Thick Chocolate Walnut Cookies

Aldea coffee is one of my favorite coffee shops in the area. Their first shop is in Grand Haven and I must stop there pretty much every time I’m in the area. They recently opened a second location in Muskegon that I’ve been wanting to visit. Since Muskegon is not right down the road it wasn’t some place I thought I’d get to soon. Thankfully this weekend I decided to go hiking at Hoffmaster State Park which is only about 10 minutes from the new coffee shop so I had to stop and visit!

One of my favorite things about Aldea is the cookies they sell. They’re from Laughing Tree Brick Oven Bakery, and they are sooooooooooooo good. I often get their “Hippe Cookie” which is vegan I think, and full of peanut butter and chocolate. Thick and dense. I’ve tried to recreate it, even writing the bakery to see if they would share the recipe (they won’t sadly), but I have not been successful thus far. At this most recent visit to Aldea I got their walnut chocolate chunk cookie and it was also one of the best things ever. So thick and dense and chewy and hearty. When I got home I decided I wanted to make something along the same theme, it had hit the spot so well.

I looked at a few recipes and decided to try this one for a “Fluffy” chocolate chip cookie. It looked thick, dense and large just like I was hoping.

So how was it? A great cookie! I put a lot of finely chopped walnuts into the cookie to add nubbly goodness and big chunks of chocolate because that is required, and this would help recreate the Aldea cookie. I think one of the biggest keys to recreating a “bakery style” cookie is to make them big enough. Not just a little big, bu really big, bigger than you might think. This recipe makes 6 huge cookies. Each cookie was 105-110 grams of dough (almost 4 ounces!). They spread a little with baking, but still stayed nice and thick. It’s also key to not over-bake make sure the center is still nice and gooey. I ended up baking around 19-20 minutes total and think I probably should have pulled them a minute or two sooner. They were still great, but I think they could have been even a little bit better!

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Thick Chocolate Walnut Cookies
From Show Me The Yummy
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups (188 grams) all purpose flour I used 50 grams of whole wheat flour
1 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2-1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 large egg
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter cold and cut into cubes, 1 stick
3/8 cup (83 grams) brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup dark chocolate chunks
1/2 cup chopped pecans toasted* I used walnuts and chopped them very fine so there weren’t big chunks, but little nubs spread throughout the cookies

Directions
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Set aside.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a large bowl: flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and ground cinnamon. Set aside.

In a small bowl whisk together eggs, vanilla, and almond extract. Set aside.

In your stand mixer, cream cold butter until fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add in brown sugar and granulated sugar. Beat for an additional 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of your bowl. Pour in egg mixture and mix until just combined. Add flour mixture 1/3 at a time until well combined, scraping down the sides as needed. Stir in both chocolate chips and pecans.

Using about 1/3 cup, scoop out dough and form 6 cookie balls. Place 6 on baking sheet Place in fridge and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and bake for 17-21 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.