced with undisguised disdain, "They've cancelled school. We've got barely two inches of snow on the ground, and they've called a snow day. Ridiculous!" And with that he finished his preparations, kissed me goodbye, and drove off.

No sooner had he left than the sky was awash in a whirlwind of plump white flakes. As the morning advanced, it became a deluge--picture an explosion in a flour mill. My own plans had been to spend a good chunk of the day studying for the midterm exam scheduled to take place in my retail baking class the next day. I'd figured it would be nice and quiet here, and I'd be uninterrupted while both my boys were in school. No dice on that front. I couldn't complain, though, and didn't envy my husband having to drive to the airport in a blizzard and then wait around for an ice-covered plane to take off.

What to do? Well, as you and I both know, there is something about a snowy day that strongly impels bakers to bake, so I determined I'd just go with the urge, make the most of it, and cram for my midterm--about which I was not too worried--that evening. That decision led to these dusky hued, espresso laden, chocolate saturated cookies. More about them in a moment.

What were my kids doing while I was baking? Building the mother of all snow-forts, in our front yard, with a bunch of my oldest son's closest friends. Readers, if the fate of America rests on the stamina, smarts, creativity, and joyous optimism that teenagers like these seem to possess in spades, then I think we're probably going to be okay. Yes, I suspect that us anxious Baby Boomers may actually be able to rest easy.

Over a period of perhaps four hours, ten or eleven kids erected a structure that easily exceeds the size of my dining room, out of enormous snow-bricks--each brick a foot thick and a couple of feet long. With four stalwart walls standing at least five feet tall all around, the fort was impenetrable to even the fiercest snowballs. Passing cars slowed to a crawl as their drivers first gaped in astonishment, and then grinned openly, at the spectacle. It was something alright, a snow castle extraordinaire. As I aimed my camera and snapped away at the laboring kids, I kept thinking, "This is the one snow-fort they're going to remember and talk about for the rest of their lives, hands down."

Luckily for me, besides playing in the snow, these kids also like mega-chocolatey cookies.

About the cookies . . .

This recipe hails from the 2009 Holiday Baking issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine, and it's no ordinary cookie formula. This cookie is a delivery device for profound chocolate intensity. I've never seen anything quite like it. It relies on an almost grotesque quantity of chocolate--both unsweetened and bittersweet melted in the batter, and semisweet in the chips--for its very existence. The flavor is so derivative of the very essence of the cacao bean that it's almost painful. People who don't like chocolate will hate this cookie. Seriously.

It contains, comparatively speaking, a puny amount of flour at just half a cup, but a sufficient number of eggs to help hold everything together. The texture of the cookies is mostly soft, a little chewy, and not at all crunchy even after a couple of days. The recipe calls for a couple teaspoons of instant coffee powder, but I used the opportunity to try out the little jar of King Arthur Espresso Powder that I recently ordered. I used just one judicious teaspoon of that, since it's pretty concentrated stuff.

Rather than give away all of its secrets, I'll let the recipe speak for itself. Before I completely clam up, though, two things to keep in mind: Be sure, as the recipe indicates, to let the dough sit for 20 minutes or so (and this does not mean in the fridge) before you portion it onto cookie sheets, and be absolutely sure to let the cookies cool almost completely on the cookie sheets, not on cooling racks. Those are critical points for success.


Triple-Chocolate Chip Cookies

(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

1 and 1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
3 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
7 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces (it doesn't have to be softened)
2 tsp. instant coffee powder (I used barely 1 tsp. of instant espresso powder)
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. table salt
1 and 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Melt the bittersweet chips, unsweetened chocolate, and butter in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir it frequently, until the chocolate is completely melted, smooth, and glossy. Remove the bowl from the pan and set it aside to cool slightly.


Stir the coffee/espresso powder and vanilla extract together in a little bowl until dissolved.

Beat the eggs and sugar in a large mixer bowl, using the paddle attachment., at medium-high speed until the mixture is very thick and pale, about 4 minutes.


Add in the vanilla and coffee mixture and beat until that's fully incorporated, about 20 to 30 seconds.


Reduce the speed to low, add the chocolate mixture, and mix until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds.


In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and table salt. Take your large mixing bowl off of the mixer. Using a large rubber spatula, fold the flour mixture, and the chocolate chips, into the batter.


Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit out on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes until the batter firms up. Don't chill it. It's going to look very thick and shiny, kind of like brownie batter.

Using a portion scoop (I used a #40 scoop, which holds 2 Tbsp.; you can always make the cookies larger or smaller, though, as you please), place the cookies 2" apart on your baking sheets.


Bake until the cookies are shiny and cracked on the top, about 11 or more minutes.

When the cookies appear done, let them cool completely on the cookie sheets, which are placed on top of cooling racks. Don't try to transfer the cookies directly to the racks while they're warm or they'll just crumble apart; wait until those babies are cool!


Recipe full disclosure! This recipe appears on pages 4 and 5 of the "Holiday 2009" issue of Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking issue. The article, "Triple-Chocolate Cookies," in which it appears, was written by Stephanie Alleyne.

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Coconut Almond Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips and Almond Streusel . . .

There's an old but enduring health food store not far from the house where I grew up, and I stopped there last Friday on the way home from visiting my father. He still lives in that same house, along with one of my older siblings, and once a week I come to spend time with him and take him out. We breakfast together at a local restaurant he's been frequenting for decades. No longer able to drive, and now without my mom to accompany him, he's told me half-jokingly that his sanity depends upon these little outings, so I try not to let anything derail them.

As we trek slowly from his silver Buick to the restaurant's entrance, he grips the hand-me-down walker that still bears my mother's name on a little paper sticker. Three or four of the waitresses smile as we enter, and fuss over him. They, too, have been there for decades. One of them, a tiny woman in her late fifties, even kisses his cheek now and then, or pats his shiny bald head with familiar affection. The morning regulars are more and more like my dad--elderly widowers who come to enjoy a predictable, but hot and decently prepared, meal. Predictability is a virtue he finds comforting.

We always pass by the health food store at least once while we're on our weekly outings, and my father rarely fails to comment on its longevity. Somehow, the fact that it's managed to abide and endure for over fifty years, despite fierce economic odds, is comforting to both us. After all, so little stays the same. I like to think that it will be there for a long time, so I stop in now and then to roam through the aisles, never failing to find some arcane item worth buying.

Though it's been renovated and expanded, it's still something of a time capsule with an aura that my husband would likely describe as "old hippy." All in all, it's a nice place. And that's where I bought the unsweetened coconut, as well as the canned coconut milk, that I used for today's coconut almond bread.

This is a recipe that I newly re-adapted from a recipe that I'd already adapted once for a coconut bread post last July. I made several small changes to it, and I think it now evokes all the flavors of an Almond Joy candy bar. (Don't you love Almond Joys? I do, and so does my dad.)


Coconut Almond Bread with Dark Chocolate Chips and Almond Streusel
(For a printable version of this recipe, click here!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; grease and flour one 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Prepare the almond-streusel topping first:

1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/3 cup All Purpose flour
1/3 cup of coarse/sanding sugar
1 very small pinch of salt

3 Tbsp. melted unsalted butter, slightly cooled

Stir the four dry ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside. (You'll wait to mix the melted butter into the dry ingredients until just before you're ready to put the streusel on top of the unbaked loaf.)

For the coconut almond bread:

2 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup and 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 and 1/2 cups unsweetened, dried, finely flaked coconut
3 eggs, large
2/3 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)
1/2 tsp. coconut flavoring, or about 3 drops of coconut flavored oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup dark chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and coconut together well with a fork or a hand whisk.

In a medium bowl, still working by hand, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, regular milk, melted butter, coconut extract/oil, almond extract, and vanilla extract.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in all of the liquid mixture. Stir just until combined; it's okay if a few streaks of flour remain.


Pour in the chocolate chunks and again stir just until the chocolate is more or less evenly distributed. Be careful not to overmix the batter.


Pour all of the batter into the greased and floured loaf pan.



For the streusel:
Just before you're ready to bake the loaf, mix the 3 Tbsp. of melted and slightly cooled butter into the dry streusel ingredients using a fork. (You can use your fingers to help mix it all up quickly if that helps.)


Sprinkle all of the mixed streusel evenly over the top of the unbaked loaf.


Bake the loaf for about 60 minutes or until the top crust is golden and a toothpick inserted deeply into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Definitely check the loaf after about 35 minutes, and cover it loosely with foil if it seems to be browning too quickly. The top of the finished loaf should be nicely golden, but not too brown. I covered mine with foil after 30 minutes, and at about 40 minutes I moved the oven rack it was on from the middle of the oven to the upper rung. My oven always runs pretty hot so I have to take precautions!)

Cool the finished loaf in the pan, on a rack, for about ten to fifteen minutes. Run a thin knife down the sides to loosen it, and then turn it turn carefully out of pan to let it finish cooling completely on the rack. (If you slice it before it's completely cool, the slices might fall apart, so try to be patient.)


Recipe full disclosure! The almond streusel portion this of recipe was adapted from one at this link: http://www.valleyfig.com/Lemon-FigBreadwithAlmondStreusel.htm

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