Espresso Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies
These cookies are adapted from the cookies made famous by The Vanilla Bean Blog. She uses a technique called pan banging that makes the cookie almost ripple out and have crispy outside edges and a gooey, melt in your mouth center. To pan bang (a technical culinary term I’m sure) after about ten minutes in the oven just lift the edge of the pan about 4 inches and let it drop back on the oven rack. The puffed up middles of the cookies will fall and create a ridge around the outside. I found when I made these cookies you don’t have to pan bang them to make them just as delicious.
A couple notes before you start to make these cookies turn out well:
- Make the cookies bigger than you think you need. The original recipe advises to use about a 1/3 cup scoop per cookie. If you don’t want to make yours that big try adjusting the baking time down so they won’t be over baked.
- Chocolate chunks > chocolate chips. The roughly chopped chunks distribute more evenly in the batter and just make your cookies look for interesting and gourmet!
- Another pro tip. Sprinkle the sea salt on the cookies right after they come out of the oven. This makes the salt stick to the cookies but doesn’t dissolve on top when baking – making them look even MORE interesting and gourmet! Don’t use regular table salt when doing this though. Sea salt or Kosher salt is where it’s at. Both have larger crystal sizes. The contrast of sweet and salty will enhance the sweet flavor and is a great balance against the bitterness of the dark chocolate.
FUN FACT
Kosher salt has nothing to do with the product itself following kosher dietary guidelines. It got it’s name because it was originally used to kosher meat. The size of the crystals are perfect for drawing out moisture from meat during the koshering process.
Espresso Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies
Course: DessertsIngredients
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temp
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp water
6 oz. dark chocolate, cut into bite-size pieces
1/8 cup coffee grounds
sea salt/kosher salt
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line 3 baking trays with aluminum foil, dull side up. This will help the bottom of the cookies become perfectly crisp.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda and salt – set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until it’s creamy.
- Next, add in the sugars and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy – about 2 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides and add in the egg, vanilla and water – mix until combined.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low until it’s combined.
- Add in the chopped chocolate and coffee grounds and mix for a few seconds until it’s mixed in. Use a spatula to finish mixing it in and to make sure everything on the bottom of the bowl is well combined.
- Use a standard ice cream scooper (about 1/3 cup) to scoop out evenly sized cookie dough balls and place them on the aluminum foil lined pans (4 cookies per pan).
- Transfer the pan to the freezer for at least 15 minutes before baking (alternatively, you can freeze the dough balls solid at this point and save them to bake at a later time).
- Place the chilled baking sheet in the oven and bake for 10 minutes – until the cookies are slightly puffed in the center.
- Lift the side of the pan up about 4 inches and let it drop back onto the oven rack so the edges of the cookie set and the inside falls back down.
- Continue to bake for another 2 minutes, until the cookies puff back up again, and then repeat the pan-banging.
- Continue this a few more times to create more rippled edges and until the cookies are golden brown on the edge and much lighter in the middle (16-18 minutes total).
- Sprinkle sea salt or kosher salt on the cookies immediately after removing from the oven.
- Let cool and enjoy!
