Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted April 12, 2010

Find more about whole grains , chocolate chip cookies

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These spread and flattened so much that I was, at first, disheartened. No need: they are fantastic.

Birdy patted the side of the sifter so gently you would have thought she was burping a newborn hamster.

I think it looks crazy that Ben is using that ginormous chef's knife, but he's always super careful. And he loves the feeling of power, I think. Or trust.

Eggs + cookbook = still life.

I followed the directions assiduously, including the strange method of the cold butter and sifting, which I do about once a year typically. It worked beautifully.

The cookies did spread together, but they were open to the idea of being coaxed apart.

Giant cookie.

A happy cookie-eater.

And a more skeptical one. (He loved them.)

Okay, this is anti-climactic, but I wanted to show you the log I wrapped and saved for later baking. Log. It's just an awkward word, isn't it?

It sliced and baked up beautifully. Log.

These cookies are from Kim Boyce's wildly inspiring cookbook Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours, and they are made with, um, 100% whole-wheat flour. That's right. 100%.

And they are just insanely delicious. "Well they should be," my friend Peggy said, reading over my shoulder. "Look at all that butter and sugar and chocolate!" Exactly. But here's how I think about it: butter and sugar are like escorts. If what they're escorting into your body is white flour, then okay, it's a total treat, and just have a little and don't worry about it (or have a lot, and wash it down with a half a bottle of pinot grigio, and still don't worry about it). But if they're actually escorting nutrients? Like here, in the form of all those lovely B vitamins and fiber and essential fatty acids from the bran- and germ-rich whole-wheat? Then, for me, this is a nutritional red carpet situation, everybody glittering and wearing their designer dresses, the butter and sugar standing back while the paparazzi snap pictures.

I don't mean I'm going to serve the cookies for dinner (please, please let me not ever serve them for dinner). I just mean they've got a lot to offer. Rather than cookies that, say, don't have much butter and sugar--but also don't have much of anything good. I would consider adding nuts and dried fruits to up the nutrient quotient even further. And quinoa flakes! Amaranth dust! Spelt groats! Just kidding. (I think.)

Okay. Sorry for the whole foods rant. I am--Can you tell?--figuring out about food as I go. But make these anyway because they're so crunchy and chewy, and the whole wheat gives them such a deep, nutty flavor. I admit that the kids and I made them on a weekend when their dad was away (Mr. Marathon Runner), because he tends to be the family's biggest skeptic when it comes to wholesomized sweets. But I'm pretty sure he's going to love them.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 30
Total time: 45 minutes

In her introduction, Kim Boyce writes: "These cookies are the size of your palm, with thick, chewy edges, soft centers, and big chocolate chunks. It's surprising just how delicious this whole-wheat version of an old classic is." Ditto from me. I am transcribing this recipe almost verbatim; I didn't change a thing. Except for using salted butter without decreasing the amount of salt called for. Which I recommend doing (of course).

Dry mix:
3 cups whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (or half as much table salt)

Wet mix:
8 ounces (2 sticks) cold butter (I used salted), cut into half-inch pieces
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into 1/4- and 1/2-inch pieces (mine was semisweet; I imagine you could just use chocolate chips and it would be fine)

Place 2 racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat it to 350. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Add the butter and sugars to the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until each is combined. Mix in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl and blend on low speed until the flour is barely combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the chocolate and mix on low speed until combined.

Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons in size (I used a scant 1/4-cup as a measure), leaving 3 inches between them.

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets top to bottom and back to front halfway through, until the cookies are evenly dark brown. Transfer the cookies, still on the parchment, to the counter to cool. Eat warm or, ideally, no later than later the same day--though they're good for a couple of days.

Note: I baked half the batch of dough, then shaped the rest into a thickish log, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and stored it in the fridge. A couple days later I sliced the cookies about 3/4-inch thick, and baked--shortening the baking time a bit. These were less chewy, but still totally excellent.

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

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by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Chocolate Chip Cookies

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