Chocolate Mudslide Cookies

About two weeks ago, my friend Jenny came to visit me and do some baking together. She had two challenges: to make chocolate cupcakes in a funny cake pan shaped like a train set, and bake some cookies from a fancy mix she had purchased.

We start with the cupcakes… Here in Princeton, there are now two places to buy gourmet cupcakes, so I decided to use a recipe from a cupcake shop in New York City. The one we used is from Magnolia Bakery. (Magnolia Bakery Chocolate Cupcakes) with Magnolia’s Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (can be found here or use one of many other recipes).  They were delicious! I’d even say better than Bent Spoon cupcakes – one success! The buttermilk makes the cupcakes extra moist and adds a slight tanginess.

Now for the cookies… Jenny had a box of Jacques Torres Chocolate Mudslide Cookie Mix, which you can buy online for about $13 plus shipping. They are decadent and turned out to be delicious, but I couldn’t accept paying that much for a box that only makes one dozen cookies. So I told her that I would deconstruct them to come up with a recipe (thus motivating the title of my new blog).

Before we get to my recipe, let’s look a little bit closer at the boxed mix. The box includes a 7oz bag of unsweetened chocolate discs (which is melted into the batter), a 6oz bag of bittersweet chocolate discs (used as extra large chocolate chips), and a bag of cookie mix.  You add to that 2 tbsp butter, 2 large eggs, and some heat and you get yourself cookies. So the challenge for me was to decode the cookie mix.

Thanks to the FDA and NLEA (Nutrition Labeling and Education Act), I started with the ingredient list:

From this I learn that the chocolate discs in the box are Belgian chocolate, and that the cookie mix contains (in order of decreasing weight):

• Sugar
• Walnuts
• All-purpose flour
• Baking powder
• Salt

From the box, I know that the total weight should be 22oz, leaving 9oz (a little over 255g) for the cookie mix when you subtract out the weight of the chocolate. My best guess is that the 255g should be about 150g sugar, 55g chopped walnuts, and 45g all-purpose flour. From looking at the mix and the finished cookies, there couldn’t be more than half a cup of walnuts, and there had to be less flour by weight. The rest is sugar. From other cookie recipes it seems reasonable to use 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt (which covers the rest of the weight). For my recipe below, I’ve adjusted these proportions a little bit to make it easier to measure.

As you can see, the recipe works out to have only 1/3 cup flour. For comparison, normal chocolate chip cookies use around 2 cups. These are very rich and dense cookies we’re making! If you want them to be a little lighter tasting, I recommend increasing the flour to 75g (~1/2 cup) – I think I prefer them this way. I’m also considering that confectioners’ (powdered) sugar or a little extra salt might make these even better. I haven’t tried it yet though.

For the chocolate, we have a few options. In my recipe, I kept the combination of unsweetened and bittersweet chocolate from the box. However, I don’t normally keep unsweetened chocolate around the house. One option is to use bittersweet chocolate for both. Another option is to substituted cocoa powder and extra butter for part of it, to keep some of the bitterness. So instead of 7oz of unsweetened chocolate, melt together 4oz of bittersweet chocolate,  1/2 cup natural (non-alkalized) cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter (plus the 2 tablespoons butter in the recipe – 5 tbsp total).

Cocoa powder is just pure unsweetened chocolate (chocolate liquor) which is pressed to remove most of the cocoa butter. For this substitution, extra butter replaces the missing cocoa butter. You can buy cocoa powder either natural (which can be somewhat acidic) or “dutch process”, which is alkalized to neutralize the pH. But here we want the flavor intensity of natural cocoa, which can be lost in processing.

As for the rest of the chocolate, the better quality chocolate you use, the better the cookies will taste. I recommend buying blocks of chocolate in bulk or using chocolate bars from the supermarket. Chop them up to make chocolate chunks (for the chips) and for melting. Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s usually sell blocks of quality chocolate already cut up into ~1lb pieces. I prefer those with around 60% cocoa.

So what chocolate do I use? For the majority of my chocolate making, I use Ghirardelli 60% cocoa bittersweet chocolate chips. They should be in your supermarket in 12oz bags, and I get bigger bags of them at the local warehouse “club” store. They taste great (so much better than standard chocolate chips), and are pretty inexpensive. Using these chips, we can make mudslide cookies for far less than $13.

When I want the best quality chocolate, for making chocolate mousse, chocolate soufflé, or these cookies at their best, I use Callebaut Belgian Dark Chocolate (60.3%). I have a friend who got a group together to split an order to buy some in bulk online. You can also try here or your local gourmet store for smaller quantities. (Markets like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods usually sell bulk chocolate as well.) With the group order, the chocolate cost just under $9. So for the most decadent chocolate cookies you’ve probably ever had, maybe ten bucks isn’t so bad!

Chocolate Mudslide Cookies

7 oz (200g) unsweetened chocolate
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
50g (~1/3 cup) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
150g sugar (3/4 cup granulated sugar or 1-1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 oz (170g) bittersweet chocolate chunks/chips
60g (1/2 cup) chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°F

Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate over low heat, stirring to combine. Once melted remove from heat and let cool.

Beat eggs, and then beat in sugar. Mix in cool chocolate mixture and then add vanilla.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and stir into batter, mixing just until combined.

Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Scoop 1/4-cupfulls onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet, and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.

Bake 12-15 minutes at 375°F, until the cookies are firm around the edges, and appear slightly shiny with cracks that might appear somewhat unbaked inside.

Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing to a cookie rack.

Yields 12 cookies.

[Optional: Replace 7oz of unsweetened chocolate with 4oz (114g) bittersweet chocolate, 1/2 cup natural (nonalkalized) cocoa powder, and 3 tablespoons unsalted butter (in addition to the other butter). Melt all three together and mix thoroughly.]

[Optional: Increase flour to 75g (~1/2 cup sifted) to make the cookies a bit lighter]