Thursday, December 9, 2010

Eggless Buttermilk Chocolate Cookies - Chewy, Chocolicious....Yummmax!!!




Hey you all die-hard chocoholics out there! I must tell you about  these chocolaty, chocolate packed, super delicious cookies I baked !! Fudgy, chewy centers, crisp edges, chocolate in very bite, I just fell in love with these little things. The best part is, these are also very easy to make.  Trust me, if you are a new baker and looking for that simple yet awesome cookie recipe which will win you compliments, look no further. Here is one for you.

Wanted to bake some cookies to send to a cousin of mine who was leaving home to begin her career in another town. And what better than a piece of chocolate indulgence to make sure her otherwise boring journey is a made a tad more interesting and yumm. My cousins absolutely loved them and my Aunt who normally dislikes chocolate also ate them!!

This recipe is from Baking Bites and as Nicole says, you may be a little more partial to these cookies when it comes to your favorite cookies. And Nicole, as you said, I just could not stop at eating one, when these little things came out of the oven. Actually, I popped quite a few of these into my mouth, I won't tell you how many, I don't remember how many;-), I am still trying to resist eating the few I have hidden away. Yep, I found them really irresistible, being a huge chocoholic myself.

I know you want to bake these now, so without much more talk lets head straight for the recipe.



 
Original recipe here
Ingredients: 
 2 cups All Purpose Flour ( Plain flour, Maida)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt ( I skip this usually, don't like the saltiness)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder (I use Nilgiris)
2 cups sugar (I used powdered)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup buttermilk (substitute below)
 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips  (original recipe has 2 cups, you could use 2 cups if bitter-sweet chips)

Procedure: Preheat the oven to 180 Degrees C / 350F. Generously grease baking sheet and or your largest large rectangular cake tin, line with parchment. Sift together flour and baking soda(and salt if using). Melt the butter in a small, microwave safe bowl. Pour the warm melted butter in a large bowl. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until very smooth. Whisk in sugar, vanilla extract and buttermilk. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until no streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.


Drop dough in 1-inch balls into prepared baking sheet, leaving about two inches between cookies to allow for spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are set around the edges. Cool for 2-3 minutes on a baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack with a spatula to cool completely.



Makes about 3 dozen plus the dozen eaten off the cooling rack:-))

To make buttermilk : Add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar to a cup of room temperature milk. Let it stand for about 10 minutes, it will curdle. Use 2/3 cup from this curdled mixture for this recipe. I used plain synthetic vinegar and it worked fine for me.

My Notes: The time for baking varies with the thickness of the cookies. I made in multiple small batches and the ones baked for about just 10-11 minutes tasted best, crisp edged and chewy centers. Yes, you gotta really time these, even a couple of minutes extra will make a lot of difference to the texture. Take the cookies off the oven when the edges are set, the cookie will feel soft now, but will harden later.

Do not over bake the cookies or they will turn hard.  The cookies tasted best on the day I baked them. I have frozen a tiny portion of the dough for the next chocolate-craving-emergency situation. Hope this freezes well, will update here later.