Sybaritic Diversions

The title of the recipe pretty much describes the tale behind this particular entry.  And if that doesn’t crank your chain, then this probably will:

Chocolate chunk cookies.  Not chip, okay: CHUNK.  And it isn’t just chocolate chunk – it’s DOUBLE chocolate-chunk to you, mister!  Imagine huge nuggets of milk and dark chocolate embedded in a gorgeously moist and buttery cookie that tastes like a rather subtle salted-butter caramel.  Now, are you hungry?

The recipe I used comes from one of my favorite cookbook authors, Jody Vassalo, who penned seven culinary titles under the Marie Claire Style series.  This is from the Sweet volume and actually calls for what Ms. Vassalo refers to as “the best chocolate: Belgian couverture“.

When I first did this recipe, I took her advice and used the couverture and white chocolate stated in the master copy.  Alas, the results were – for lack of a more polite term – disastrous.  Despite having followed the recipe to the letter, I ended up with rock-solid hunks of dough stuffed with chocolate that everyone shunned because, in their words, it was far too sweet.

The next time I baked these cookies, I substituted a couple of favorites: Ritter Sport 50% Cocoa and Meiji Milk Chocolate.  The resulting mix was not as sweet as it would have been if I’d used the original couverture-and-white combo and everyone seemed to crave for more!  These were so tempting that my name for them – Double Devilries – is certainly well-deserved.

I also used salted butter rather than the unsalted commonly used for baking; it’s what gave my new end product such a lovely flavor.

These are so incredibly good that I’ve ended up baking them on a regular basis – if only for the delicious vanilla aroma that permeates the house everytime I make them.  These also make wonderful gifts and are perfect for tucking into lunchboxes for office or school meals.  You probably won’t want to share them with anyone else, though.

Double Devilries (after Jody Vassalo’s Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie)

• 1 – 1/2 sticks salted butter, softened

• 1 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 – 1/2 cups flour

• 100 grams dark chocolate (equivalent to 1 Ritter Sport 50% Cocoa bar or 2 50-gram Meiji Black Chocolate bars), roughly chopped

• 100 grams milk chocolate (equivalent to 2 50-gram milk chocolate bars), roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees / Gas Mark 4.  Cream together the butter, brown sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy.  Add the egg and baking powder; mix thorougly.  Add half the flour and the chopped chocolates and mix well.  Add the remaining flour and mix until well-combined. 

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 – 15 minutes.  Cool on a rack before storing in an airtight container.  Makes 36 – 45 cookies.

Incidentally…  If you really love these cookies, the dough can be kept in an airtight container and frozen for up to a couple of weeks.  Just pop out of the deep freeze and thaw whenever you crave a chocolatey treat.  You can also make these in an oven toaster; 15 minutes does it for a small batch.