Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I just arrived home in the District, fresh from a four-day seafood, BBQ, Fat Tire, and sunshine bender in Savannah, where Joey (time to give him some photo love) and I celebrated a birthday, food-laden and Southern style.  This means truffled macaroni and cheese, shrimp and grits, red rice, oodles of okra, tuna steak sandwiches, sweet tea galore, mashed sweet potatoes, wonderful coffee, and pretty wonderful people too.  A park every other block and ornateness that transfixes for hours, well when we weren't stuffing ourselves, swimming, bicycling, or (let's be honest) drinking, we were usually just walking around staring at the people and the houses. I think we both started to feel at home our last day there, which was an encouraging shame since we loved it (so quickly!) but had to leave (so soon!), and also a testament to how easily the city's charm and grit can really hook you.

Well and so then there are these cookies.  They have nothing to do with Savannah except that I made them right before we left and haven't stopped thinking about them either, so I guess they share bewitchment over the mind of a capricious 24-year-old.  I might even like these better than the all-famous Leite/New York Times recipe. The whole-wheat flour adds the best nutty flavor, and these are so shamefully buttery and perfectly salty--the texture is outstanding. I also cannot profess my love enough for the book from whence this recipe came, which has expanded my list of obsessions by eight new flours. Those plus a few cities in the South, and I'd say I have my daydreams all sorted out.

Whole-Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Kim Boyce's Good to the Grain: Baking with Whole-Grain Flours

I halved the recipe and also halved the size of my cookies (from three tablespoons of dough to 1 1/2 tablespoons).  As you can see, they're plenty big that way.  I've included Kim's original amounts below, but a halved batch with smaller cookies yielded exactly 30.

3 cups whole-wheat flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons salt (I used sea salt)

2 sticks unsalted butter, cold, cut into half-inch pieces

1 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1 cup granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

8 ounces high-quality bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped into quarter- and half-inch pieces

1.  Position racks in lower and upper thirds of oven.  Preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2.  Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl.  Add any leftover grains that remain from the sifting.

3.  Combine the butter and sugars in a large bowl, beating on low speed with an electric mixer for two minutes, or until just blended.  Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition, then add the vanilla.  Then, add the flour mixture until barely combined.  Scrape sides and bottom of bowl using a rubber spatula.  Add the chocolate using the rubber spatula, and make sure it's evenly distributed.  Make sure all of the flour mixture is incorporated by using your hands to blend in any visible dry ingredients (Boyce asks you to do this on a lightly floured surface, but I found it worked great to just do this in the bowl).

4.  Scoop three-tablespoon mounds of dough (I did 1 1/2-tablespoon mounds) onto your prepared baking sheets, spacing them three inches apart.  Bake for eight to ten minutes, then rotate sheets from top to bottom and front to back, and bake for an additional eight to ten minutes, until evenly browned (I baked my cookies for 13 minutes total, since they were smaller).  Remove to wire racks and let cool.  Mine kept for three days, covered.