Recipe #7 - Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies
Intro
My brother challenged me to bake my way through the New York Times Top 11 Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes, mostly so maybe I would send him some to “taste-test.”
And why not?
I printed all the recipes, scanned the ingredients and spent about $60 on the stuff I did not have, like cake flour and coconut sugar - not including the cookie scoop that I have always wanted and finally bought. I did not buy any super special ingredients. No chocolate feves, no Maldon salt.
The Recipe
When I first went through the stack of cookie recipes, this was the one I was most excited about. And it does not disappoint, although some fine-tuning might be in order.
The dough is easy enough - and delicious, because we always review the raw dough here. I weighed the flour for this one because the “tip” mentioned in reference to the flour is a weird and somewhat significant one - a 1/4 cup discrepancy because the NYT and recipe originator Alison Roman use different equivalents, which I did not know was even possible. And a 1/4 cup of flour is…a lot, actually. So, just weigh it and you’ll be OK.
I rolled the dough into 2 logs as instructed. I am not sure why they recommend a serrated knife for cutting the cookies - I found a regular slicing or steak knife worked better. The slicing goes better if you let the dough sit at room temp for a few minutes after removing it from the fridge.
I did not have Demerara sugar, and the only sanding sugar I had was red, silver or gold (which would not have been horrible choices, but maybe better for turning these into a Christmas cookie). I did have that silly coconut sugar from the vegan recipe, so I used that for the first dozen cookies.
This was messy, between the egg and the sugar and the chilled dough and the serrated knife.
But they came together after baking. The coconut sugar sorta worked, although I would not use it again (not very nice-looking, and it has a bit of a bitter taste to it). For the second roll, I used regular granulated sugar, which still isn’t right but at least looks better (see first photo).
“Let cool slightly before eating them all” - they are not messing around. These are excellent. The less sweet, shortbread cookie is a nice change of pace.
My minor changes are…minor:
I used 70% bittersweet chunks. Great if you really like your dark chocolate, but with the less-sweet dough it’s a little intense. I would use 60% or straight-up semi-sweet next time, and possibly chop the chunks a bit smaller, or use chips.
Sugared edge - I’m not sure this adds much. I will try another batch using the correct sugar, but this step can easily be skipped without affecting the overall cookie.
Maybe a smaller cookie? It’s a small recipe - just 2 dozen cookies. I can see how perhaps a smaller cookie might look better and stretch the recipe a bit.
The Reviews
Me: I would eat an awful lot of these. A few minor changes, but these are definitely going in the cookie rotation here.
Husband: Really like the shortbread, but needs sweeter chocolate or less of it, or both.