I’m pretty open minded when it comes to chocolate chip cookies, but adding cinnamon and ginger and rolling them in powdered sugar is where I draw the line. At that point they’re just spice cookies, right? Wrong! Hal's Favorite Chocolate Chip cookies are totally worth making even if you prefer chocolate chip cookies over spice. They are the ideal "Christmas Chocolate Chip".
Hal's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie Notes
These definitely fall into the chocolate chip cookie category rather than the spice cookie category. Technically they are both, and I promise you won’t feel like you wasted your calories on a weird spice cookie with chocolate when you could have had a traditional chocolate chip cookie instead. Something about all the nuts (don’t leave them out), the overall texture and the amount of chocolate chips make them more like chocolate chip cookies with benefits rather than spice cookies. They are perfect for holiday cookie trays.
A Few More Tips
Having made these for about 9 years now (time flies!), I'm adding a few tips.
- Salted Land o' Lakes or Plugra work best for flavor and for preventing spread. You want the cookies to be slightly rounded.
- For the flour, you can use bleached or unbleached. I use a slightly heavy handed 2 cups which is about 275 grams.
- For a more subtly spiced cookie, you can use ¼ each ginger and cinnamon.
- When creaming the butter and sugar, don't cream for very long. Creaming dissolves sugar and increases spread, so in this case you just want to mix until creamy.
Recipe
Hal's Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger (you can use less if you wish)
- 2 sticks salted butter, softened
- 1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup toasted chopped pecans
- 2 cups semisweet or dark chocolate chips 12 ounces
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.
- Mix together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger, and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add the egg and vanilla and stir until blended (do not overbeat at this point).
- Gradually add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix well to form a soft dough, then stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Chill dough several hours or until it is firm enough to shape into balls.
- Form the chilled dough into 1-inch balls and roll in powdered sugar. Arrange balls about 2 inches apart on lined baking sheets and bake 8-10 minutes. Let cool on baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks and dust with more powdered sugar.
Jen says
Until I read the full article, I thought these were your dog's favorite cookies. Regardless, I really want to try these!
Katrina says
Sounds like a fun twist. I love how you explained that--"more like a chocolate chip cookie with benefits". 😉
Anna says
Stephanie, I know what you mean.
Cindy, not really. They look a bit like Mexican Wedding Cakes, but the texture is that of a firm, non-cakey chocolate chip cookie. You could add cardamom to a portion of the dough and see what you think. I'm not a huge cardamom fan, but I think it would actually taste very interesting in these.
CindyD says
Are these similar to Mexican wedding cakes? And I've started to add cardamom when cinnamon is an ingredient, wonder how that would be in these.
Stephanie @ Plain Chicken says
Looks good. I will definitely give these a try! Love finding new chocolate chip cookie recipes.