{TWD} Round the globe with Chocolate Chunkers

Saturday, September 13 was International Chocolate Day. I celebrated by baking Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Chunkers! The recipe called for a staggering variety of chocolate types. So I rummaged in my chocolate vault (and in the local Whole Foods) to assemble chocolates from many lands. Here's my international lineup:

Belgium
Callebaut semisweet


France
Valrhona Caraibe Dark 66%
Valrhona cocoa powder


Venezuela
El Rey Caoba Milk 41%


England
Green & Black's 70%


US
Ghiradelli premium white,

Scharffen Berger unsweetened

Would this cookie experiment be a model of international harmony or an exercise in global conflict?


With the amount (and expense) of premium chocolate involved, I found myself waffling about the add-ins. Part of me wanted to just go with just chocolate(s) and skip the fruit and nuts. But I joined this group to make Dorie's recipes and Dorie has fruit and nuts.

Sour cherries seemed a natural choice (and I love them), but I've used cherries in two of Dorie's cookie recipes recently (and also in other cookies and home made granola), so I ruled cherries out.

A strong contender was golden raisins, which I figured I would chop so that they would be present but would not scream "raisin." I was also intrigued by crystallized ginger, which may not be a fruit, but is sold in the dried fruit section!

Dorie loves to put salty nuts in her sweets, and I'm with her in theory. But in practice I've not liked it as well. I used peanuts in the Granola Grabbers and didn't really care for the nuts. I used cashews for half of the Quintuple Chocolate Brownies, but preferred the half I made without them. I settled on salted macadamia nuts, which I hoped would be subtle, soft, and salty enough to add interest to the cookies and not bicker with all that fabulous chocolate.

But still I wavered. Bah, try it all. I baked four variations. All of the cookies got semisweet chocolate chunks stirred in. And then I separated the dough into four parts:

1. with milk chocolate stirred in, but no nuts or fruit. I studded half of the cookies with white chocolate before baking (but not this one!)



2. with milk chocolate and crystallized ginger. no nuts or white chocolate


3. with white chocolate, chopped golden raisins, salted macadamia nuts (this is the closest to Dorie's recipe)


4. with milk chocolate, chopped golden raisins, crystallized ginger, salted macadamia nuts



further notes:

- I added a bit more butter to make them more chewy and promote a bit of spreading

- I used a less of most of the stir-ins because I wanted to have a higher cookie-to-stuff ratio.

- the dough tasted like the inside of an undercooked brownie

- my cookies baked at 325 degrees for 11 minutes

- I made exactly 24 cookies (6 of each combination)

- the milk chocolate melted weirdly in the oven


The Verdict:

On baking day -

I had half of a #1 cookie ("just chocolate") while warm - it was fantastic! Lots of chocolate, all playing quite nicely. Had the other half after it was refrigerated - even better. A world class chocolate chunk cookie. Similar texture to a good chocolate chip cookie.

I ate a #4 cookie ("ginger, nuts, raisin") at room temp - it was chewy, chocolate-y, and the ginger was quite noticeable, but not unpleasantly so. The raisins added texture but not identifiable raisin-ness (I'm glad I chopped the raisins). Really a complex flavor combination. Almost out of control, but hanging onto unity.

My friend D had a #2 cookie ("chocolate and ginger") out of the fridge. He loved it. I asked if the ginger was too dominant. He said "No, but I love ginger." I had one also, and agreed.

All in all, it was a great International Chocolate Day!

Two days later -
I ate a #3 cookie ("white chocolate, golden raisin, macadamia nut). I'd stored the cookie in the fridge, but left it at room temp for several hours. It had gotten softer, and had a very cocoa-y flavor. It strongly resembled a brownie. The salted macadamia nuts were surprisingly GOOD in the cookie.

The rest of the cookies are safely in the freezer. I'll bring them to book group on Thursday and get their opinions. These folks have already tasted the World Peace cookies and the Whopper Drops.

Thanks to Claudia of Fool for Food for selecting this timely recipe! You can find the recipe on her post (click under the photo to read her post in English, unless you speak German!) or on page 70 of Baking From My Home to Yours. For more fabulous and creative renditions of the Chocolate Chunkers, check out the bakers on the TWD blogroll.


Endnotes:

a. These cookies were FAR better than last week's Whopper Drops, but not quite as good as Dorie's World Peace cookies (making those would be a fabulous way to celebrate International Chocolate Day!)

b. Consumer Guide provides a roundup of lots of different reviews of baking chocolate, which makes for very interesting reading. Of course I found this article after I'd already re-stocked the chocolate drawer...