Chocolate Chunkers (TWD)

This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Claudia of Fool for Food: Chocolate Chunkers. I already said last week that I'm not a big fan of chocolate cookies, but Dorie proved me wrong with her Chocolate Malted Whopper Drops, so I went into this with an open mind.


These definitely earn their name of "Chunkers" as they're chock full of chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, nuts, and raisins. There are actually more add-ins with this cookie than dough! I made some changes to the recipe, by decreasing the amount of nuts and increasing the amount of dried fruit. I hate nuts and usually omit them from all recipes, but I thought that I might not notice the nuts in these since they have so much going on with them. So I tried them with the nuts, just less of them.


I thought these cookies were okay. I'm just not a chocolate cookie fan. I didn't care for the nuts at all and wish I had just omitted them, and added more chocolate and dried fruit instead. I'm probably in the minority, though, because these seemed to be a really big hit among most of the other TWD bakers.

I've included the adapted recipe below, as I made them. If you would like the original recipe, you can find it here (with recipe tips here). Make sure you visit the TWD Blog Roll to see how everyone else enjoyed these chunky treats.

Chocolate Chunkers
adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/8 tsp salt (alternatively, you can use 3 tbsp unsalted butter with 1/2 tsp salt)
3 tbsp salted butter, cut into 3 pieces
12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, divided
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
6 ounces white chocolate chips
1 cup toasted pecans, coarsely chopped (I would omit these next time)
1 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup finely chopped moist, plump dried apricots (I would add 1 cup next time to make up for the volume lost by omitting the nuts)


Center the rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add the butter, 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, just until melted--the chocolate and and butter should be smooth and shiny but not so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the heat and set it on the counter to cool.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until they are pale and foamy. Beat in the vanilla extract, then scrape down the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the melted butter and chocolate, mixing only until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl, then, on low speed, add the dry ingredients. Mix just until the dry ingredients disappear in the dough, which will be thick, smooth and shiny. Scrape down the bowl and, using the rubber spatula, mix in the rest of the semisweet chocolate chips (6 ounces), white chocolate chips, nuts, and dried fruit--you'll have more crunchies than dough at this point. (The dough can be wrapped in plastic and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days).

Drop the dough by generously heaping tablespoonfuls on to the baking sheets, leaving about an inch of space between the mounds of dough. (These cookies do not spread very much - you may want to press them down a little with the bottom of a glass before baking.)

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes. The tops of the cookies will look a little dry but the interiors should still be soft. Let the cookies rest for 2 to 3 minutes before using a wide metal spatula to transfer them to the racks to cool to room temperature.

Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the baking sheets between batches.

If, when the cookies are cooled, the chocolate is still gooey and you'd like it to be a bit firmer, just pop the cookies into the fridge for about 10 minutes.