Over the past few weeks I’ve experimented with cookies made with walnuts and semisweet chocolate. Two versions were for a friend who’s a diabetic, so I used brown sugar substitute erythritol by Swerve and whole wheat flour which gives less glycemic load than all-purpose flour. The first of those used some almond flour with the whole wheat flour; it was okay. (The erythritol doesn’t have an aftertaste as many sugar substitutes do, but rather leaves a mildly cold feeling on the tongue.) The second version led directly to the actual brown sugar version featured in the photos. This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie ever!
While I was hunting online for a whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe, I got slightly diverted due to one of the search results having the words “browned butter” beneath the photo. I’m passionate about browned butter. Clicking through to the recipe, I noticed there was an atypical ingredient and procedure, so I decided to try it for the “diabetic” version. I halved the recipe, changed brown sugar to Swerve and changed bread flour to whole wheat flour. Again, they were a cookie, but not for my taste. Anyway, they were for someone else.*
However, in light of the fact that I began a new round of physical therapy today and almost always bake a batch of gratitude cookies to take to the team at the University of Washington medical campus near me, I decided to follow the recipe precisely as it is since chocolate chip is my therapist’s favorite. This cookie met every expectation I have for a crunchy-around-the-edge but soft and full of flavor and chocolate-y cookie. It’s made with browned butter, a tangzhong* and both chopped and chip versions of semisweet chocolate. (I used organic minis and regular-sized chips with no wax coating and chopped Ghirardelli disks.)
*Do you know what tangzhong is? Do you want the recipe for these divine cookies? Make the dough and put it in the fridge the day before you bake the cookies. Recipe says supersized and that’s fine if you’re a giant. I made them in my usual choice of size, i.e., dough ball the size of a large walnut. (I made the supersized version with the above-mentioned changes for the diabetic human and they were a giant hit with him.) https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/supersized-super-soft-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe
Ms Chef in Seattle 