TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIE

I don’t believe people will be disappointed if I add more chocolate to one of my favourite chocolate chip recipes, n’est ce pas?

In this amazingly yummy cookie are three different types of chocolate:  Callebaut milk, Callebaut dark and Callebaut white.

I’ll tell you right now that it is a winner.   In my opinion, you cannot go wrong if you add more chocolate.  The addition of the white chocolate gives it a somewhat nutty whisper.  But there are no nuts! My kids are allergic to nuts. 

I have some decent sources for my chocolate chunks.  I prefer them to chocolate chips because these morsels are substantial and their shapes are quite uniform. 


I buy my Callebaut chunks from the bulk bins at The Real Canadian Superstore.  They also sell the huge slabs of milk or dark chocolate as well as a multitude of chocolate wafers, traditional chip shapes in various sizes and other nifty confections to add to your cookie dough. 


Originally, I had added black sesame seeds to this cookie dough recipe in combination with white chocolate chunks.   Unfortunately, they didn’t look too appealing to me because the black sesame seeds looked too much like ants crawling all over the cookies.  However, that being said, my colleagues hoovered them up and raved about how delicious they were with the nuttiness of the black sesame seeds.   I wasn’t convinced they looked appetizing enough to post though…and so you don’t get to see them.  You see, currently I am having an all-out war in my garden with a bunch of ants.  They’re everywhere.  I can’t stand them.  My mother twirled around a stick in a little mound of dirt and exposed a whole nest of eggs to the surface.  The ant eggs looked like grains of brown rice.  All I can say is “uck”.  I can’t stand how they “groom” the aphids in my Asian pear tree.  I can’t stand how they’re all over my veggie patch and sometimes when I pick some peonies or other flowers from the garden to bring in, I notice much too late that they’re crawling around the inner petals.

I have won a few battles with the ants at the expense of my grass.  I poured boiling water on the ant nest:  die ants, die!   And so did a few patches of lovely grass.  I concocted a borax/peanut butter death meal as well as a borax/confectioners’ sugar and a borax/jam mixture so that I could get as many species of ants as possible.  I’ve got big ones, little ones, ants that like sweets and ants that like proteins.   But of course, I’m still seeing plenty of ants.  I have seen about a dozen little ant hills in the garden and that’s what I can see.  Who knows what they’re doing in the front yard and around the cracks in my steps leading to my house.  I can’t stand it!   There are mounds of sand around cracks and crevices everywhere!   I am persistent though and as soon as I start my summer break, I’ll be going out every day checking on my ant poisons to see if they are having any effect.  


So, though I digress, you now know why I cannot possibly post a recipe that has anything resembling ants in it.   Okay, so the cookies didn’t look like they had ants, but I’m in a state of mind where anything small and black is BAD!

On a lighter and less caustic though just as deadly topic, this Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookie recipe is based on the Jacques Torres recipe I’ve used before.  I replaced some of the sugar with agave syrup to ensure that they stayed moist and chewy. 


I like!

I like how there’s so much chocolate in the cookie that there’s barely enough dough holding the chocolate pieces together.  I like how the white chocolate plays against the milk and dark.  I like how a hot cookie with a cold glass of milk transports me to the age of 8, when I didn’t care how many calories were in a cookie and blissfully gorged myself with a plateful without remorse or promises to myself to run another hour on my treadmill. 
[hit the jump and scroll to the bottom of the post for the recipe.]



Right now, as I’m typing up this post, there is a wonderful aroma wafting through my house.  No, it isn’t the cookies (though they’re lovely too).  It is a sweet perfume that I recognized right away but just couldn’t pinpoint.  I wandered around the house a few minutes ago looking for the source of the perfume and found it:  my mother’s plant was in full bloom. 
         
This is a special kind of cactus (Asian I believe) that only blooms once a year at exactly 9:00 p.m.  Then the flower slowly withers and is dead by the next morning. My mother had always had one of these plants in our home when I was growing up and now I have one in my home.  In our climate, it is an indoor plant but I believe it can be grown outdoors in California as my aunt has one outside.  I have no idea what it’s called.  Because the flowers appear so rarely and for such a brief time-frame, you can miss its blooming.    This particular specimen must be close to 40 years old because my mother never buys plants…she just propogates!




If you have any idea what it’s called do leave a comment and tell me.  I think that some people pick the flowers and use it in herbal soups.  I have never eaten one nor do I ever intend to.  We just chuck the dead flower when it falls off the plant.   The flower itself is so dramatic and reminds me of a dragon with its long neck and exploding tendrils.  It’s gorgeous. 

If you’re interested in the Jacques Torres Chocolate chip cookie recipe, it is below and add as many white and milk chocolate chunks as you or the dough can tolerate.

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES
makes 3 dozen ridiculously large cookies or a whole bunch more smaller ones!

adapted from Jacques Torres' A Year in Chocolate

• 4 3/4 cups all-purpose flour [I used organic, unbleached]
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 1/4 cups packed light brown sugar
• 1 1/4 cups plus 2 1/2 Tablespoons granulated sugar [I used organic evaporated cane sugar]
• 3 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1 2/3 pounds bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-sized pieces [I used Callebaut dark chunks, Callebaut milk and white chunks]

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Have ready 2 nonstick cookie sheets, or line 2 regular cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter on medium speed for about 5 minutes, or until very light and fluffy. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat until well blended. Add the eggs and beat just until incorporated. Beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture a little at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated. When all of the flour mixture has been incorporated, remove the bowl from the mixer and, using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate.
3. To shape the cookies, using a tablespoon, scoop out a heaping spoonful of the dough and, using the palms of your hands, form it into a 3-inch ball. Place the balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 1 inch apart.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven, transfer the cookies to wire racks, and let cool completely.
5. Store, in an airtight container, for up to 5 days.
6. [cakebrained note: I keep prepared dough in their 3-inch ball shapes, refrigerated in a ziploc bag for a few days and bake as I need them. I only ever bake 6 cookies on a sheet at one time. This way you have a constant supply of fresh cookies. They're so good hot from the oven! Alternately, you can freeze the cookie balls too and keep them longer, but you may have to add a few minutes to the baking time]