Every week my small group meets at Panera. We meet at 7, so sometimes I’ve eaten dinner. Sometimes I purposefully don’t (so I can order the mac’n’cheese…duh). And sometimes I just have to get dessert.
For weeks now I’ve been craving their Chocolate Duet cookie. (And by craving, I mean purchasing.) It’s just love in chocolate cookie form, so yeah… the perfect accompaniment to ladies chatting about God and love and life. :)
So when Mom asked me to make some cookies to take on a little overnight trip to the ocean this week (guess she ran out of her ‘favorites’ cookies), I decided to try my hand at making something similar to these cookies I’ve fallen in love with.
And no, I’ll admit… they aren’t exactly like my Panera fave… but they are so dang close, and so dang delicious I was able to easily resist purchasing one last night because I knew I had these sitting at home!
The major difference is that I used cashews instead of walnuts. Because I love cashews, because I already had some on hand, and because I’m pretty sure walnuts and Mom don’t get along and I was planning on sharing these.
My favorite part? The crispness (<– yup, totally a word, I checked). Not crunchy, but crisp and light… yet still feels indulgent. Well, yeah you say –> ’cause it’s chocolate.
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
- 2 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
- 2 ounces Ghirardelli Intense Dark Cabernet Matinee Chocolate, chopped
- 5 tbsp butter
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups assortment of: dark, semi-sweet and white chocolate chips
- 1 cup chopped cashews
- Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare cookie sheet: grease, nonstick foil or silpat.
- In a medium saucepan melt semi sweet chocolate chips, chopped dark and Intense dark chocolate, and butter. Once melted, remove from heat and add eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and vanilla. Stir until well combined, making sure to scrape sides of saucepan. Stir in the mixture of chips and cashews.
- Drop dough by rounded tablespoon onto prepared cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cookie starts to look dull and slightly crackled. IMPORTANT: cool on pan or silpat for 2-5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to finish cooling.
- Enjoy!
- Can substitute all dark chocolate for that specific Ghiradelli Intense Dark chocolate.
I think one of the reasons I’m so in love with these, is that super subtle hint of blackberry from that Intense Dark Cabernet Ghriadelli chocolate. I would HIGHLY recommend getting some for this recipe! Although, *sigh*, I’m sure these would be good with some more plain ol’ dark chocolate too. ;)
Also. If it’s 90 degrees outside, and you don’t have air conditioning, and you don’t want to turn on your oven, and you have a pellet grill… you can totally make these on your grill! I realize that is a lot of conditions there, but that’s actually how I baked these cookies… outside, on the grill! :) (please note I said pellet grill/smoker type not a gas grill… no direct heat on a pellet grill, works a lot like the oven…)
Sam
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