Half-and-Half Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Have you noticed that I’ve been posting fewer desserts lately? It’s not actually that I’ve been eating fewer (I still definitely have a sweet tooth and have dessert after dinner), but the ones I tried weren’t that good. There was an apple and honey rice kugel that I made last September, but it disappointed me. I tried the golden squash yogurt cake from Tara Spencer’s Easy PCOS Diet Cookbook, but it was a disaster, which not only would *not* unmold from the pan, but didn’t even taste good. (I literally managed to get one piece that looked decent to take a picture, and there it is.)

I made a brown butter almond-apple cake, and while it was nice the first day, it just got too moist and crumbly after that. I also had high hopes for the chickpea and white chocolate blondie from the 3 fois par jour Desserts cookbook, but that just wasn’t doing it for us.

Then I went back to basics and made something that looked like a sure bet: half-and-half chocolate chocolate chip cookies. I reordered the ingredients below and added some weights, and I left a note about baking times. These were delicious! We ate many of them, gave some away as holiday cookies, and still have a few in the freezer (we got a total of 44-and-a-half cookies).

For the chocolate chip cookie dough
9 Tbsp. (126 g) lactose-free butter, melted and cooled slightly
¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (150 g) brown sugar
¾ tsp. fine salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat)
7 oz. (200 g) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

For the double chocolate cookie dough
9 Tbsp. (126 g) lactose-free butter, melted and cooled slightly
¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
¾ cup (150 g) brown sugar
¾ tsp. fine salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 ½ cups (234 g) all-purpose flour (I used white whole wheat)
½ cup (50 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder, sifted
7 oz. (200 g) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)


For the chocolate chip cookie dough
In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, granulated and brown sugars, and salt. Mix to combine. Add the egg, yolk, vanilla, baking powder, and baking soda, and whisk together until totally combined. Add the flour and stir in until combined. (I’m a bit old-fashioned and prefer to mix my dry ingredients together before adding them to the wet ingredients.) Add the chopped chocolate and stir again. It may take a minute to incorporate all of the chocolate, and you can use your hands to knead it into the dough if necessary.

For the double chocolate cookie dough
Follow the directions above for the chocolate chip cookie dough (you can even use the same bowl!), but add the cocoa powder to the dough along with the flour.

To assemble
Adjust an oven rack to the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 °F (see note below) Line a sheet pan with parchment paper (you will need more than one pan for all the cookies, but I prefer to bake them one batch at a time and keep raw dough in the fridge or freezer until I need it.).

Form the dough into balls, about 1 tablespoon each (25 g). Press one ball of the chocolate chip cookie dough and one ball of the double chocolate cookie dough together, but keep their unique colors. Press the piece into a cookie scoop or roll it into a ball. Place 8 cookies on the sheet pan (honestly, you can fit 12). Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaky salt, if desired.

Bake one pan at a time, rotating halfway through baking. Bake until the cookie tops are golden brown and the cookies are slightly puffed in the middle, about 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and use the back of a spoon to gently press the middle of each cookie to flatten it.

Let the cookies rest on the sheet pan for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Cookies are best eaten slightly warm, but can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

The baking instructions above are those of the original recipe. Personally, I found that baking 8 minutes was enough, 10 minutes for baking from frozen. I also baked some straight-from-the-fridge dough at 350 °F for 11 minutes and it turned out great! So don’t worry too much about the high temps here.