Cookies are wonderful. Who doesn’t love cookies? Sure, everyone has their very specific preferences - thin & crunchy, soft & fudgy, crispy on the edges and chewy in the middle - but everyone likes a good cookie. I’m a preferrer of the third variety - it’s gotta have that hard-to-the-touch, sometimes browned, crispy shell, but in the middle anywhere from the perfect chew to molten lava batter. Heaven!
One of the reasons I started this blog was to share some of my favorite recipes from my childhood, and I started with the Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies. Coincidentally, a day later, I had occasion to bake my mom’s* Thick & Chewy Triple Chocolate Cookies. Why “TCC” and not “TCTCC”? Oh be quiet and just go get out all the chocolate you have in the house.
These cookies are like a nut-free cousin to Jacques Torres’s Mudslide cookies, and they are exactly what their name indicates - super thick, super chewy (borderline fudgy) and oh so chocolatey. This is also one of the few cookie recipes that doesn’t call for chilling the batter - trust me, you don’t need to. You chill cookie dough for two main reasons: one, to re-solidify the butter so that the cookie doesn’t spread wafer thin as soon as it hits heat, which also allows the water in the butter to evaporate before it melts and creates the lift to the cookie; and two, to meld the flavors thoroughly and provide a depth that takes a cookie from good to great. Here, your flavors are chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. You don’t really need to give them time to get to know each other. And there’s something about the ratio in this recipe of eggs (way more than your typical cookie recipe) to butter to flour to chocolate that allows it to firm up and set to scoopable in just 30 minutes of sitting on the counter. I warn you now - if you chill this batter before scooping it into cookie balls, GOOD LUCK. You better be able to whip up some stiff egg whites by hand no problem for that challenge. Of course, as with almost all cookie recipes, if you want to scoop the cookies and then freeze them to bake later, go for it. You can definitely still bake these from frozen, just don’t forget to assume a few extra minutes of bake time.
When someone asks me for a super chocolatey cookie, this is what I make. They’re also infinitely adaptable in terms of add-ins. But if you’re going to eat them yourself, make sure you’ve got some milk nearby - you’ll regret it if you don’t.
Happy Baking!
*My mom didn’t create this recipe, but it IS from some unknown magazine cutout from the 80s/90s - likely Bon Appetit, perhaps Cook’s Illustrated. I’ve adapted it further as well.
MAKES ~22 Cookies
INGREDIENTS/SUPPLIES
16 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (~2 and 2/3 cups)
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons instant coffee or espresso powder
2 cups all-purpose flour (240g)
1/2 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder (1.5oz)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1.25 sticks butter, room temperature
1.5 cups light brown sugar, packed (320g)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (100g)
2 cups of chocolate chips (12oz) - ideally a mix of brands and kinds (e.g. Hershey’s Dark, Ghirardelli Semi-sweet, Guittard milk chocolate). It’s more important to mix up the types than the brands. You can also use an equivalent amount of chopped candy - snickers, whoppers, peppermint patties, twix - anything would work!
1 tablespoon sea salt
stand or hand mixer
2 large cookie sheets & parchment paper
2” cookie (aka ice cream) scoop
DIRECTIONS
Melt 16oz chocolate in the microwave (see this blog post's #9 for instructions) and set aside to cool slightly.
In a separate bowl, hand whisk together 4 eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla, then sprinkle 2 teaspoons espresso powder on top and set aside to dissolve.
Gently whisk together 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup cocoa, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon salt, and set aside.
With a stand mixer on medium-high, cream 1.25 sticks of butter, 1.5 cups of brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar, and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, one to two minutes. Add the egg mixture to the mixer bowl and - always starting on low speed - beat on medium-high for 7-8 minutes, stopping once to scrape down the bowl.
Add the chocolate mixture in a steady stream with your mixer on low, and increase speed to medium to mix until combined thoroughly, about 30-45 seconds.
Scrape down the mixer bowl, then add the dry ingredients to the mixer, beating on low until just combined, then scraping down the bowl and adding your chocolate chips (or other add-ins), mixing on low for 10-15 more seconds. Cover the mixer bowl with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature about 30 minutes, until fudgy and scoopable.
Preheat your oven to 350F. Using a 2” cookie scoop or a 1/4 cup measure, scoop 5-8 dough balls (depending on the size of your cookie sheet) onto a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet (~2oz each), spacing them at least 1.5” apart. Sprinkle each with a little sea salt - you may not end up using the whole 1TB for the batch - that’s okay. If you’re baking the cookies from frozen, let them sit out 5-10 minutes until they are slightly tacky enough for the salt to stick.
Start checking the cookies at 8 minutes (though they may take 10-12 minutes in total depending on your oven) - they are done when the edges start to crack slightly and the center just barely doesn't look raw anymore. Don't over bake these cookies! Cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
