For Christmas this year, I was thrilled to receive quite a few Amazon gift cards. It doesn’t get much better than Amazon, as far as I’m concerned. There’s almost nothing I can’t buy on Amazon, and since we have the Prime membership things ship quickly, which satisfies my need for instant gratification.
The only downside, at least for someone like me who is constantly paralyzed by indecision, is that there are almost *too* many choices. It’s now the middle of February, nearly two months since Christmas, and guess what I’ve bought with my Amazon credit? Not one single thing. Oh sure, I’ve added plenty of items to my cart, but I can never seem to pull the trigger on any of them.
In related news, I’ve been hoarding the same $20 of iTunes credit for longer than I care to admit… π
Anyway, a few weeks ago I decided to request a few new-ish cookbooks from my library to flip through, figuring maybe it’d be the push I needed to place an order and add one (or more) of them to my collection. A number of the books ended up coming in at the same time so there’s an embarrassment of riches in my bookcase right now. It snowed (again!) here this weekend which meant I had plenty of time to start putting some of the recipes from these books to the test!
First up? The chocolate truffle cookies from The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook. I flagged these on my very first flip through the book, with a title like that they had Shane’s name written all over them. These cookies are serious business – between the bittersweet chocolate melted into the dough and the chocolate chips stirred in before baking, this recipe has 2 pounds of chocolate in it! The good news is that weight measurements are provided for the ingredients, so you can easily scale back. That’s exactly what I did, making 1/3 of the recipe below, yielding a very manageable 10 cookies.
The smell of these cookies baking is better than just about any candle I’ve ever burned in my house – it was torture waiting for them to cool so I could dig in! Shane walked in the door from an 18-mile run and these were waiting on the counter for him. He showed amazing restraint by eating lunch before he grabbed his first cookie, but once he did, he was hooked! These cookies are uber-chocolatey, with a chewy texture and that classic brownie-like crackled top. Seriously, so good! If you have a chocolate lover in your life, you have to make these for them.
Oh, and for the record, this cookbook is well on its way to ending my Amazon drought. I usually like to try at least two recipes from a book before ordering, but I’m half-tempted to order based solely on how much we loved this one.
Chocolate Truffle Cookies
barely adapted from The Dahlia Bakery Cookbook by Tom Douglas
1 1/4 cups (205 g) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon (20 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 oz (567 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
10 tablespoons (140 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/4 cups (460 g) sugar
6 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups (340 g) mini chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl. Place the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30-second bursts on 50% power, stirring in between each, until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside to cool slightly while you proceed with the dough.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until well combined, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating to incorporate before adding the next. Increase the mixer to medium-high and beat for 2 minutes until the dough is pale yellow in color and has a light, creamy consistency. Add the melted chocolate and vanilla and beat just until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and the mini chocolate chips, and use a rubber spatula to fold them into the dough, mixing just until combined.
Immediately portion all of the dough into 2-oz portions using a large cookie scoop. Scoop all the dough now – it will firm up as it sits and become much more difficult to work with. Once you’ve portioned all the dough, space 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets (if you have more dough than room on the baking sheets, set the dough aside to bake after the first batch – do not refrigerate. Chilled dough won’t bake properly.) Gently press down on the balls of dough to flatten them slightly.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through, until the edges of the cookies are set and the tops are evenly cracked. Transfer the baking sheet to wire racks, and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before removing them to the racks to cool completely.
Makes about 30 cookies
They look delicious and any chocaholics dream! Love the crcakled top
I love that you made a third of the recipe. As a blogger, 10 cookies is great! I don’t need 30 when I have like 23 other recipes to make π
And I’ve flipped thru the Dahlia book at Anthro and didn’t buy it, but I should!
First off, I still can’t fathom how your husband just goes for an 18 mile run willy-nilly like that. My lungs and legs hurt just at the thought. Second, these look marvelous! I’m saving this for when I have more time to bake π
These cookies were great, I can’t wait to have more!
To be fair, yesterday’s run was only actually 15 miles π
It’s totally acceptable to eat these for breakfast, right? π
I am obsessed with Amazon, it’s the only place I shop online these days. I’m also obsessed with these cookies!
Look at those shiny crinkles! These are beyond beautiful! Good call on third-ing the recipe…I could never trust myself with more than 10 of these at a time π
You are funny! I do the same things but I love Amazon cards. It IS always so hard to decide. I’m glad you chose this book though. These cookies look amazing!
I love these!!! I have made several attempts at “brownie-type” cookies before and mine never turn out quite right. These look so thick and fudgy- I can’t wait to try them!
Oh, yum! These sound just fantastic! And I totally hear ya on the Amazon gift cards – there’s almost *too* much to pick from!
These can be eaten any time of day! Love the addition of mini chocolate chips!
Definitely my kind of cookies!
Amazon truly is amazing, but I bet I would hoard them as well if I had gift cards. I’d feel like I had to save them for something particularly awesome and not just an everyday thing.
Wow – these look like the most amazing cookies. Loving the crackley tops!
These cookies look fantastic! Love those perfectly crackled tops!
I am the same way with gift cards! No matter where they’re from…I am just so indecisive. I do have The Dahlia cookbook however and LOVE IT. I made the hot buttered rum apple pie from it….um amazing. SO.GOOD. These cookies are totally next on my list!
These are gorgeous! I want to make them immediately!
These look insane!! Yum!!
Oooh! I just saw these on Pinterest over the weekend, and now that you’ve made them… well, I think that definitely means I need to buy the cookbook and make these immediately π They look awesome!
The crackle on the top of these cookies is just the best thing ever! They look so wonderful and delicious!
Oh yum, chocolate truffle cookies sound amazing!
I’m the same exact way with Amazon or iTunes gift cards! We have Prime too – so dangerous. Have you tried Spotify? It’s the same thing but worse because you can listen to practically ANY song ever which is just too much!
I’ve made these cookies before and they are delightful. My favorite dessert is usually a tie between cookies and brownies so these are perfect for me π
I wish I had the same problem as you – we have Amazon and I’m almost constantly ordering from it. They make it tooooo easy to get things. π These cookies are just beautiful. I love the shiny top.
My husband has an amazon addiction, I am not sure that a week goes by that we don’t get at least 1 package from them!
Love these super chocolatey cookies – they look so decadent!
Tracey, these look amazing – I can’t wait to try them! I just made the molasses ginger cookies from that cookbook yesterday. They were good, but they could have used a bit more flour because they turned out really flat. The gram measures in that book are a little lower than the cup equivalents on my Cook’s Illustrated cheat-sheet, so I may consult that for future recipes.
I thought I was the slowest person in the world to make Amazon orders. Before Josh’s mom added us to her Prime account, we used to bundle our orders to get free shipping and I think I would drive Josh crazy with my indecision.
Tracey, I’m so happy to see these! I pinned them a couple of weeks ago and have been thinking about making them. I’m a chocolate girl so these sound like they are right up my alley. Can’t wait to find out if there is another hit recipe from the book to see if it will become part of your permanent collection. They look just perfect.
have this cookbook and LOVE it!! (the banana bread i posted today is from it)… i have this recipe bookmarked too…glad to know it was a hit!
I’m the same way with gift cards! I seem to save them up because I can’t for sure make up my mind on what to spend it on. These cookies look wonderful!
These look so chocolatey and decadent! Can’t wait to make them.
I on the other hand would like to know what the full recipe is. I have 4 boys!! Well 6 if you count my husband twice. π I don’t think I could do the backward math to figure it out much less the math to make it into a 1/3rd the recipe like you did! Yummo! Can’t wait to get some chocolate now! π
Made these this past weekend and they were DELICIOUS! So chocolatey and decadent. We must have made ours smaller though because this recipe made about 60 cookies for us. Thanks for sharing the recipe!