Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

If you know me at all in real life, I am a sucker for secrets. It makes my eyes sparkle. R noted this trait a while ago when we were talking about my taste in movies (Spirited Away, The Secret World of Arrietty, Bridge to Terabithia), and how I adored movies that bring the audience from the ordinary into another world. It was no wonder then, I was drawn towards this recipe - the chocolate chip cookies with two secrets.  

Secret number one: the cheeky inclusion of mesquite flour (otherwise known as mesquite powder) with all-purpose flour. Like David Lebovitz has found out the hard way, it can be tedious trying to locate the elusive mesquite flour. After a full day at Alfred Hospital, I finally lucked out at The Source Bulk Foods across Prahran Market, which must have the broadest selection of grains and nuts collected under one roof. (It also seems to attract an eclectic mix of clientele, like people who avoid meat, gluten, corn syrup or cane sugar in the name of being healthy, but coincidentally seems to smoke a great deal of dodgy flora.) Mesquite flour has the most intoxicatingly nutty scent, and its presence imbibes every cookie with a rich, caramelised, almost cinnamon-like fragrance. At $48/kg, a small cup (160g) for this recipe costs $7.85 and the price certainly gave me pause. But after I mustered up the willpower to purchase the flour, I couldn't stop sniffing it. And indeed, I kept offering it up to everybody I meet for a whiff too, just to prove I'm not crazy for sniffing a paper bag every few minutes. (At least I'm not smoking it!)

Secret number two, and this one from Mr Lebovitz: as you pull the cookies fresh from the oven, gently tap the tops of the cookies, once, with a spatula to flatten the cookies, so the tops don't firm up as they cool down. This creates the softest, chewiest cookies that you'll ever taste. 

Locating the mesquite flour and having to pick up a bag of rolled oats (another ingredient that I don't usually keep on hand) makes this recipe seems daunting, but once I rolled up my sleeves and get right on to it, the actual recipe is a breeze to make on a moment's notice. 
The recipe calls for room temperature butter and eggs, and on short notice, you can nuke butter straight out of the fridge in a microwave on high for 20 seconds to get butter to room temperature. To get refrigerated eggs to room temperature, we soaked the eggs in warm-hot water for about 5 minutes.

*Pictures taken by R

Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes about 3 dozen cookies
Adapted from David Lebovitz's website, original recipe by Super Natural Cooking (Ten Speed) by Heidi Swanson

Ingredients 
330g (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
160g (1 cup) mesquite flour
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
220g (8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
400g (2 cups) light brown sugar (See Note)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
230g (2 cups) rolled oats or a mixture of rolled grains
360g (2 cups) chocolate chips or coarsely chopped chocolate

Steps
1. In a bowl, whisk the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. Set aside.

2. With an electric mixer, beat the butter until it loses their shape, and add sugar and continue to beat until combined and creamy-looking. (Tip! Choose a really big bowl to beat the butter in, as this recipe makes a lot of cookie dough. You'll end up mixing everything in this bowl, and you need a big space to properly mix in the oats and chocolate.)

3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating the mixture after every addition, until the eggs are completely incorporated. Add in the vanilla and mix well.

4. Pour the flour mixture in three batches, mixing after each addition, until it forms a cohesive homogenous mixture. You may find it easier to switch to a spatula instead of an electric beater at this point.

5. Add the oats and chocolate chips. Mix well using either a spatula, or your hands. 

6. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 190C (375F). Prepare two baking sheets lined with baking paper (alternatively, use parchment paper or silicone baking mats). Each cookie should be about two tablespoons of dough, and spaced evenly.

7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies just start to set. As with all soft cookies and brownies, underbaking is preferable to overbaking. Let cool completely. 


Notes and Substitutes: 
Light Brown Sugar
David Lebovitz suggests using light brown sugar crystals for a softer, chewier texture instead of natural cane sugar (unrefined sugar crystals) as per the original recipe. There is a bit of a leeway for the sugar, and he mentioned that even granulated white sugar is suitable. 

Mesquite flour:
Buckwheat flour can be used in place of mesquite flour, which David has tried with success. 

Chocolate Chips:
Instead of using regular chocolate chips, chop up a dark chocolate bar to get gooey puddles of melted chocolate in each cookie after baking.

This makes a lot of cookie dough, so feel free to freeze half of the dough in a zip-top bag for use another time. Tip: If you form them into mounds first, then freeze them, you can simply pop them onto a baking sheet later on.