Chocolate Chip Cookies

I don't bake cookies as often anymore but once in a while a recipe gets my full attention. I read at Serious Eats a review of Pierre Herme Pastries cookbook and it is not too favorable. According to the reviewer, the instructions are not very clear probably due to poor translations or the recipes just don't work as they should. Then I saw a recipe from the same book, of good old Chocolate Chip Cookies using 70% cacao dark chocolate and either pecan or macadamia nuts. The recipe and the link to the web site is at the bottom of the post.

My macadamia nuts turned rancid on me so I used pecans which I think are better because they complement the all-brown sugar in the recipe. For the chocolates, I used 60% cacao German bittersweet chips. I have 70% cacao chocolate bars but I prefer the uniform size of the chips. These cookies are definitely for dark chocolate lovers; each cookie has lots of chocolate and they are really really good specially when washed down with a glass of iced whole milk. I prefer to eat these straight out of the oven or reheated in a 250° F oven for a few minutes to soften the chocolate.

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The link to the recipe is here
Chocolate Chip Cookies. 
from Pierre Herme’s Pastries 

1¼ cups (120 gm) pecan or macadamia nuts
8 ounce (240 gm) Guanaja dark chocolate, 70 % cacao (Valrhona)
½ cup + 2 tablespoons (150 gm) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon (5 gm) fleur de sel de Guérande (or other fine sea salt)
1¼ cups (240 gm) soft brown sugar
1½ eggs (75 gm)
1¾ cups (225 gm) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon (5 gm) baking powder
¼ teaspoon (1.5 gm) baking soda

• Preheat the oven to 340 degrees F (170 degrees C).
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
• Using a rolling pin, coarsely break the pecan or macadamia nuts into pieces. Chop the chocolate into pieces. Cut the butter into pieces and process it until it is creamy. Process it again with the salt and the sugar until the mixture is smooth. Incorporate the eggs and process 3 minutes. 
• Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, the coarsely chopped nuts, and the chocolate pieces. Process 2 minutes.
• Using an ice cream scoop, shape mounds of 1 ounce (30 gm) of dough and arrange them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving generous space between them. Flatten them slightly with the palm of your hand.
• Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes. Transfer them to the kitchen counter to cool. Store the cookies in an airtight container.  

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