Spelt Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt
Why should you bake with spelt flour? One good reason is you bought pounds and pounds of it at the start of the Covid lockdown and need to use it up before the pantry moths have their way with it.
The other reason is because although it is in the wheat family, it forms a more delicate gluten structure. In other words, you can make your chocolate chip cookies that are chewy and crumbly—almost melt-in-your-mouth. Spelt adds a little something flavor-wise as well. Is it a nuttiness? Some necessary texture? A more savory quality? A caramel note? A cookie that eats like a meal?
You’ll have to decide. If you’re like me, you will do a lot of testing to figure it out. Cookie after cookie, to be exact.
This may be my new favorite recipe.
Note: If you don’t have spelt flour, I wish I could give you some of mine… But in the meantime, whole wheat flour is a good substitute. I order mine from Eden Organics.
I used two kinds of chocolate in my cookie because I am a decadent sort. I chopped up half of a Tony’s Chocoloney Milk Chocolate and Hazelnut bar. Unpaid advertisement: Their fair-trade chocolate is my new favorite. You can order it by mail if you’re so inclined.
Spelt Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Sea Salt
Ingredients:
1 cup (4 ounces) spelt flour
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp Maldon sea salt (or other flaky sea salt)
1 cup (8 ounces) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup packed (5.25 ounces) light brown sugar
1/2 cup (3.5. ounces) white sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
! cup (3 to 4 ounces) chopped funky chocolate bar of choice (i used Tony Chocolonely’s milk chocolate hazelnut bar), chunked into pieces
1 1/4 cup (6 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Guittard)
How to:
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda.
In a large bowl, and by hand/hand mixer/stand mixer, beat the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl once or twice.
Add the eggs and beat until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla and mix.
Add the flour and mix until blended. Fold in the chocolate chips and chopped chocolate bar.
At this point I usually bake some of the cookies because I’m impatient and need cookies right away. The majority of the dough I refrigerate for at least one hour, although a nice rest overnight in the fridge turns out the best cookies. Bake the cookies at 375 degrees F for 8 to 11 minutes until turning golden brown and set in the middle (ie, no longer shiny and wet looking.) Transfer to cooling rack.
