Crisp around the edges, super gooey in the centres, with a melty marshmallow smores-like experience on top (except better, due to more chocolate content!). These are definitely a match made in heaven with a glass of milk, and fantastic fuel for long training days!
Happy National Hot Chocolate day! I know, I didn’t know it was a thing either. It popped up in an email I got as “things to celebrate this January). But who doesn’t love hot chocolate, so I totally used it as an excuse to make a yummy recipe! I was going to make my tahini hot chocolate, but I wanted some cookies for a long back country ski adventure we had planned, so I made these instead! We use them as the yummiest long training day fuel… it’s like having a hot chocolate on a cold winter day, but in cookie form. I put one of these giant cookies in a ziplock back to snack on throughout my long training day, which is definitely a highlight. It’s admittedly sticky with the marshmallow on top, but I’m not against licking the bag. Ryan likes to do multisport days where he’ll come back to the car and switch from ski gear to run gear, so he’ll eat his cookies while changing footwear!
Obviously, any cookie is best straight out of the oven, in my opinion, but Ryan prefers these cold. He says the toasted marshmallow gets a toffee type texture. I like them warm, when the marshmallow is crispy on top but gooey inside (just like the cookie). I feel like I’m five years old again eating the marshmallowey mess.
I spent a long time trying out and comparing double chocolate cookie recipes. A classic double chocolate or chocolate chip are my all-time favourite, and I feel like every legit baker needs a really good recipe of these in their repertoire. During covid, I went through a phase where I would bake three different recipes at once, and then compare them to test which I liked best. I finally combined my favourite elements from a few of them, and then used some skills I learned in culinary school to dial in the perfect crispy outside-gooey inside texture.
Favourite cookie trick #1: chop up a bar of chocolate and use big chunks in your cookies instead of chocolate chips. I find chocolate chips have a bit of a processed taste that coat your tongue. If you live in Canada, Canadian Tire (if you know, you know) sells these great and really well priced chocolate bars made by Frank’s. I also wait for the giant Lindt dark chocolate bars to go on sale, and use them if I’m going all out.
Favourite cookie trick #2: “Marinade” your dough. Basically, you mix it, transfer it to an airtight tupperware, and then let it sit in the fridge for at least four hours, just like you would with meat! Comparing meat and cookies just sounds awful, but it gives the flour in the cookie dough a chance to really absorb all the flavours you’ve mixed in. It gives the cookies a totally different chewier consistency once they’re baked, they spread less, and just taste way better. One day, I’ll do a comparison for you with photos! If you can leave the dough in the fridge for 24 hours and manage to resist it that long (kudos to you), and your partner doesn’t eat it all in that timeframe (hey, Ryan ;) ), that’s best case scenario.
I left notes at the bottom of the recipe for how to freeze any dough you don’t bake right away!
Hot Chocolate Cookies
Servings: 18 fairly giant cookies
Prep time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Total time: 1 hour
INGREDIENTS
250g butter (1 cup), at room temperature
120g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
200g (1 cup) granulated (white) sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 egg yolk, at room temperature (cook up the white to add to a salad or sandwich!)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
80g (3/4 cup) cocoa powder
200g (1.5 cups) All Purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
400g (2 cups) chocolate, or chocolate chips (but chopped chocolate chunks are wayyy better, I explained why above). Reserve about ½ cup of it (~100g) separately for pressing in to the top of the cookies before baking, to make delicious chocolate puddles
18-20 large marshmallows
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350°f / 180°c. Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a big bowl or your stand mixture with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both types of sugar until light and fluffy. 2-3 minutes is the magic time zone.
Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla, and mix to combine. Give the bowl a good scrape to get all the bits mixed in that are stuck in the bottom and edges.
Add the dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda, and mix until barely combined.
Add in the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips, and mix until just incorporated. Mix this a few more times with the spatula, to make sure everything from the very bottom of the bowl is incorporated.
If you planned ahead and have time to “marinade” your dough for 24 hours, do it! Transfer it to an airtight container and put it in the fridge until around this time tomorrow. I usually bake off a few cookies now, and put the rest of the dough in the fridge until the next day (and for ryan to snack on). Then I’ll bake off a few more cookies, and put whatever is left of the dough in the freezer to use in a few weeks. I made a note on freezing the dough below here.
Using a 3tbsp cookie scoop (it’s a big cookie!), scoop giant balls of dough out onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving enough space for spreading.
Press the reserved ½ cup of chocolate chunks/chips onto the tops of the balls.
Bake the cookies for 9 minutes, then remove them from the oven and press the marshmallows in to the tops. Put them back in the oven and bake for a further 3-5 minutes, until the marshmallows are puffed up and the cookies are slightly set around the edges but gooey in the centres.
Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature. Also, if you don’t want to bake all the cookies at once, this dough freezes perfectly. Store it in an airtight container in the freezer to pull out and make cookies as you please! It will last about two months. You can also shape them in to balls to freeze beforehand, but the dough will dry out a bit faster than if you freeze it as a whole block of dough. If you shape them into balls before freezing, plan to bake these in to cookies and use it within the next two weeks.
Commentaires