merrifood

Flourless chocolate cookies

Posted by merrifood on August 19, 2012 · 1 Comment 

My to-do list before leaving for Manila went something like this: pack, do errands, create new workout playlists, bake, etc.  Baking had to be on it as I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to do it again for a while.  Additionally, I’d promised a friend at work that I’d bake for her half birthday (since she was born in a leap year and thus doesn’t get a “real” bday every year – sad!), but now I would be missing it.  She loves chocolate (as do all my true friends) so I decided this was a good match.

These cookies could not be simpler to make and come together in minutes – the only trick is that they tend to spread a lot on the cookie sheet and can be hard to remove from it since they have no flour in them.  This definitely isn’t the prettiest cookies I’ve ever made – a lot of the time I just end up with cookie pieces since I can’t get them off the sheet correctly, but like with most of the things I make, taste matters more than presentation to me, and they are delicious – crispy on the edges but still chewy, kind of like a macaron.

Flourless chocolate cookies (adapted from The Meltaways)

Makes about 20 cookies, or more if you make them a lot smaller – they really do spread out a lot on the sheet

Ingredients

3 c powdered sugar

2/3 c cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract (if you want to get fancy, you can sub in almond or mint – although maybe just do a half teaspoon of either of those since I find them to be stronger than the typical vanilla variety)

Handful of chocolate chips (optional – I think you can tell by now I just like to add chocolate chips to everything)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C.  Mix together the powdered sugar, cocoa, and salt.  Add 2 egg whites and the vanilla extract and mix till thoroughly combined.  Add one more egg white so the batter becomes thick and glossy and basically looks like brownies.  It will not come together like a normal dough at all.  If using, add some chocolate chips and mix them in.

Unlike with most of my other cookie recipes, I recommend baking this one immediately.  Drop by small spoonfuls onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet – greasing the parchment also helps with removal of the cookies.  Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the tops of the cookies begin to crack.  They will spread a lot, but you want to make sure they are done in the middle.  Depending on how much they spread, they may take longer than 14 minutes, but I wouldn’t bake them longer than 16.

As tempting as it is to eat them right away, try to let them cool for about 2 minutes before removing them.  The best part of removing these cookies from the sheets is little pieces tend to stick to the sheet so you have perfect tasting bites to make sure they are an adequate product you can serve to your friends.  It’s very useful, really.

The dry ingredients mixed together

Cookies before going in the oven.  As you can see, it’s a very thin batter.

Finished product with nicely crackled tops but still chewy on the inside

These are one of my favourite cookies for just snacking on.  So simple to make and I love how they are just unabashedly chocolate-centric!