Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies
Source of Recipe
101 cookbooks
Recipe Introduction
Thick, chewy homemade cookies packed with oats, oozy dark chocolate chips, and the sweet, nutty, spicy flavor of mesquite flour. I may never make chocolate chip cookies any other way.
That being said, if you decide to make my mesquite cookies it is going to take some work on your part. Tracking down mesquite flour or mesquite meal (as it is sometimes called) can be a challenge. But. So. Worth. It. Mesquite flour also isn't cheap - $11/pound where I buy it. Fortunately, a little goes a long way.
I began playing around with mesquite flour a couple weeks ago after they began carrying it in bulk at my local natural foods market. It is absolutely delicious, with a scent that is both warm and comforting but with much less edge than a cinnamon or even canela. When heated it permeates the kitchen with a mellow sweet fragrance that is unlike anything else. Need another reason to search it out? Many people also consider it a superfood - rich in magnesium, protein, potassium, and fiber. Low GI-index, high lysine. For thousands of years native Americans in arid regions relied on mesquite meal as a food staple, and while most of you are familiar with mesquite being used for added flavor on the grill - the flour comes not from the wood, but from the mesquite pods which are ground into a powder or meal. Mesquite grows in arid desert climates and you can find the trees and pods all over the southwest, Texas, and parts of California. Some people (many ranchers) consider it a weed. It grows without any assistance from fertilizers or irrigation, and generally thrives in environments that are hostile to many crops, or areas that require massive irrigation to grow traditional crops.
How to use it: Mesquite can be used as a flour or a seasoning. I've primarily been using it as a flour (so far). As a flour you want to use mesquite in combination with other flours. I've had success replacing up to 25% of my over-all flour (in a recipe) with mesquite. Mesquite flour is glutten-free and to date I've only been using it in conjunction with gluten-based flours like regular whole wheat flour, or whole wheat pastry flour. I look forward to using it in all sorts of baked goods - tart crusts, muffins, quick breads, pancakes, crepes, and on and on. Also in drinks, puddings, custards, maybe a late fall or wintery creme brulee?
Today's cookies are all-natural - the flours and sugars are all very minimally processed. No white flour, no white sugar.
The mesquite flour I've been using is produced by Essential Living Foods. It is very fine, dark tan in color, and very fragrant. I don't sift it, but break up any little mesquite clots I find as I add it to my mixing bowl. There are other brands and producers out there, but for this recipe, just make sure you have a mesquite flour/meal that is powdery, finely ground, sweet fresh, and fragrant.
Also, I discovered an amazing unrefined granulated sweetener that I used for these. It is the Alter Eco brand organic ground cane sugar. It is very moist, finely ground, rich and retains all the natural minerals and nutrients that are stripped out in the process of making refined white and brown sugars. It blows almost every other granulated sugar I've used recently out of the water. Try to track it down. If you can't find this brand, look for another moist, brown-sugar-looking unrefined sweetener or opt for organic brown sugar. You won't get the same results with straight white sugar.
List of Ingredients
1 cup organic unsalted butter, room temperature (soft to the touch)
2 cups Alter Eco Organic Ground Cane Sugar (see recipe header for substitution ideas)
3 large eggs
3 teaspoons high-quality vanilla extract
1 teaspoon alum-free baking soda
1 teaspoon alum-free baking powder
3/4 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup mesquite flour
2 cups organic chocolate chips
2 cups organic rolled oats
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a medium bowl whisk together the dry ingredients; baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, pastry flour, and mesquite flour. Set aside.
In a big bowl or with an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar until it lightens in color and has a fluffy, billowy consistency. Mix in the eggs one at a time, making sure each egg gets incorporated before adding the next. Add the vanilla and mix until it is incorporated.
Now you are going to add the flour mixture - the one you set aside earlier. Add the flour in about four waves, stirring a bit between additions until the flour is just incorporated. You could add all the flour at once, but it tends to explode up and out of the mixing bowl and all over me every time I do that. At this point you should have a moist, brown dough, uniform in color. Stir in the oats and chocolate chips by hand. Mix only until the oats and chips are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Drop cookies onto cookie sheets. I like to make these cookies on the large size - and use about 2 tablespoons of dough for each one (an ice cream scoop comes in handy here if you want to get them all uniform in size). I think the dough to do onto the pans a little rough and raggy - I never roll the dough into balls or anything like that. I like the shapes of my cookies to have some personality. Bake at 375F for 10 minutes on the middle or upper rack. You don't want to over bake these cookies at all or they will really dry out. If anything underbake them just a bit - look for them to start to get golden on the bottoms and tops and them pull them out to cool.
Tip: If you don't want to bake off the cookies all at once - still drop any cookies you aren't going to immediately bake onto a plate or cookie sheet. Cover with plastic wrap, and place in the freezer for an hour or so. You can then throw these pre-made cookie dough balls into a freezer-quality plastic bag and they won't smush into each other. You can then just pop them in the oven at your leisure over the next couple weeks and have hot-out-of-the-oven treats.
Big Batch: 2-3 dozen med/large cookies.
Recipe
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