Chocolate Chippers

Wotchers!

What a delightful recipe I have for you this week – adapted from Lori Taylor’s recipe for Chocolate Chippers, the last recipe in “Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen” (1984).

As can be seen in the photo, these are rugged cookies, brimming with crunch and texture from walnuts and coconut. They are rich with chocolate chips, but not overly sweet – the addition of dates bringing a softer sweetness than an all-sugar cookie. They are very indulgent, and one or two at a time is enough to be very satisfying.

I bought this book years ago, as I had worked in a bar/restaurant called The Old Orleans, back when I was a student, and was fascinated by genuine Louisiana cuisine. Alas, it turned out that I was actually fascinated by the idea of genuine Louisiana cuisine, and since no-one in this household likes either seafood or fish, this book has remained largely un-browsed.

I spotted it on the shelf on the way upstairs the other evening and flicked through until finding this recipe. I have no idea who Laurie Taylor is, but I do know she has, to paraphrase Agent Dale Cooper (Twin Peaks) a damn fine cookie recipe.

The main thing that drew me (apart from having pretty much all the ingredients in the cupboard), was the inclusion of dates, and overall, much less butter and sugar than your regular chocolate chip cookie. I also liked the sound of adding nuts and coconut for texture. The only ingredient I didn’t have was granola, but I had oats, and so decided to go with some That’ll Do™ cookery and use the oats as is, without all the butter and sugar required to turn them into granola, thus making these cookies practically health food!

Once made as per the recipe, however, I couldn’t resist tweaking the recipe to my own tastes. I’ll include the original quantities and ingredients below, so you can try it as originally intended if you like, but my changes make the cookies much closer to a British idea of a biscuit (crispy), whilst still enjoying the overall flavour profile.

What might be seen as some as being a sacrilege, I felt the biscuit had too much chocolate, so I reduced it by a third, and found this to be a much better proportion – still intensely chocolate-y, but not dominating the whole taste. Finally I reduced the vanilla flavouring to two teaspoons, because the vanilla I use here in the UK (Nielsen-Massey) is quite potent in my opinion – plus I’ve never added two tablespoons of vanilla to anything in my life, and I’m too old to be starting such recklessness now.

I’ve made this recipe with both regular and gluten-free flours (I use Schar bread mix – it’s fab, but tricky to find in the UK – I buy several bags when we’re on holiday in France). Schar include xanthan gum in their bread-flour mix, so be sure your gluten-free flour includes this, or add ½ a teaspoon to the flour before mixing.

Chocolate Chippers

The original recipe claimed this would make 48 cookies, but I used a small ice-cream scoop (4cm diameter)¹ and got just 36 cookies. The cookies spread to 6cm when cooked, which is a nice size, not too big as to be sickly, but not so small as to make you feel you haven’t had a treat.

115g unsalted butter – softened
150g soft, light-brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tsp vanilla extract (originally 2 tbs)
140g dates – chopped small
120g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp baking powder
50g desiccated coconut
50g whole rolled oats (originally granola)
90g walnuts – chopped
200g dark chocolate chips (originally 300g)

• Cream the butter and brown sugar together until smooth.
• Add the vanilla and egg and mix thoroughly.
• Sift together the flour, soda, salt and baking powder to mix.
• Toss the chopped dates in the flour mixture to separate the pieces of fruit. NB If you oil your knife first, then cutting the dates becomes easier and less sticky.
• Add the flour/date mixture and the rest of the ingredients and mix well. The mixture will be quite stiff.
• Using a couple of spoons or a small scoop¹, portion out the mixture. I got 36 cookies.
• Cover with plastic and chill in the fridge overnight. This step is not compulsory, but I have found the flavours mix well and the subsequent spread of the cookies whilst baking is more even.
• When ready to bake, heat your oven to 200°C, 180°C Fan.
• Place your cookies on parchment-lined baking pans/sheets. The (4cm) cookies will spread half as much again (6cm) during baking, so have about 5cm between the cookies. I got 13 cookies per sheet in a 3-2-3-2-3 formation. If liked, press the top of each cookie with the base of a glass or similar to flatten them slightly.
• Bake your cookies. You have a choice in how long to bake them.
  • For American style cookies, which are softer in the middle than at the edges, bake for 10 minutes.
  • For British style cookies, that are crisp throughout, bake for 15 minutes.
• NB However long you bake them for, the cookies WILL BE VERY SOFT WHEN REMOVED FROM THE OVEN. Don’t try to move them from the baking sheet until they have cooled for at least 10 minutes. You acn also leave them on the baking sheets until cold.
• Store in an airtight container.

¹ I really like my small scoop because it perfectly portions everything from meatballs to these cookies. I have been through many, which has been irritating, as for a while, the scoops I chose seemed to have less stamina than a consumptive Victorian damsel and had an ‘attack of the vapours’ and collapsed on a handy nearby chaise longue when asked to scoop anything more robust than a marshmallow. Eventually I sat down and scoured the internet for a sturdy scoop than would last more than a few weeks and bought a Bonzer Litegrip Portioner Size 40. I bought mine from here. It’s been years now. Looking around today, there are websites offering it cheaper, so shop around. It might look pricy, but honestly, if I added up the cost of all the other scoops I’ve bought and then thrown away when they break, it was, and still is, a bargain!