There’s a restaurant here in Chicago called Beatrix that sells awesome chocolate chunk cookies. Well, “awesome” if you like big, flat crinkly chocolate chunk cookies that are very sweet, kind of dense and a little bend-y. They remind me of the unleavened large size version of Maida Heatter’s David’s Cookies recipe. I haven’t made an exact replica of the Beatrix cookies, but in trying to do so I came up with a version I like almost as much!
This recipe is one I make when Ghirardelli 60% “Twilight” bars or Dark Chocolate Lindt bars go on sale at Walgreen’s. The chocolate spreads and the cookies spread, so halfway through you have to kind of nudge the cookies inward, but that gives them this lovely crinkled appearance. Here’s the recipe if you want to try it. If you like the texture, you can start experimenting with different chocolate bars. Sometimes I make these so that they’re basically broken up chocolate bars held together with cookie.
By the way, if you’re wondering what the Beatrix cookies look like, here’s a photo of one of them.
- 8 tablespoons (114 grams) unsalted butter
- 150 grams all-purpose flour (or pastry flour) - volume varies
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 180 grams combined light and dark sugar (80 light and 100 dark)
- 50 grams granulated sugar
- 1 large (50 grams) egg
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 good quality chocolate bars, chopped (200 grams)
- Brown the butter and put it in a separate container to cool. Let cool completely.
- Meanwhile, mix together the flour and the baking soda.
- In a mixing bowl, combine all sugars, the egg, vanilla and salt. Add half the flour mixture, then add the cooled butter and stir it slightly. Add remaining flour mixture and stir until blended. Stir in chopped chocolate. Divide dough into 6 portions, keeping the tops scraggly. Chill portioned dough until firm enough to handle, then shape into neat balls and press the balls into 3 inch disks.
- Arrange 3 disks on a large, parchment lined baking sheet.
- Put in a 350 degree oven, then reduce heat to 325 and bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until done they appear just set. About halfway through baking, open the oven door and nudge the edges of the spreading cookies inward. Continue baking until they appear set.
- Let cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Yum!
Hi Anna!
I’m bad at math. Do you know the conversion amount on the cookie ingredients?
The brown sugar was a little less than a cup total, the granulated sugar was a quarter cup. Flour varies. If you use all-purpose it could be 1 cup and 2 tablespoons or 1 cup and 3 tablespoons depending on the moisture of the flour and how it’s scooped etc. If you use pastry flour it would more likely be 1 1/4 cups. I put it in grams for accuracy, but you could hack together some cookies using the approximate volumes.
Back to the brown sugar. I think it was about 1/2 cup light brown and 1/2 cup dark, but neither was packed very tightly so the light weighed only 80 grams and the dark weighed around 100 grams.
Of course this is all a non-issue if you have a scale!! 🙂 I have a few, but this is one of my cheap favorites.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001N07KUE/ref=sxr_pa_click_within_right_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=2329824862&pf_rd_r=FT7G0YQ5YMFYVN0WR540&pd_rd_wg=hHuq0&pf_rd_s=desktop-rhs-carousels&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_w=yDOmi&pf_rd_i=kitchen+scale&pd_rd_r=J4RW8Z2TN6G7EM63J0F0&psc=1
I wish I could have one of these right now. Your cookies look so good!