Half Pound Chocolate Chip Cookies


Why is it that I never bake cookies? I love to eat them.
I guess I'm just not a dough girl, and I don't like to take out my mixmaster. Lazy.

I found this simple recipe on Dinner with Julie, one of my long time favorite blogs.
All of her recipes are approachable and easy to prepare.

Her post was about using cornstarch in the mix. I'm still not sure what it did to make these cookies delicious, but they were just perfect.

Not too sweet, nor cakey, they were crispy with just a bit of chew in the center, and not greasy at all.

Another nice thing about this recipe is that you don't have to chill the dough like most chocolate chip cookie recipes. Everything came together beautifully with my wooden spoon.

The recipe is called "half pound" cookies, because it uses a half pound of chocolate. When you think about it in real life terms, it's only an 8 oz. chocolate bar. You might gain half a pound by eating them, but hey, that's the price we pay.

These are VERY chocolatey, so if you want to go easy, add less of the chocolate bar.

I used a big knife to shave a Trader Joe's 72% dark chocolate bar from Belgium. Yum.


Julie's Half Pound Cookies:  (makes approx 20 cookies)

1/4 cup of white sugar
1 cup of brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup of butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups of flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of kosher salt
8 oz. dark chocolate, shaved

Preheat oven to 350F.

Beat the sugars with the butter, vanilla and egg until light and fluffy.

Add in the dry ingredients and form a dough. Add in the chocolate pieces.

Using a tablespoon measure, place a lump of dough onto parchment or Silpat lined cookie sheets, about 2" apart (I fit 12 cookies per baking sheet).

Bake the cookies, rotating the pans at half time, for 11-14 minutes, depending on your oven. They should be golden on the edges, but still soft in the middle (mine took 13 minutes).

Remove the cookies to a cooling rack and dig in.


These were excellent dunkers in milk.

:)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh, boy. Those sound and look fabulous.

Trader Joe's 72% Dark Chocolate Bar (huge) is my guilty pleasure. Very inexpensive, the chocolate is wonderful. I chunk off a couple of squares for a personal treat. Almost daily.

Now it's not a secret any more.

Bebe
Ciao Chow Linda said…
Who wouldn't love these, especially with that Trader joe's 72% chocolate. I just bought a bar of it this week. I wish I understoodmthe chemistry of cooking better to know what that cornstarch does to the batter. happy weekend.
Joanne said…
These babies are large and in charge!
Anonymous said…
I get out my chef's knife and splinter up a Lindt Extra Dark 85% bar for my banana muffins - love that dark, slightly bitter note it brings to baked goods. SO much preferred to the insipid sweetness of milk chocolate.
Mmmmnn! I love how they are thick cookies. Those are the best. happy weekend!
Eileen said…
We are suppose to get 10-12 inches of snow tomorrow... and I have been craving cookies! Haven't made any in ages. It will be the perfect day for baking, and I will be baking these. I even have the Trader Joe's 72% dark chocolate bar! Can't wait...
Anonymous said…
May be going blind, but halfway through making these I realized I didn't see the oven temp.

Checked Julie's recipe.

350 degrees
Stacey Snacks said…
Thanks, surprised no one else noticed.....I added the 350F to the recipe.
Sorry about that!
Anonymous said…
No problem. It was easy to find at Julie's.

These are very good cookies. I had to use chocolate chips because I'd eaten my last 72% TJ bar :-(

They were still good.

Want to try these with white chocolate and pecans.

Thanks for sharing this recipe, Stacey.

Bebe
Anonymous said…
At the risk of seeming to spam this thread, I am back with some comments.

These are very good cookies. I believe the ratio of brown sugar to white sugar (more brown sugar), along with the cornstarch and only one egg, makes the cookies more tender. The slightly less butter makes the cookies stay thicker and not spread.

Someone mentioned sprinkling these with more kosher salt. The teaspoon of kosher salt in these cookies remains very evident. Adding more, iMO, would be overkill.

I have been trying Spice Islands pure vanilla extract. It is quite strong and the quantity often needs to be reduced. I believe one tsp. would have been sufficient.

I plan to go back to McCormick's Pure Vanilla, which I'd used for decades (and my Mother before me). Even Cook's Illustrated found it to be the best of all the vanillas it tested. It is more balanced than SI. I will try the 2 tsp. again.

This recipe is a keeper....

Bebe