When I heard about The Great Food Bloggers Cookie Swap, I didn’t hesitate to sign up for what was sure to be the event of the season! For those of you that didn’t hear about it Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen came up with a great idea for a cookie swap. The idea was pretty simple, bake 3 dozen cookies and send off 3 one dozen boxes of your home baked cookies to three bloggers, in return you would receive 1 dozen cookies from 3 different bloggers. What a concept! I mean what could be better than getting 3 boxes of cookies in the mail, not having any idea where they were coming from or what kind of cookies you might receive.
If you missed out on this years event, there’s no time like the present to sign up so you don’t miss next year’s “Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap” just click on their link and sign up to receive notification about next years swap…..don’t worry signing up now doesn’t commit you to the swap, it just puts you on the mailing list.
It seems like I have been making cookies all month! It started with my entry in Katrina’s “I’ll Bring the Cookies” month of December event, with my Toffee Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies which was followed just a few days later with with my Oatmeal Granola Cookies for our Vintage Recipe Swap Group. We won’t even get into the thousands of cookies we’ve already made at school for all the Christmas parties and functions we’ve already had! But it is the Month of December and Christmas is just around the corner, and if that’s not a good enough reason to bake cookies, I don’t know what is.
So with cookies every where I looked, trying to come up with a cookie worthy of an event like Great Food Blogger’s Cookie Swap was no easy task. It had to be a little bit festive, and it had to be delicious. The more I thought about it, I knew there was only one place to look and that was to Alice Medrich’s new cookie book Chewy, Gooey, Crispy and Crunchy…lol, what a great title, I almost thought they were the names of the new seven dwarfs!
Well Alice never lets me down, I actually came up with a list of cookies to make, but when I saw her Chocolate Wafers 3.0 I knew that was the cookie for me! Alice describes this little beauty as a simple chocolate wafer, not too sweet and not too rich…..sigh, just the perfect cookie! As I read further, I also found a few variation that Alice offered, one having bits of bittersweet chocolate added into the mix. Alice also included a white chocolate filling for these little beauties and knew it would take them over the top!! Did I mention that you make this cookie almost entirely in the food processor? That made it even easier, and I like easy!
| Triple Chocolate Cookies |
|
- Cookie
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 14 tbsp unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
- 3 tbsp whole milk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla
- 1 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate
- Filling
- 6 oz white chocolate (finely chopped)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- in the bowl of a food processor add the bittersweet chocolate and half the sugar, and pulse until the chocolate bits are the size of sesame seeds.
- add the flour, cocoa, and remaining sugar, salt and baking soda to the food processor and pulse to blend thoroughly.
- Cut the butter into twelve pieces and add to the flour mixture and pulse several times.
- combine the milk and vanilla
- with the food processor running add the milk mixture through the feed tube and continue to process until the mixture clumps around the blade or the sides of the bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a large bowl or cutting board and knead a few times to make sure it is fully blended.
- Form the dough into a log about 14 inches long and 1 3/4 in diameter.
- Wrap the log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to three days.
- Add the white chocolate to the bowl of your food processor and pulse until the chocolate is finely chopped.
- Place the chocolate into a stainless steel bowl
- Heat the heavy cream to almost boiling and pour it over the white chocolate and stir until completely melted.
- Pour the melted white chocolate into your food processor and pulse several time until the chocolate ganache is perfectly smooth.
- refrigerate the white chocolate ganache for 2 hours or up to 2 days.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Remove white chocolate ganache from refrigeration and allow to come to room temperature.
- Slice the log into circles about 1/4 inch thick
- place on prepared cookies sheet, or on parchment paper and bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes*
- When cookies are done remove from pan to a cooling rack
- After cookies have completely cooled they may be stuffed with the white chocolate ganache.
- using a butter knife or small metal spreader, place about a teaspoon of white chocolate ganache on one wafer and spread it to cover the wafer.
- place another wafer on top of the ganche, and set aside.
- repeat until all the cookies are filled.
*Cookies will rise and then deflate, they are done 1 1/2 minutes after they deflate. if cookies are not baked long enough they will not crisp up enough
I mailed my cookies away on Monday December 5th and they were all scheduled to arrive on Wednesday December 7th. I hope the bloggers that received them are enjoying the cookies, and my apologies for not including the recipe or my card for that fact in the boxes. I found both on my counter after I got home from the post office…..sigh
I did save a few for myself and they were really good, but then again how could anything chocolate from Alice Medrich not be good, she is of course the Queen of Chocolate!
Thanks so much for stopping by and if your looking for a chocolate cookie, I promise you this one will not disappoint! Feel free to make a chocolate ganache instead of the white chocolate, or leave that step out altogether. The wafers by themselves would go perfectly with coffee or ice cream.
Have a great week!
These look absolutely delicious! I am a total sucker for anything chocolate!
With cookie posts all around me; it tempts me to bake something sweet and crunchy ,if not cookie. the cookies look fabulous and It sounds good to make the dough in food processor.
They look delicious, Dennis! I know everyone is going to have a GREAT time with the cookie swap!
These chocolate cookies look so delish, Chef Dennis ! I wish I got these from you…would have been a treat! But that’s ok, I got myself some terrific 3 dozen from great folks. Anyway, thanks for sharing these choco cookie recipe…they look better than Oreos!
Hey there , Chef Dennis ! I just borrowed Alice Medrich’s book from the library
Been eyeing that Chocolate wafer , too ! and planning to add some espresso powder to it . Have you seen her goldies recipe ? ;D Sadly , I’m on the other side of the moon 
so no cookie swap for me *sigh*
Chef Denis, The Cookie Swap sounds like fun:D I got to try your cookie recipe. Your cookies look lip-smacking good!
What a super idea with the cookie swap. Your cookies look so squidgily, chocolatey fun, Dennis!
What a fun cookie swap! Even as a grown up, packages in the mail are fun, but I bet even better when the package has cookies from a great blogger! I love your cookies. I always make sandwhich cookies for cookie swaps, which is fun, but can also be twice the amount of work.
thanks for the recipe Chef.
You know, I’m not a huge white chocolate person… but these i could get behind!
Chef, I love a slice-n-bake cookie especially when it facilitates a fresh batch on demand. When you’ve got kids, the request comes frequently…I’d bet this recipe would be in high demand. Thank you for sharing these chocolate gems!
What fantastic looking cookies. I participated in the swap as well and have to say it was a great experience!
Wow, these look amazing!
I had so much fun with the swap!
Delicious! The swap was really a great experience!!
That is great idea, and anybody who receive your cookies is a luckyyy!!
) Nice post and recipe!!!
WOW, what a great post, Chef Dennis!
LOVE the look of these delish cookies. YUM! Ive never made a sandwhich chocolate cookie, but these really tempt me. They dont look too complicated and your pic is so enticing, I really need to find the time to make these beauties. Thanks for sharing!
Triple chocolate, oh my! These just made me swoon and my knees wobbled a bit. MUST TRY!
Triple chocolate cookies have to be good! They sound magnificent!
Mmmm, white chocolate filling. Added to my baking list!
I’m with Brian, I’m not a huge white chocolate fan, but I could be swayed for these. They look like grown up Oreos.
you can always make a milk chocolate ganache instead of the white chocolate, I’m sure it would be delicious!
I can’t believe how many cookies went out in that swap! Just unbelievable!
Wow, oh my. Those do look fantastic. I love the white chocolate in the middle….I might even put some crushed candy canes in mine if I make them. Thank you!
Oh how I wish I could have participated! I did hear about it but already had guest bloggers scheduled for the month. Maybe next year! You are rocking the baking this year!
ohhh man… chocolate cookies filled with white chocolate ganache?! amazing! i would have LOVED to receive box of these!
Whoever got these delicious cookies in the swap sure were lucky! I think I would make them with a dark chocolate ganache, oh, that would be heaven!!
Wasn’t this the most fun event! Wish there was a way to receive cookies by mail on a regular basis
These look insanely yummy and perfect for swapping. Happy Holidays CD!
Wasn’t the cookie swap so much fun!!! I loved participating in this and I am a little jealous I didn’t get to try these cookies out!
Hey Chef Dennis, I am sorry it took me so long to comment on these. I’ve looked at them a few times and then when I go to comment the puppy needs to go outside or the doorbell is ringing and I keep getting sidetracked. These are great cookies, you picked a stunning recipe. This was so much fun to do. Really hoping they do it again next year.
I adore these!
DELICIOUS!!!!!
I am a pure chocoholic and these are just perfect….
Cookies swap must be so fun.
Chef Dennis, call NASA! Your food is floating! Although I hope it floats into my mouth…
FABULOUS!!! And now I’m off to order this cookbook…LOL, you’re a bad influence
I am always looking for a new chocolate cookie:-) These look fantastic!
These look fantastic! I had so much fun making and sending my cookies off. Even more fun relieving and reading about all of the other cookies. I hope they do it again next year.
Hi Chef – I’m on a quest for the perfect chocolate cookie recipe so I tried these out today. Couple questions on the cookie recipe – the ingredients lists says baking soda, the instructions say baking powder. Wondering which one is intended? I put in an 1/8th tsp of each:) Also the dough was a bit dry, couldn’t form it into a roll without adding a bit more milk. Wondering if there is supposed to be more liquid to bind? Or maybe the butter needs to be soft? I cut mine cold and put it right in. Seems like the dry to wet ratio may be off? Thanks for the help…:)
hi
sorry for the mix up, it is baking soda, not powder. I made these a few times and although it seems dry, they did come out pretty well. Its more of a crisp drier cookie, than a soft moist one, although the ones I left wrapped up did soften up a bit.
the trick to the dough is when it comes out of the food processor, you have to knead it a bit to finish mixing it together,at that point it won’t seem as dry. then roll it into a log in plastic and let it sit in the fridge for 30 mins- to a hour before cutting them, that also helps them keep there shape.
I also rolled it around and shaped it better while in the plastic.
It’s more of an adult cookie, lots of chocolate flavor, but not real sweet, I know my students were a bit disappointed, and they definitely need a beverage if you eat them unstuffed.
hope this helps.
Dennis
this looks so delecious… i love the idea of white chocolate ganache inside the cookies, gotta try this