I originally saw these cookies during one of my daily perusals (is that a word?) on Tastespotter and I knew at first glance that I had to make them. I quickly copy and pasted the recipe without bothering to include its source. Of course weeks later when I went back to it, I had no clue where the recipe came from. This happens all to often in my world.
Even though I love baking, living with Fibromyalgia often has me trying to find ways to cut corners and steps in the kitchen and I prefer recipes with as few ingredients and directions as possible. I initially thought that this recipe met that criteria, but once in the middle of mixing the dry ingredients I realized the directions called for chilling the dough for 30 min, then again for 15 min and all of this before the cookies even made their way to the oven. Needless to say, I was exhausted long before these started baking.
Once baked, cooled, and then tasted, I was initially disappointed. The cookies are super choc lately and not as sweet as I thought, really reminding me of biscotti. I thought, well maybe I messed up the recipe, but once I found the site and recipe it all became clear. The original recipe is from Scientifically Sweet blog by Christina Marsigliese based in Australia. The cookies are suppose to be super crunchy, not really sweet, and extra chocolatey. In fact, the post that the recipe is attached to is all about the differences in the preference of cookies in America and Australia. In Australia crispy and not too sweet is the standard, whereas in America soft, chewy, and sweet is preferred.
Alas, it all makes sense. My taste buds were not off and I didn’t mess up the recipe. My initial thoughts of the cookies being like biscotti were spot on, well before I went and found the recipe and actually read the accompanying blog post. The cookies were better to me on the second day with a hot mug of hot chocolate. So instead of cookies, I now have the perfect Biscotti recipe, which is what I will convert this recipe to moving forward. So, I guess my moral of this post is to carefully read the recipe and accompanying post before proceeding with your baking.
Since I made no changes to this recipe you link back to Scientifically Sweet to look it up as well as read her post. I love Christina’s blog and it is part of my daily rotation. When I make them again as biscotti, I will post my revised recipe. Happy Baking !
the gluten free chef
i had a similar lesson this week. if i think i’m going to remember directions from the bedroom (where the laptop was) to the kitchen, i’m not.
When I have made sugar cookes that require refrigeration, I simply toss the dough in the freezer for about half the time. But I always find myself starting a recipe and realizing that I don’t have a specific ingredient that is not readily available in a local store. An example is that yesterday I was determined to try a gluten-free cookie recipe from elana’spantry.com. The recipe was her version of Girl Scout Samoa cookies. I was all worked up to give them a try only to realize that I needed coconut nectar. I ordered some coconut nectar and ventured onto try another recipe. Because of my food and mold allergies, I find myself constantly trying to fix a recipe to work around those criteria. Sometimes the new version is successful and many times it is not. I wish I had more energy or maybe more desire to spend more time in the kitchen perfecting these recipes. Once I have a failure or semi-failure, I am done experimenting for days or weeks. Bless you for doing all that you do.
Yea, I rarely follow recipes exactly. I feel savvy enough in my skills to switch, swap, omitt, or add things based on my needs or preferences, on occasion a test bake will be a bomb and I can usually always tell what went wrong. I have found that elena’s recipes require expensive uncommon nectars and flours that do not substitute well. I do follow her site for ideas, but rarely bake anything from it.
After my reply, I went to the site. I know I can replace the chocolate with carob (altough some don’t like the taste of carob) but have you any thought on replacing the espresso? I don’t do coffe because of mold allergies. In yesterday’s attempt I substituted espresso with matcha powder. I used equal amounts in replacement and that may have been the problem.
Hey Kim, I just omitted the expresso. I never use it in chocolate recipes that call for it.