Category: Chocolate Recipes

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies

The perfect bite-sized chocolate chip cookie. Tiny, thin, golden, crisp, a bit nutty with plenty of shaved chocolate.

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I recognize the lead photo for this post makes these chocolate chip cookies look enormous. They are not. In fact, one of these cookies is about the size of a half-dollar, you might be able to fit a dozen of them in the palm of your hand. And while the photo might be a bit misleading, the trade-off is that you can see all the flecks of shaved chocolate, oats, and walnuts that are packed into every tiny cookie. The grains of sugar on top? They give the cookies just the right amount of crunch. These are the perfect bite-sized cookie, and each batch makes nearly twelve dozen of them.

itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookie

Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies: The Concept

I started working on this recipe over the summer (it took a few tries!). I knew I wanted my cookie to be tiny. I wanted it to be thin, and I wanted it to be golden, crisp, nutty, with plenty of chocolate. I started shaving the chocolate early on, instead of using chips or chunks. It ended up being one of the things that makes these cookies unique -and it allows you to press the dough near flat.

chocolate chip cookie on parchment paper

The recipe doubles easily, and I can’t resist mentioning that ice-cream sandwiches made with them are tres cute and tasty. The key is resisting the urge to use too much dough when you’re shaping them.

itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookie on parchment paper

Variations: 

There have been some great substitutions and variations in the comments. I’ll call out a few that caught my attention.

  • Susie says, “These cookies were AMAZING!! I used date sugar instead of the cane sugar, and they turned out just fine. I gave some to my best friend, and she said, “I’d pay MONEY for these!” “
  • Leigh went the coconut route, “I made these tonight replacing 1/2 cup of the oats with a mixture of toasted coconut and toasted wheat germ.”
  • Sassy reports, “I added raisins and Craisins to half the batch. Yum yum!”

chocolate chip cookie dough balls on parchment-lined baking sheets

More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

Or browse all the cookie recipes. I especially love the classics like these shortbread cookies, these limoncello macaroons, these ginger cookies, or these special snickerdoodles. Have fun baking!

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Best Chocolate Cookies

This is the best chocolate cookie I bake. And I don’t say that lightly. It’s a crackle-edged puddle of chocolate with a texture like a collision between a soft meringue and a fudgy brownie. Part of my essential cookie repertoire!

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I came across the perfect chocolate cookie when I visited Portland years ago. The cookies were popular in the coffee shop I would visit, and I loved them. Each cookie was a crackle-edged puddle of chocolate with a texture that made me think of a collision between soft meringue and a fudgy brownie. I fell hard. In the years since, we’ve come to call them chocolate puddle cookies, and there are just six ingredients between you a baking sheet of them. No mixer necessary, just a big bowl and wooden spoon.
chocolate cookies on parchment paper after baking

Chocolate Cookie Inspiration

As far as the origins of this recipe? I came across a recipe shortly after my return from Portland that sounded very close to the cookie I tasted there. The Portland chocolate cookies seemed to be a version of François Payard’s Flourless Chocolate-Walnut Cookie. But, the recipe I was working from didn’t work all that well for me. The good news is, it did provide a good starting point. I adjusted a few ingredients, tweaked my technique, and now I’ve been able to make them reliably making little tweaks along the way. All my insights and ingredient notes are integrated into this page and recipe.

Chocolate Cookies: The Ingredients

The ingredient list here is short and direct. There’s a good chance you have all the ingredients on hand – cocoa, powdered sugar, egg whites, walnuts, vanilla, and a bit of salt. A few related notes:

  • Cocoa powder: I’ve used a wide range cocoa powder in these cookies over the years. The key here is to use unsweetened. For a long time I tended to use non-alkalized cocoa powder (Scharffen Berger or Dagoba) but also tested with Droste, which is a Dutch-process cocoa powder. And! I just made a fantastic batch using Guittard Cocoa Rough last week. Pictured here. So, use what you like, just be sure it’s not sweetened.
  • Walnuts: On the walnut front, be mindful of how you toast your walnuts, it’s the single factor that impacts the personality of these cookies most. Using deeply toasted walnuts makes for a much more intense, nutty cookie. Lightly toasted walnuts can sometimes be mistaken for chocolate chips, and make for a much more mild cookie. Both good!
  • Powdered sugar: I’ve used both 365 organic powdered sugar from Whole Foods, and Hain organic powdered sugar with success.
  • Eggs: Use large eggs, I suspect if you use extra-large, the batter will run, and you’ll have to compensate with more powdered sugar.

Technique and Pro-tips

Reading this far will pay off, I promise. Here are a couple things that really make a difference here.

  1. Sift. Really, don’t skip this step. Get all those lumps out.
    chocolate cookie ingredients sifted into a bowl
  2. Add ingredients in the correct order. This is what your mixture should look like after mixing in the walnuts. (below)
    chocolate cookie dry ingredients combines in a mixing bowl
  3. Consistency. This is roughly what your cookie batter should look like after mixing in the egg whites.
    chocolate cookie batter in a mixing bowl
  4. Bake & Cool Completely. Do your best to avoid under-baking, and after baking, allow the cookies to cool completely. A couple hours is best. They will set up beautifully. The goal is a clean break-away from the parchment paper. It’s sometimes hard to tell when these cookies are fully baked, the ones in the picture directly above are slightly underbaked for my tastes. So I adjusted with the remaining two cookie sheets.
    chocolate cookie cooling on racks in a kitchen

Chocolate Cookie Variations

I like to make these just as written in the recipe below. It’s one of those rare cooking endeavors where I don’t mess around much. But there have been many great comments over the years. A lot of people make these chocolate cookies with toasted pecans in place of the walnuts. Some add the zest of an orange. And another person recommended dried cherries. Espresso powder was something I’ve considered but never tried (although some of you have!).And numerous people like to freeze these cookies, and crumble them over ice cream for the win!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have. They’ve become family favorites.

close up of chocolate cookie on a marble countertop

Best Cookie Recipes

chocolate cookie on parchment paper after baking

More Chocolate Recipes

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Chocolate Energy Bites

Good-quality dark chocolate packed with lots of chopped nuts, seeds, and dried fruit make these a favorite nutritious and energizing snack. Big thumbs up.

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A dark chocolate energy bite always delights. They can punctuate any afternoon as a snack, travel well on road trips, and make a thoughtful homemade gift for any chocolate lovers in your life.
chocolate energy bites topped with all sorts of pretty, delicious ingredients

Chocolate Energy Bites: The Concept

These are homemade squares of good-quality dark chocolate crammed with as much good stuff as it can hold. I love to pack the little bars with all manner of chopped nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Sprinkle them with things like bee or fennel pollen, crushed rose petals, sea salt, and more nuts and seeds to give them a bit of nutritional boost, and to bump up the pretty.
chocolate energy bites topped with all sorts of pretty, delicious ingredients

After you make a batch, wrap them in gold foil candy paper, or parchment, and place in a drawer. You’re set for the month. For this round of bites, I used a mix of almonds, pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, and dried nectarines. But, as you can imagine, the recipe is very flexible – dates, raisins, dried blueberries or cherries, all make good substitutions. Use great quality dark chocolate – 70% or higher if possible. 

a range of topping ingredients including rose petals, dried plums, almonds, chia seeds
See all the toppings and inclusions for these energy bites in the photo above.

chocolate energy bites alongside a wood handled paring knife

More Homemade Food Gifts

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Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookies

Chocolate stuffed sandwich cookies made with a poppy-flecked brown sugar dough, lots of vanilla, and a bit of a salty sweet crust on top.

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Sandwich cookies need to be worth the effort. They involve multiple steps and components. There is often rolling and stamping and re-rolling involved. On top of that, usually they should look matchy-matchy, each cookie the same as the next. So yeah, there is effort and precision involved in achieving that. These are worth the fuss. A poppy-flecked, brown sugar dough has a mellow, full sweetness. The butter in the dough browns just enough in the oven to be fragrant, melding vanilla and sugar notes. Chocolate functions as binding bridge between two wafer-thin coins. They’re wonderful and worth it.side view of a stack of sandwich cookies each filled with chocolate

Brown Sugar Sandwich Cookies: Tips & tricks

Here’s what you’re going for. Thin cookies, thin smear of chocolate. Crisp and snappy. There’s nothing complcated about making these cookies, but there are a few tricks to making these cookies extra good. Listen up.
a single sandwich cookie filled with chocolate with sugar on top
Make it thin: The first tip is simple – roll the cookie dough out very, very thin. Not parchment thin, but certainly Saltine cracker thin. The resulting cookies will be crisp, elegant, and lovely to look at. Like the photo below.
cookies after baking on a baking sheet
Restraint: Resist going overboard with the chocolate. You want just a bit of chocolate sandwiched between just a bit of cookie. Have a look at the photo below. Too much cookie and the ratio gets thrown off. 
a single sandwich cookie filled with chocolate with sugar on top
Bake it right: The last important thing to be mindful of is baking time. You want these cookies to bake until they are beautifully golden, particularly on the bottom edges where the cookies meet the baking sheet. This will give you snap and structure once the cookies have cooled. Don’t turn your back while they’re baking, cookies this thin will go from blond to burned in a heartbeat. Go for golden!
side view of a stack of thin cookies

More cookie recipe:

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Coconut Chocolate Pudding

A deeply dark and impossibly decadent coconut chocolate pudding. Creamy coconut milk base infused with a whisper of warming spices.

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This chocolate pudding recipe took a while to get just right. It took almost thirty dollars in premium chocolate and many lackluster attempts to come up a version special enough to share with you. Before this there were bland puddings, runny puddings (yuck), and oddly rubbery ones as well. But this version is a keeper.
chocolate pudding in a glass bowl with whipped cream on top

This chocolate pudding is deeply dark with intense chocolate flavor. It is rich, glossy, fragrant, and silky smooth. I use a coconut milk base in place of dairy, and infuse the mixture with a whisper of warming spices to give it a wink of something special, a bit of unexpected magic.

Hitting the Mark

On my journey to the final recipe, I ran into a number of problems that needed to be addressed. I had a pudding in mind, and a game plan of how to achieve it. The version in my mind was a serious and sophisticated dark chocolate pudding. I planned to use a dairy-free coconut milk base, arrowroot would be used as the thickener, non-alkalized cocoa powder (natural, not Dutch processed) would be enlisted, as would semi-sweet chocolate. I’m usually somewhat close to the mark when imagining how ingredients will come together into a final creation or recipe, but my first attempt here was wildly off. The pudding took almost twelve hours to achieve any sort of set, and even then it was on the runny side.

ingredients for chocolate pudding in a bowl

Troubleshooting

It dawned on me the acidity in the non-alkalized (natural) cocoa powder might be rendering the arrowroot thickener ineffective, so I corrected for that variable and made changes a bit at a time over the course of five batches until I finally had a chocolate pudding recipe that matched the one in my imagination. It’s a beautiful silky texture glossy triumph.  If you love a little pot of chocolate pudding as a treat, this is one to try. Pictured below is the slurry of ingredients that will be added to coconut milk over heat.
ingredients for chocolate pudding mixed together in a bowl

The great thing about making chocolate pudding like this one?  It only takes a few minutes of active cooking time. As far as substitutions go, if you want to use regular or low-fat milk, give it a go. You can use cornstarch in place of the arrowroot, but it didn’t deliver the smooth glossy texture and sheen that came with using arrowroot powder. I also mention a few other variables to play with in the recipe head notes.

a bite of chocolate pudding on a spoon with a bit of whipped cream

Variations: Chocolate Pudding

  • Toasted Almond Chocolate Pudding: Swap almond extract instead of vanilla extract. Swap out the toasted coconut for toasted almond slices, and skip the curry powder.

chocolate pudding in a glass bowl with whipped cream and toasted coconut on top

More pudding recipes:

  • Glissade Chocolate Pudding: This is my other favorite chocolate pudding. It is ridiculously rich and wonderful. It’s not like a typical American chocolate pudding, it has no milk, cocoa powder, or cornstarch (or arrowroot). It’s more of a deep, concentrated, dark chocolate mousse, although if you’re used to chocolate mousse that has whipped cream folded in, it’s different from that as well.
  • Tapioca Pudding: If you’re on the lookout for a creamy, delicious, vanilla-spiked tapioca pudding recipe, this is it. Inspired by the tapioca enthusiasts in my family.

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Chocolate Bundt Cake

Slathered with chocolate buttermilk icing, this beautifully moist chocolate bundt cake is made with a blend of whole wheat and all-purpose flours, stout beer, maple syrup and brown sugar. It’s the perfect travel-friendly treat.

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Slices of this chocolate bundt cake spent the better part of the past week in the car with me. Each piece, wrapped in parchment, was tucked between the Ak-Mak crackers and a jar of almond butter. It is a fine travel cake, one that can handle a day or two in the car- blizzards, bumps in the road, hairpin turns, and all. Topped with a generous sweep of chocolate buttermilk icing, it’s unfussy, and ready to frost straight from the pan.

a close up photo of a slice of chocolate bundt cake with thick chocolate frosting on the top

Chocolate Bundt Cake: Key Ingredients

Flours: I make this bundt cake with an equal blend of whole wheat and all-purpose flours. Whole wheat flour brings a bit of heartiness and added structure (and flavor!) to the cake.

Sugars: This cake gets tempered sweetness and a moist, tender texture from maple syrup and dark brown sugar.

Stout: I use dark stout beer in the batter. It’s the wildcard ingredient that lends a malty base note and depth of flavor. Go for a not-too-hoppy porter or stout. Beyond that, chocolate porter or chocolate stout would both be good choices. I know many of you can get your hands on a Guinness, which is totally fine as well.

Yogurt and Melted Butter: The core liquids in this bundt cake batter help deliver a rich, flavorful cake that is effortlessly sliceable and a bit less decadent than typical versions (without sacrificing deliciousness!).

a chocolate bundt cake sitting on top of a table ready to be served

What If I don’t have a Bundt Pan?

For those of you who don’t have a bundt pan, no problem! You can bake this cake batter in a wide range of pans. It makes great little cakes, and loaf cakes, and cupcakes. You know the drill, adjust the baking time, and bake until the sides of the cake start to pull away from the pan a bit, and a tester/knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

a slice of chocolate bundt cake neatly wrapped in parchment paper and tied with a piece of string
This cake travels beautifully wrapped in parchment paper or waxed paper bag. A stretch of common string secures the wrapper in place.
a large slice of chocolate bundt cake being held on a piece of parchment paper

Chocolate Bundt Cake: Variations

Coffee Version: A number of people over the years have asked about making a version without beer. You can use I cup of strong coffee in place of the 1 cup of reduced beer.

Chocolate Bundt with Olive Oil: Laura mentions, “ made this cake tonight with 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, which I mixed in with the yogurt egg mixture, instead of butter and it turned out delightful. Next time I might add thick pieces of dark chocolate into the batter, too.”
a close up photo of a slice of chocolate bundt cake with thick chocolate frosting on the top and a cake server

I hope you enjoy this cake as much as we have! It was just the thing to unwrap on a picnic table underneath a grove of sky-scraping redwood trees.
a road leading to a picnic spot in Oregon

More Cake Recipes

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Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mesquite flour adds a wonderful accent to these oat and walnut studded chocolate chip cookies. If you’ve never baked with it, this is your encouragement

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If you’re looking for a unique and special chocolate chip cookie, this is the recipe. I developed a version of these for my book Super Natural Cooking circa 2007 and they’ve had a special place in my heart (and kitchen!) in the years since. If I were going to enter a cookie contest, these might very well be my entry. The flavor is that good. To make them requires tracking down one specialty ingredient, mesquite flour. I promise it is worth the extra effort. Mesquite flour is a wonderful, fragrant flour made from the ground-up pods of the mesquite tree. It has a slightly sweet and chocolaty flavor, with a touch of malt and smokiness. You can use it all sorts of things, far beyond these cookies, including pancake mixes, waffle mixes, oatmeal, and sweet quick breads.
Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet

Ingredient Spotlight: Mesquite Flour

Chances are you’re new to mesquite flour, so here’s a bit about where it comes from. First thing, mesquite trees are very generous and play an important role in the lives of many native cultures in the Americas. They grow in a wide area ranging from the Southwestern United States all the way through Central and South America – the Sonoran desert, Chihuahuan Desert, Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico. If you’ve driven through the Southwest, you’ve seen a lot of mesquite. And, as you can see from this list, mesquite are drought-tolerant and thrive in hot and arid climates. They are also remarkably resilient plants that give back in many ways and contribute life-sustaining properties to the communities they are a part of. Mesquite also nitrogen fixes, so it gives back to the land in that way as well.

Different parts of the plant are used for different purposes. Mesquite wood has long been used as fuel or shelter. Beyond that, flour ground from mesquite pods are an important food source, celebrated for being nutrient-rich profile, contributing fiber, protein and complex carbohydrates to traditional diets. The plant has medicinal uses as well as ceremonial. So, mesquite flour, a wonderfully delicious ingredient plays a rich and important role in many cultures.
Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet

Where to Buy Mesquite Flour

Sourcing mesquite flour will take a bit of effort. Look for products that are sustainably harvested preferably using traditional methods. You want 100% mesquite flour with no other added ingredients or flavoring. If you roadtrip through the Southwest, keep an eye out at local markets and farmers’ markets for bags of mesquite flour. This is where you’re likely to find locally produced products.  Unfortunately, the ones I’ve picked up in the past that way don’t have active websites. This Peruvian mesquite flours mentioned below have been reliably good, and are easy to get. Please let me know in the comments if you are using local mesquite flour and can point me to a site to order.

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet

What if I don’t have Mesquite Flour?

If you don’t have mesquite flour, substitute 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour OR all-purpose flour in its place; your chocolate chip cookies will still turn out chocolate chewy and fantastic.

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet

How To Freeze Cookies:

Scoop cookie dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Freeze for an hour or so and then transfer the frozen dough balls to a container or freezer bag. The will keep, frozen, for a month or two. Bake at the regular the temperature, adding a couple minutes to the overall baking time. You can see them arranged to be frozen in the photo above.

Below you can see the cookies ready to go into the oven. I use a 2 tablespoon ice cream scoop to get uniform cookies. This recipe makes a lot of cookie dough. The motto here is bake some, freeze some. 
Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet

Pro-tip

Avoid over-baking these cookies. The dough is darker that cookies made exclusively with unbleached all-purpose flour. Because of this, it can be a bit trickier to tell when they’re fully baked. Look at the edges of the cookies, where the dough touches the pan. You want that to be nice and golden.

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet
Lastly, lets talk about add-ins. These cookies are loaded with chocolate chunks and boosted with walnut pieces. I feel like the chocolate is key here, and I love the chocolate walnut combination. But I encourage you to experiment with other combinations. A bit of espresso powder might be nice. Or maybe some sort of toasted coconut version.
Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies on a Baking Sheet

Related Recipes

Here’s where you can find all the cookie recipes. I love chocolate chip cookies and you can find a number of different takes on them including David Lebovitz’s Great Chocolate Chip Cookies, Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip Cookies, Whole Wheat Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (best ice cream sandwich cookies), Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies, this Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie, and these Healthful Double Chocolate Cookies.

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