Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Chunkers Recipe & Cookiebar 2011

Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Chunker's cookies have a knack for getting people into trouble. These cookies were inspired by a recipe that got Dorie fired from one of her first jobs out of pastry. You can read the story here. These are also the cookies that got me into a whole heap of trouble a couple of months ago when my doctor gave me a good chastising for gaining too much weight. Admittedly these cookies weren't the only culprits, between this, El's chocolate ganache cupcakes and flourless chocolate cakes, the scale was tilted towards trouble.

What makes these cookies so irresistible? Try four different Valrhona chocolates. The fact that the recipe calls for a mere 1/3 cup of flour to over a pound of chocolate! Add in the nuts and dried fruit and you have a cookie that is composed of almost entirely goodies and a mere smidge of dough. They truly are cookies like no other. And best of all they freeze fabulously for whenever that emergency chocolate cravings strike.

Dorie Greenspan's Cookie Bar 2011

These cookies do rely on high quality chocolate --it was the first thing I noticed when I took a bite into the Chocolate Chunkers made by Dorie Greenspan and her crew during Cookie Bar 2011. I made sure to try one of everything she had on display, and the Chocolate Chunkers were a decisive favorite.

Central Park, Spring 2011

Chocolate Chunkers
From Baking From My Home to Yours
Ingredients

• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
• 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 cup store-bought chocolate chips or chunks
• 6 ounces premium-quality milk or white chocolate, chopped into chunks, or 1 cup store-bought chocolate chips (Dorie uses soft and silky Jivara milk chocolate)
• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped nuts, preferably salted peanuts or toasted pecans, or even salted cashews
• 1 cup moist, plump raisins or finely chopped moist, plump dried apricots

Method

1. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder. 
3. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add the butter, bittersweet and unsweetened chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, just until melted -- the chocolate and butter should be smooth and shiny but not so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the heat and set it on the counter to cool.
4. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until they are pale and foamy. Beat in the vanilla extract, then scrape down the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the melted butter and chocolate, mixing only until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl, then, on low speed, add the dry ingredients. Mix just until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough, which will be thick, smooth and shiny. Scrape down the bowl and, using the rubber spatula, mix in the semisweet and milk (or white) chocolate chunks, nuts and raisins -- you'll have more crunchies than dough at this point.
5. Drop the dough by generously heaping tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about an inch of space between the mounds of dough.
6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes. The tops of the cookies will look a little dry but the interiors should still be soft. Remove the baking sheet and carefully, using a broad metal spatula, lift the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.
7. Repeat with the remaining dough, baking only one sheet of cookies at a time and making sure to cool the baking sheets between batches.
8. If, when the cookies are cooled, the chocolate is still gooey and you'd like it to be a bit firmer, just pop the cookies into the fridge for about 10 minutes. 

Makes 40-50 cookies. These cookies store very well in the freezer.