Since the inception of this blog over a year ago now, we’ve been reluctant to feature many desserts – mainly the reason for this is simple – we don’t eat dessert a lot so therefore we don’t cook it often as an accompaniment to our dinner.  This night was different though and part of the reason was getting Thomas Keller’s stellar new(ish) book ‘Ad Hoc’ – from his restaurant in Northern California.

I’ve made a few other recipes form the book, including Crispy Braised Chicken Recipe with Fennel, Olives, Lemon and Bacon.  This one was one of the first that I noticed in the book however (c’mon – chocolate chip cookies from Thomas Keller?) – I had to try them.  They were good, though I think I probably overcooked them for 1-2 minutes, as they turned out really good when hot, but didn’t keep their chewiness as well as I would have liked.

Another interesting twist that I decided to use (ok, was forced into) was using Mexican chocolate – a bit more bitter and darker that the milk variety of typical American chocolate that you’ll find in your typical supermarket.  Our buddy Tyson (Aimee’s bro-in-law) let us know recently about a great chocolate company right here in Somerville, MA called Taza – who makes a great product and I agreed.  The chocolate was a great compliment to these cookies.  Here’s how to create them (yes, I used our new Kitchen Aid mixer – use your hands if you want, it should work just as well):

Wet Ingredients:

• 2 sticks cold, unsalted butter – cut into medium cubes
• 2 organic eggs
• 1 cup fresh brown sugar
• 3/4 cup white sugar

Dry Ingredients:

• Around 10 oz. (8 thin disks) Mexican chocolate (try Taza!) or dark chocolate of your choice
• 2 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt

Preheat your oven to 350 F.  Making the cookies is rather easy – mix the butter in your mixer until rather creamy and soft, then add the sugars and continue to beat until well combined.  Scrape the bowl as necessary.  Add the eggs one at a time and continue to mix until everything is incorporated – continue to scrape the bowl to incorporate all of the ingredients.

Meanwhile, sift the flour, baking soda and salt through a mesh sifter into another bowl.  Chop the chocolate into medium chunks and then sift them over your sink to remove the chocolate dust from the cookies.  Add the sifted dry ingredients to the the wet while mixing on low speed.  When the batter is well combined (again, scrape the bowl), mix in the chocolate by hand – folding it in.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon the cookies in small balls onto the sheet, spaced out around 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for around 12-15 minutes depending on your oven – basically until you see the outer rims of the cookies begin to brown.  Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool for 5-10 minutes before serving (with milk of course).  Enjoy!

2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. granulated sugar; plus 1/3 c. for rolling cookies
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 c. unsulphured molasses

Adjust racks to upper- and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a medium bowl.  Set aside.  Either by hand or with an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes with mixer on medium.  Scrape sides of bowl with rubber spatula.  Add egg, vanilla, and molasses.  Beat until combined, about 30 seconds.  Scrape sides of bowl.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.
Place remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in shallow bowl.  Working with 2 Tbs. of dough each time, roll dough into 1 3/4 inch balls.  Roll balls in sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Bake, reversing position of the cookie sheets (from top to bottom and front to back) halfway through baking, until outer edges begin to set and centers are soft and puffy, 11 to 13 minutes.  Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to cooling racks with wide spatula.
The cookies in the picture came out slightly flatter than this recipe usually makes — probably because the batter was sitting out for a bit while we waited for our very slow oven to come to temperature.  Either way, they’re delicious!!