Fat Tuesday Indulgence: Gooey Chocolate Toffee Cookies

How long has it been since you had a really good cookie? No, I mean a really good cookie, like, the kind of cookies that makes you sigh with pleasure and fills you with a sense of well-being towards all mankind? I'm guessing not recently. Well, YOU are in luck, because today is Fat Tuesday, and have I got a Mardi Gras cookie for you! Oh. it's gooey. It's chocolatey. It's filled with toasted walnuts and buttery toffee chips. It's decadently sinful, and if nothing else, will give you something to repent of when you get down on your knees come Ash Wednesday. Yum!



How sinful are these cookies? They have an ENTIRE POUND of chocolate in them. And entire POUND. And only 1/2 a cup of flour. I'm sorry, was that my heart beating faster? Is it hot in here? I feel a little flushed. So much chocolate. I think I need to sit down. I mean, SO MUCH CHOCOLATE. I'm sorry, I... I... I don't feel right... I need to go splash some water on my face.

...

Ok, I'm back. I feel much better. Um, was that a little dramatic? Yeah, well, entire pounds of chocolate can do that to me. BECAUSE IT'S THAT GOOD.

So.

You should make these cookies. You should REALLY makes these cookies. 461 reviews at epicurious.com can't be wrong. Smitten Kitchen can't be wrong. A POUND of CHOCOLATE can't be wrong (Oh! And yet, it's so very, very wrong).





Fat Tuesday Gooey chocolate Toffee Cookies (Gluten-free version!)
adapted from the recipe at Bon Appétit

These cookies mostly made of chocolate and eggs, so following the recipe is KEY!

First, you are going to need some flour. I use a combination of quinoa, sweet rice, and brown rice flours. I like the quinoa flour and brown rice flour because they are whole grains (healthy!), they are soft and fine (texture!), and they have a nice flavor (ug. who thinks cookies should NOT taste likes beans??). I use the sweet rice flour because it's sticky and it helps the other flours bind together sans gluten. If you are using this combo, you need 1/4 cup quinoa flour, 2 tbs brown rice flour, and 2 tbs sweet rice flour.



However, if you have a gluten-free flour mix you like (or if you're just feeling lazy and mixing together three flours is too much work) feel free to use it. Or you can just substitute 1/2 cup of regular wheat flour, if gluten is not a concern. This recipe is very forgiving.


You are also going to need this stuff:


That is 1 tsp baking powder, 1 lb chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate (NOT unsweetened), 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) butter, 1 and 3/4 cups packed brown sugar, 4 large eggs, 1 tbs vanilla extract, 5 coarsely chopped toffee bars (such as Heath or Skor), and 1 cup toasted walnuts (which are not in the picture. They snuck out. Those pesky walnuts).

If I had it to do over again, I would have used a higher quality chocolate. I had a bunch of half-used chocolate bars and chips in my cupboard, so I mixed them all together. The taste was ok, but I'm sure that if I had used something better the cookies would have tasted THAT MUCH MORE AMAZING. The mind can only boggle at the possibilities.

Also, as you can see in the picture I had some Heath toffee chips to use up too. Next time, I am definitely buying the bars and chopping them up. These little chips were just a little TOO little - I wanted bigger chunks of toffee in my indulgent toffee cookies.




First, mix together your flours, baking powder, and a pinch of salt. Set aside.

Now we are going to do the chocolate. PAY ATTENTION: this part is important. You don't want to heat up your chocolate too fast or get it too hot, otherwise it will burn and split, and your chocolate will be wrecked. And that would be SO SAD. So please, follow the directions. You won't be sorry. I promise.

Heat the chocolate in a double boiler - if you don't have one, no problem. I don't have one either. Put a few inches of water in a medium pot, and bring it to a boil, then reduce it to a simmer. Balance a metal bowl over the simmering water. Voila! Double boiler. You want the bottom of the bowl to be heated by the steam of the water, so the water shouldn't actually be touching the bowl.

Now put the butter and the chocolate in your double boiler, and stir with a spatula, scraping down the sides of the bowl often. The chocolate and the butter should melt together until you have some gorgeous, smooth liquid chocolate, like this:


Set chocolate aside, and get your sugar and eggs. Beat the sugar and the eggs together in a mixer for 5 minutes. DON"T SKIP! Set a timer if you have to (I did!). You want the sugar to fully dissolve into the eggs, and you want the eggs to be really whipped - this is what give the cookies their lightness and gooey texture. If you don't beat them for the full five minutes, don't blame me if your cookies are heavy or stick to the pan!



Now beat in the chocolate and the vanilla until the chocolate is fully incorporated. With the mixer on low, stir in the flour mixture, the toasted walnuts, and the toffee chunks. MMmmm. Try not consume all the batter at this point. It's yummy. Now stick that batter in the fridge for at LEAST an hour. It really needs to firm up before you bake it, or your cookies will spread into little puddles. No fun. And go ahead and turn your oven on now to 350 degrees.

...

Ok! Has it been an hour? Spoon 1/4 cup of batter onto cookie pan - I recommend putting down some parchment paper so the cookies don't stick. It will save you a world of trouble. Bake for 12 - 15 minutes (12 works for my oven, but yours may be a little different). Remove cookies from oven and let cook before moving.

Try not to gobble them all up on one sitting. Or not. After all, it IS Fat Tuesday, so I guess you can be just as decadent as you want.

enjoy!