Source: Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts (Andrews & McMeel Publishing, 1999 ed.), pg. 199.
Of the hundreds of Maida Heatter cookie recipes, this may be the most famous. These are chunky but soft, extremely chocolaty, full of nuts and chocolate chips. Sinfully delicious!
They are easy to make. The trickiest part may be the baking time. After making them numerous times, I have learned to only bake them 10 or 11 minutes at the most, then remove them and allow them to sit on the hot baking pan for about 5 minutes. They will be extremely soft to the touch but eventually they firm up nicely.
I just use my hand mixer for these. Although the recipe states that it makes 18 large cookies, I find that the yield is slightly higher, even when making them fairly large. I use a tablespoon scoop to form the cookies.
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
3 oz. (3/4 stick) butter
1/4 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. instant coffee or espresso
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
6 oz. (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 oz. (1 cup) walnuts or pecans, broken into medium pieces
Preheat oven to 350. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
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| Melt the first three ingredients (chocolates and butter) over moderate heat in a double boiler. Set aside. |
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| Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. |
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| Beat the eggs, sugar, coffee and vanilla on high speed for 1-2 minutes. |
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| Mix in the chocolate mixture (lower your speed to avoid a mess) |
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| Add the dry ingredients.. |
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| Add the chocolate chips... |
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| And stir in the nuts. |
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| Drop by heaping tablespoons on the lined sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake 10-12 minutes. Tops will by dry. Centers should remain moist and chewy. Do not overbake. Let stand on cookie sheets until firm enough to move to a cooling rack. |
Yum Yum
These may be the greatest cookies of all time. Certainly the greatest chocolate cookies.
ReplyDeleteThese are wonderful cookies! But they shouldn't bake more than 10 minutes. That's all Maida recommends.
ReplyDeleteDoes the dough freeze well? Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI have not tried freezing the dough but I would guess that they would freeze well since there is a good amount of butter in them.
ReplyDeleteIt’s definitely a misprint of 2 cups nuts. I have always used 3/4- 1 cup
ReplyDeleteHello! Thank you for baking all these Maida Heatter recipes. I recently discovered her book and was trying to decide which recipes to try!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the previous comment from “Unknown” about the misprint of the recipe calling for 2 cups of nuts. It is not a misprint; my Maida Heatter recipe calls fir 8 ounces or 2.5 cups walnuts or pecans; broken into medium pieces.
Thanks again!
Hello! Thank you for baking all these Maida Heatter recipes. I recently discovered her book and was trying to decide which recipes to try!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the previous comment from “Unknown” about the misprint of the recipe calling for 2 cups of nuts. It is not a misprint; my Maida Heatter recipe calls fir 8 ounces or 2.5 cups walnuts or pecans; broken into medium pieces.
Thanks again!
I've made these cookies for years but they always seem to be more like a flat wafer. Any idea why
ReplyDeleteRegarding the flat cookies - I'm wondering if it could be that your baking powder has lost its potency? Another reason could be that your oven is too hot. You might lower the temperature by 25 degrees and see what happens. I hope you discover the problem!
ReplyDeleteThese are a 10!!! Big hit with my family and I have subjected them to many cookies and this is a stand out. Thank you for the inspiration
ReplyDeleteThese cookies are wonderful, their name not so much
ReplyDelete