Baking Bouchon: Recipe 26: A Tale of Two Cookies

One of these things is not like the other.

Can you spot the difference in the ingredients?  It's like Where's Waldo or I Spy?  There's just one difference... cocoa powder.  The recipes for The Bouchon Bakery Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies and Double Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies were so similar that I decided to make them at the same time.

Both of these cookies not only use chocolate chips, but chocolate chunks as well.  It was supposed to be fancy 70% chocolate, but I went with good old Baker's Semi-Sweet chocolate squares and I have no regrets.  Especially because it meant I only had to go to one grocery store and I LOVE that!

In all honestly, I couldn't tell there were chunks in there anyway so you could probably go all chips or all chunks and the cookies would be just as good.

I was super organized again when I made these cookies so, of course, I had to take a photo to brag.

One of the interesting ingredients in these cookies is molasses, not much, just under two teaspoons.  I'm not used to seeing molasses in cookies that aren't gingersnaps.  The molasses goes in with the sugar and brown sugar and I think it added a nice little flavor dimension in these cookies so I'm a fan.

The only difference in these two batters is that for the Double Chocolate one you decrease the flour a little bit and add just over a half cup of cocoa powder.  However, just this small change made a difference in the texture and puffiness of the finished cookie.

The single chocolate cookies baked up a little bit flatter and crispier and the double chocolate were slightly puffier and chewier.  I definitely prefer the double chocolate (I'm pretty sold on the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips) but both are very solid cookies with just a subtle added layer of flavor from the molasses - not enough that you'd ever know or guess there was molasses in there - just a little extra depth.

Making all these cookies at once probably wasn't a great idea for my health so I had to remove them from the house as quickly as possible.  My coworkers are going to hate me soon.

Julie