Next level chocolate chip date cookies · Monday April 18, 2022 by colin newell
I love the occasional chocolate chip cookie – and I have dabbled with a variety of recipes and approaches but have never really knocked it out of the park.
After catching a Bon Appetit YouTube video on the subject, I realized that maybe I have found what I was looking for. I was. These cookies use Olive Oil and Tahini and no butter. They are graced with sliced date and flaked sea salt. Honestly, one cookie could feed a sweet tooth for a week.
Let’s get to it.
The Dry Ingredients…
- 280G White flour
- 1 TSP Baking Soda
- 1 TSP Kosher Salt
- 1 TSP Cornstarch
Add ons…
- Dates
- Figs
- Flaked salt – Sel de Mar
Wet stuff…
- 1/2 Cup Olive oil (120G)
- 1/4 Cup Tahini (80G)
- 2 Eggs
- 2 TSP Vanilla
- 3/4 Cup White sugar
- 3/4 Cup Brown sugar
Instructions…
In a medium sized bowl add your flour, baking soda, kosher salt and cornstarch. Lightly whisk until these ingredients get to know each other.
In a bigger bowl, add Olive Oil, Tahini and 2 chilled eggs. Use electric blender and mix on medium-high speed for around 3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla. Add sugars. Blend for 3 minutes more (give or take) or until the mixture is creamy with no sugary lumps.
Add dry to wet in two steps (add one half of the dry mix to the wet – and mix until 50-70% incorporated…)
Add the rest of the dry and mix until around 70% incorporated. Explanation to follow.
Add 1/2 cup of your preferred chocolate (seriously you can go crazy here with anything; light, dairy milk, dark, unsweetened… sky is the limit…)
Add 1/4 cup thinly sliced (and pitted dates…) or figs.
Mix until all the dry is absorbed and chill in the covered bowl for a minimum of 3 hours – ideally overnight or 12 hours.
Let’s bake…
Cookie sheets should (must) have a layer of parchment paper between the cookie dough and the pans!
I used an ice cream scoop to dose out the dough and this yields jumbo cookies – you have been warned!
You can dress the ready to bake formed dough with flake salt and a slice of date, fig or a lump of chocolate!
Bake for 16 – 18 minutes at 375 degrees (F) or 365 degrees (F) in convection mode.
Pay attention. Cookies are easy to burn.
Transfer to a drying grid as soon as you can handle them – the centre of the cookie may appear a bit “fluid” right out of the oven – but they set when they cool. You can eat them directly out of the oven but be aware of the fact that they are super hot and the chocolate is molten at this point. You have been warned.
Tech notes…
The cornstarch helps keep gluten strands from developing, yielding a chewier cookie.
All olive oils are not equal. I suggest starting with a milder all purpose olive oil.
Chilling overnight is almost a must — for the ingredients to get acquainted and the flavours to develop.
Conclusion…
I have made a lot of cookies over the years. These are the closest to Pure gourmet to my taste buds and give me a great template for experimentation. Do watch the video above. There may be some tips I missed.
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