Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Tuesdays with Dorie—Chocolate Chunkers

Chocolate ChunkersThree types of chocolate chunks (bitter, semi, white), salted peanuts, raisins, {with a bit of batter thrown in to keep all the chunks together}. This is really a brownie disguised as a cookie.

In the introduction to the cookie, Dorie says these cookies are based on ones at Soho Charcuterie (called Chocolate Globs) and Sarabeth's (called Chocolate Chubbies), and is also a distant relative of Maida Heatter's Mulattoes. According to Ina Gartner, her brownie recipe is based on these same cookies, and they used to fly out the door of her specialty food store. After tasting these chocolate chunkers, I believe it!
"A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand."
— Author unknown
Playing Around
Chocolate Chunkers in ring moldsA while ago, I found these vintage aluminum ring molds online on our local Freecycle Network. After spraying the molds with cooking spray, I spooned some of this sticky, chunky cookie dough into the molds and baked them off. Straight from the oven, they were like a rich brownie. After cooling, they became hard like a cookie and better eaten by breaking pieces off with your fingers. I tried the same thing with my mini bundt cake pan with the same results.

Chocolate Chunkers in mini bundt pans

Recipe

Ingredients for Chocolate ChunkersYou can find the recipe for Chocolate Chunkers in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan. To see how the rest of the TWD group fared with this week's recipe, click here and then click on each blogger! Thanks to Claudia of Fool for Food who chose the recipe for this week.

Chocolate Chunkers
Tasting Notes
These were a hit at our house. Personally, I liked them with the raisins, but I left them out of half the batch for some of my more picky eaters. The salty nuts cut the sweetness of the chocolate nicely.
"Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world,
had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon
and then lay down on our blankets for a nap."
— Robert Fulghum
Recipe for Next Week (September 23)
Dimply Plum Cake on page 41 chosen by Michelle of Bake-en.





37 comments:

Marthe said...

Your buntcake-shaped cookies look very cute! Did you like them? I absolutely loved the Chunkers!

Jacque said...

Ooooh, love the cookie/brownie rings. You always come up with the most interesting variations on the recipe. Nice job!

Jules Someone said...

Cute idea with the little pans. Nice job!

Anonymous said...

What fun to play around with the dough the way you did. The cookies look adorable as baby cakes.

Pamela said...

The cookie rings are so neat! They look like a real dessert in your pictures.

CB said...

How adorable are those cookie bundts! Great job!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought

Anonymous said...

Great idea to bake them in a Bundt pan. They turned out so well - these cookies are a hit at my house, too.

Anonymous said...

what a beautiful presentation! and it overcomes the problem some people had with them looking like ... um ... well, you know. wonderful idea.

chocolatechic said...

I love your idea of making bunt cookies.

How wonderful.

We just loved these cookies.

marae said...

love your shaped cookies...so fun...!! can you tell me why your blog only loads in the bottom 3/4 of the page?? i always think it's blank then remember to scroll down. so odd! anyway, the cookies are FAB and can i tell you how funny it is that there is an ad for '#1 rule of a flat stomach' at the top of your blog??? oh the irony, i'm sure it's not by eating those cookies!

Anonymous said...

How beautiful. All your variations on shape are just perfect,

Cristine said...

I love your creativity!!! You give me so much inspiration! Great job!

Susie Homemaker said...

One of these days, lady...one of these days. God only knows what you are going to do with a dimply plum cake.

Passionate Baker said...

woww...those look so cute!
i love how you used mini bundt pans, and stuck some ice cream in the center...YUM!
great jobb
<3

Eleganza Strings/ The DeLadurantey Family said...

I love the bundt pan mold idea! You are so creative!

Laura said...

Didn't think these could get any better - I stand corrected! Love the idea of molding these (the only drawback to these cookies I found, besides their addictiveness, were their looks). When I make these again (and I most certainly will) I'll try your idea - thanks!

vibi said...

Boy! You never cease to amaze me... Once again, you've been able to make this quazillioneth recipe, your own! LOL
What a quirky, imaginative and spunky person must secretly hide behind those pictures!
Great chunkabunts!

Engineer Baker said...

I always look forward to how you change up these recipes, and I love how your molds worked out. So pretty and elegant.

TeaLady said...

using molds. What a creative idea. They look great. Chocolate Chunky Brownies. It's a whole new cookie....

Mandy said...

The cookies look so rich and delicious! Love the mini molds/pans you use.

Family First said...

I made my first every cookie last weekend but have not posted it up yet. Nothing fantastic like yours but the fact that they were my very first was satisfying. Will share soon :-)

Lynda said...

Those cookies look very tasty. I will have to try them. I bet my son would love them! Lynda

Jessica Eiden Smedley said...

The miniature pans are a great idea. Well done, Shari!

Di said...

I love the plating in the last picture. I really enjoyed the raisins in these, too.

Cathy said...

Your molds make these cookies beautiful! I absolutely love your ideas (and your pictures!)

PheMom said...

All those mini bundts are so cute!! Fantastic!

Anonymous said...

I had no idea that these could look so good. Good thing or I probably would have eaten more...

The Food Librarian said...

super creative idea!! i didn't notice a change in the texture because they were eaten so fast! :)

kimberly salem said...

beautiful photos! the bundt cookies are so cute :) perfect bowl for ice cream :)

Anonymous said...

beautiful! they look so good and they gotta taste so great. man! a brownie in a cookie is fantastic.

NKP said...

Is that the teacake pan? I have that one and have not used it yet, this would be a great sort of application.
I love your different takes on the cookies, and envy you your savarin rings.
Very creative.

Sherry Trifle - Lovely Cats said...

Very creative baking - the Chunkers came into shape nicely with the bundt pans.

Linda said...

You are a baking goddess as you were able to make these homely cookies so beautiful and refined in their presentation! Beautiful work!

Natalie Que said...

I've seen several other posts, but I love what you did with these! Great ideas.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness these just look too good to eat! I'll try this at the weekend, thanks again.

Anonymous said...

I love what you did with this recipe. It's so different. great job!

Shari said...

Thanks everyone for stopping by and taking time to leave a comment! I'm getting bogged down lately, and apologize for not getting around to everyone's posts as I'd like to.

Natashya - I'm not sure what the mold is called. I got a bag full of molds from someone through FreeCycle, and I thought they were so cute. Can't wait to see what you do with them!

Thanks again!
~Shari