Tuesday, March 19, 2013

TWD: Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tuesdays with Dorie baking through Baking with Julia
by Dorie Greenspan
Contributing Baker: Rick Katz


 



Well, after the croissants anything is easier and quicker! Though not as quick as I had thought - these needed a chill time of several hours to overnight - so the directions read. Not sure if they really do. That's OK. Whip the dough up in the morning and have fresh baked cookies in the evening for dessert. I can work with that.

These cookies have a surprise ingredient added: Dried apricots! I did half the dough with dried cherries on the suggestion of Sandra of Have Apron.... Will Bake from the TWD P&Q link. Sorry Laura. Laura is my sister; she is not a big fan of fruit (or nuts) in salads or savory dishes - something I always seem to incorporate when she comes to dinner on Tuesday nights - our puzzle night. With desserts she is normally OK with it. Not sure if she'll like the idea of them in these cookies though. I won't tell her till after she tries them.

I portioned the dough onto the cookie sheets and placed them in the refrigerator overnight for I wanted to wait for better lighting for taking pictures. When Andy, my husband saw them in the fridge he asked, what are those? Cookies, I replied. Do we get to have them? Tomorrow. Oh.

I let him in on a secret; I still had extra dough in the bowls and could cook up a few for tonight. I did not bother with doubling up the cookie sheets to prevent burning the bottoms of the cookies (as instructed) and the dough was only in the fridge for a couple of hours. These cooked up beautifully. No pics of course. Andy thought he detected a slight burnt taste, I did not; he also stated he prefers regular chocolate chip cookies to these.

The following day I pulled the preportioned dough from the refrigerator and doubled the cookie sheets as instructed; they did not bake up as plump as the first ones I made the previous evening. I'm thinking the extra insulation of the doubled cookie sheets allowed them to spread more, and resulting in a thinner cookie. Still, they were very good.

As for my sister - I offered her the plate of cookies and she went for the chocolate cherry one. I asked if she would like one of the others and she said "no, they have fruit in them - I can see it."

However, my sister knows me all too well. She looked at the plain looking cookie she chose and said "these have fruit in them too, don't they?" All I could do was grin. Well, she liked them! Another "Hey Mikey!' moment. She took three of each kind home with her.

As with all baked goods, these taste best the day they are made. However, two days later I am still enjoying them.

Success meter (1-3): 3



These are my all-time favorite chocolate chips. Until now, I could not say how they fared in baked goods, for they never made it farther than from my hand to my mouth; even with the new batch I bought; hence the added bar of Ghirardelli.

 Delicious cookie dough speckled with espresso powder.

 I soaked the dried cherries in orange juice to plump them up a bit.






We all know chocolate and cherry go together like blogs and comments. However I was pleasantly pleased more with the chocolate and apricot. The apricot lends a tartness to offset the sweetness of all that chocolate - a whole pound of chocolate.





Our lovely host for this week is Peggy of Galettista; she has the recipe if you would like to make these yourself. To see more you can check out the results from all our fabulous bakers over on the TWD site - just look for the Mocha Chocolate Chip LYL link.


21 comments:

  1. Your cookies looks really delicious and, how beautiful your pictures are!
    So glad your sister loved them despite the dried fruit.
    I loved these Mocha chocolate chips...I've doubled the ingredients (with some changes), split the dough into 4 portions and added different ingredients (such as orange, pecan+walnuts, dried cherries, almonds): a winner in our house

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  2. My next batch will have cherries! I´m not surprised you liked them, I think they are amazing. I though most people would react like your husband, but they were a real hit here.

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  3. Your cookies look beautiful! I am making mine today and now I'm pretty excited!

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  4. Your cookies sure look good. Love the little bits poking out!

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  5. Your pictures are beautiful. You liked the apricot better than the cherry? I made mine with cranberries. Maybe I should give the apricots a try.

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  6. My cookies had a burnt smell too, although I could see no signs of burnt cookie. Not sure why.

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  7. Your cookies look great! Mine flopped at first, but I turned them into mocha chewy bites...and they were a hit too!

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  8. Lovely cookies! We liked them quite a bit with the apricots. I did tone down the coffee flavor a bit.

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  9. Beautiful photos! I like the idea of splitting the batch between apricots and cherries.

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  10. Love your pics. Wow, they are fabulous. So glad your cookies turned out. Now I'm tempted to try the apricots....I just went with all cherry. Great job!!

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  11. I am sure the cherry cookies were great.
    I really liked these with the apricots - this was a keeper for me.

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  12. Fun post, thanks for sharing! The cherries are a great idea, I will treat the family to those next time :)

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  13. Love the photos- the cookies look so good...I think I'm in love with the cherries ;-)

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  14. They look perfect! Cherries sound like it wouldn't be so bad, I couldn't wrap my head around chocolate and apricot so I just left out all fruit! :) Glad you got your sister to like something knew. I would probably have to eat one without knowing also.

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  15. Your photos are great! I skipped the fruit altogether, mostly because I am a poor planner. Funny how preconceived notions can be overcome with chocolate!

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  16. Cathleen, what a wonderful array of dried fruits and chocolates you chose to add to your lovely cookies - they all look fantastic - and your photos are fabulous! It is nice to see and read that most bakers did enjoy the wonderful taste and smell of these cookies so much!
    Have a wonderful Wednesday!

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  17. Now I really want to try Guittard chocolate chips! Where do you buy them? I don't think I've ever seen them before. These were a winner, weren't they?

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    1. I purchased them at Lunardi's here in the Bay Area. You can also find them at Amazon.

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  18. I want some with cherries now! Wonderful photos!

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  19. Both versions look absolutely delicious! We enjoyed these cookies too, especially with some vanilla ice cream. Thanks for the tip on your favorite chocolate chips.

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  20. Your cookies look super. My husband also said that he prefers regular chocolate chip cookies to these. I would really like to try them with the cherries.

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