As I mentioned in my last update, cookies are no friend of mine. I love devouring them obviously, especially the kind that are soft in the middle and the chocolate chunks are still gooey from their time in the oven.
Baking them, well that’s a different kettle of fish altogether. I have a few biscuit recipes on here, but whenever I bake a batch I’m always nervous. Sometimes they spread and you have one giant biscuit, other times they’re crunchy when they should be soft and moist. It’s a baking minefield!
Not these cookies though, I can happily say this is one of the nicest cookie recipes I’ve made.
This recipe was inspired by the chocolate chip cookies recipe in William and Suzue Curley’s book Patisserie. I changed the fillings and quantities a little and I used a delicious spiced chocolate from Rococo called Spice Island. The chocolate gives the cookies a real autumnal feel as it’s warming and rich with the taste of cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
If you can’t get hold of this chocolate you could use Green & Black’s Maya Gold. The recipe is versatile enough that you can use almost any chocolate you like, but you may find you want to adjust some of the other ingredients.
For example if you switched to using a white chocolate, I would recommend omitting the cocoa nibs and perhaps using just almonds or macadamia nuts.
As long as you keep the quantities the same, this can become one staple recipe that makes lots of different flavoured cookies.
If all this talk of cocoa nibs has got you wondering what cocoa nibs actually are, I shall explain. Cocoa or Cacao nibs are made from cacao/cocoa beans that have been roasted, separated from their outer husks and then broken into smaller pieces.
They are essentially chocolate in it’s purest form and are the basis for chocolate. Usually they are ground up, made into a paste called cocoa mass and then the other ingredients are added to make the chocolate that we all know and love.
Cocoa nibs have a mild chocolate taste, they’re quite bitter and very crunchy, they add a lovely texture to the biscuit. If you’d like to get hold of some cocoa nibs, you can find them at Sous Chef.
To make these cookies I actually used a Golden Wholegrain Plain Flour from Marriage’s. They make the cookies a bit more wholesome and I think they work really well with the chocolate and nuts in the mixture. This flour is naturally high in fibre and because it’s so light you can substitute it for any of the bakes you usually make with plain flour.
SPICED CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES
Ingredients
- 90 g Golden Wholegrain Plain Flour
- 1/4 Tsp Baking Powder
- Pinch of Salt
- 60 g Unsalted Butter at room temperature
- 50 g Soft Light Brown Sugar
- 30 g Caster Sugar
- 1 Medium Egg
- 70 g Spiced Chocolate chopped into chunks
- 40 g Mixed Chopped Nuts
- 15 g Cocoa Nibs
- 30 g Dark Chocolate 70% chopped into chunks
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 150C Fan, 170C.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set to one side.
- Put both sugars and the butter into the bowl of a stand mixer and cream the two together using the paddle attachment.
- Gradually beat in the eggs until fully incorporated.
- Mix in the flour and all of the other ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until evenly combined.
- Spoon 3.5cm rounds onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment and keep them placed well apart as they will spread when baking.
- You will need to bake them in batches, unless you have two baking trays, if so, place 6 on each tray and bake for 20 mins until golden and brown.
- Transfer to a rack to cool.
If all this talk of biscuits has piqued your interested, there are lots of other lovely recipes out there. These Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cookies by Tutti Dolci are so seasonal and salted caramel is one of my favourite things. Linzer Cookies with Ginger Cardamom Raspberry Jam from The Spice Train continue with the spiced theme and if you’re feeling really brave you can try these Bacon Cookies from The Pastry Workshop.
Thanks for reading.
Angela
I’ve added these to Fabulous Foodie Fridays,
Thanh @ Eat, Little Bird
These cookies look delicious! I love that you used wholegrain flour … I might try that next time. I love baking cookies with my son and I’m always looking for ways to make things a bit healthier!
PatisserieMakesPerfect
I’m sure your son would love helping you make these. If a spiced chocolate is a bit too strong for him, it would work just as well with a milk chocolate. The wholegrain flour works really well.
Jodie Dodd
Love to bake cookies! These sound wonderful but sadly I don’t like crunchy stuff in my cookies so no chopped nuts for me. I agree with you Angela, soft, gooey and warm cookies are the best! My daughter Jordan makes a great Nutella cookie and my mom makes the most incredible oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. She only makes them at the holidays now, think I’ll ask her to make a triple batch! 😀
PatisserieMakesPerfect
OK I’ll leave out the crunchy stuff for you Jodie 🙂 I’d love your mum’s Oatmeal Chocolate chip Cookies recipe! Is Oatmeal the same as porridge oats? x
Laura | The Kiwi Country Girl
What a great idea using spiced chocolate! Can’t wait to try it for myself they look great!
patisseriemakesperfect
Thanks so much. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you so much Laura they taste really great, let me know if you make them. x
Shari from GoodFoodWeek
Oh wow – I wish that these could be in my kitchen right now {like magically appear} because I really want to eat them.
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Oh Shari, I’d love to share them with you too! They do taste really good, you’ll have to make them yourself. x
Lucy @ Bake Play Smile
What a gorgeous cookie recipe – such a great combination. And what a clever twist on a classic recipe! Thanks so much for linking up with Fabulous Foodie Fridays. xx
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you Lucy. They are really tasty and I am a total cookie novice, so your compliments mean a lot to me.x
Beeta @ Mon Petit Four
Your cookies look lovely, Angela! I love that you used spiced chocolate – that’s so clever. A great way to incorporate fall into a classic recipe. Well done, deary! XO
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you Beeta! The spiced chocolate was great so that I don’t have to worry about spicing the dough, meaning the recipe can be changed easily. x
Lucy Parissi
I am the same re:cookies. I find them a little unsatisfying to make and I can’t be asked with chilling the dough etc. I also devour them way too quickly! But these look perfect and the kids can help me make them. That chocolate looks amazing – used to work near that shop on Kings Road
PatisserieMakesPerfect
These cookies didn’t stay around too long and I sensibly reduced the recipe to make 12, have two dozen of these laying around would be dangerous.
Ooh working by the Rococo shop must have been amazing! I love their branding.
A kingdom for a Cake
Let me begin by saying that your photographs are beautiful! I adore making cookies and these are definitely making their way to my oven. P.S – while ago I got the Rococo Chocolate making/baking book that I ought to explore a bit more, you surely inspired me 🙂
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thank you so much. I will have to take a look at your cookie recipes, I love so many of the things you bake. I hope the Rococo book is as good as I imagine. Can’t wait to see what you make from it. x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
This was my first bar of Rococo Chocolate ever. It’s so good though! Thanks very much for the lovely comments. x
Hannah Hossack-Lodge
These look so good, there is nothing better than a warm, fresh out the oven cookie! Your photos of the cookie stack are perfect 🙂 Also the spiced chocolate sounds amazing, I haven’t heard of Rococo before but I’m going to seek them out now x
PatisserieMakesPerfect
Thanks Hannan – the spiced chocolate is really, really good and a great way to add flavour to a biscuit without adding it to the dough. Rococo have great branding as well as great chocolate, do check them out. x