Salty, Nutty Double Chocolaty Chocolate Cookies AKA Pecan Mudslides

This is quite possibly the best chocolate cookie you will ever eat. There is very little flour in it in proportion to chocolate, so it’s gooey good, yet the finely chopped pecans give it the necessary texture to help you grab and go. But, it’s the combination of chocolate and salt that gives this cookies a little bit of a grown up feel.

This is assuredly a cookie that was made for milk and will be that “go to” treat when you have a chocolate attack, keeping a few in the freezer for just such a night, but it’s so much more.
Do you love desserts that make you look like like a baking genius, yet there is no serious concentration required or fancy handling.

I know I do, especially when I’m spending most of my time and energy on the savory courses.If you enjoy entertaining, they can easily be transformed into a dinner party dessert. The cookie dough can be made earlier in the day or day before, and while you are eating dinner, bake the cookies, make the espresso’s and get out the ice cream.

These cookies are so good that they make a great gift for Valentine’s Day or a birthday. Bake up a batch, make them into two-bite size, and wrap in a pretty box or tin and ship or hand-deliver. Cheaper than flowers, more sentimental than a card.

I have to thank my friend Josie of Daydreamer Desserts for delivering what she calls “Insanely Chocolaty Cookies” in my in box just in time. If I were not subscribed to her blog, I may have missed it and that would be shame. She got it from Cleotilde of Chocolate and Zucchini who got it from Jacque Torres published in the New York Times, August 2003. I love how recipes travel and evolve as everyone adds their own spin. I expanded the recipe to be able to make more, and topped each cookie with a tiny pinch of kosher salt.

I’m not one to jump on someone’s else’s recipes very often, because I have at least ten blog posts ready at all times and more in my head, but I made these within 24 hours. It helped that I had chocolate on hand. The next day I made yet another batch, because being so close to Valentine’s Day, The cookies gave me a great idea. Bake and ship to a few family members, especially my younger brother who is turning 31 on February 15th. Not only is it his birthday but he called the day I was packing the cookies in a tin and left me this message:

“Hello this is your brother calling to give you the big news, I just found out whether it’s a boy or a girl, but I’m not going to tell you because you didn’t answer, so I”m not going to tell you so I’m gong to wait and make you call me. Hahaha. Love you.”

I jumped to grab the phone and my guess was right. We were both equally excited for the same reason, but I’ll make you guess too.

In the meantime, I have a feeling this baby who is making me an aunt for the first time (by blood, not marriage) is going to love chocolate!

The Process
If you have a kitchen aid or similar mixer, this is easy, easy. If not, it’s still worth it. It’s a bit of an unusual recipe as far as process, but nearly foolproof, keeping three things in mind:

1. Quality of Chocolate: This is extremely important. The recipe is made with chocolate chips, but there are a few very inferior chocolate chips on the market that are waxy and disappointing. I chose to use a high quality mix of bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolate. You will have to decide how much sugar to add. Using semi-sweet, 1/2 cup of sugar is enough; using bittersweet, 3/4 cup of sugar is necessary.

1. Cooking Time: I desire a smaller, chewy cookie and I still want the center a little gooey, so 11 minutes in my convection oven on a stone baking pan works perfectly. However, you might want a crisper cookie, and you need to adjust for your pan and oven.

1. Size: The original size of Jacque’s cookie is huge, and if you go that route, of course, change the cooking time.

Note: Make one test cookie before refrigerating just to test out taste. Make another test cookie once your remove from refrigerator to test cooking time. You don’t want an overdone chocolate cookie, as it will taste bitter.


Recipe (makes 40 medium sized cookies)
(adapted from recipe found on Daydreamer Desserts)

Ingredients

• 8 oz bittersweet, 8 oz semi sweet chocolate or 16 oz. of your favorite premium chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoons espresso powder
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2/3 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for topping the cookies
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 5 tablespoons butter
• 3 eggs
• 5 ounces of quality dark chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
• 1 cup chopped pecans toasted

Instructions

1. Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Add espresso powder. Cool.
2. Toast pecans and finely chop. A finer chop helps add structure.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Add nuts to flour mixture.
4. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time.
5. Add cooled, melted chocolate. Mix thoroughly.
6. Add flour/nut mixture. Mix. Add chocolate chips.
7. Refrigerate in a pan lined with parchment paper. You will come back and cut even pieces, which will be rolled into a ball for baking.
8. Line a pan with parchment paper. I used a silicone 10 inch square pan. Refrigerate so the dough is easier to work with. If it’s too hard, allow it to warm up a bit, sitting out.
9. Once cooled enough to cut without being sticky, use a knife to cut into even pieces. Roll into balls, and you can either leave as it, or flatten a bit. I like to leave them in balls, and have them thick and chunky.
10.  Bake at 375 for 11 minutes. About 5 minutes after putting in oven, top each cookie with just a tiny tiny pinch of sea salt.