During a recent trip to Chicago, my daughter and I walked all the way to a little shop called Cloud Cookies only to find it closed. So we didn't get any Cloud Cookies, but I had clouds and cookies on the brain when I ran across an Instagram post of Jennifer Garner making chocolate chip cookies by the same name. Or sort of. They were (are!) Sarabeth's Chocolate Clouds.
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The recipe is not a new one. It's from Sarabeth's Bakery: From My Hand to Yours, a book that came out back in 2010 and is very well-loved by many of my baker friends. If you don't own a copy or are looking for book gifts, put it on the list! My Sarabeth's favorite are the Chocolate Chubbies and Sarabeth's Pumpkin Muffins. But back to the Cloud Cookies.
So Why Are They Called Cloud Cookies
Well, the real name is Chocolate Clouds. It might bake you think of a light, puffy chocolate cookie (like a Chocolate Brownie Meringues), but these are chewy, chocolate chip cookies. I guess the cloud name comes from the fact the the recipe involves a lot of whipping. You whip the butter for a minute, then both the butter and sugar for another 5. The cookies puff up in the oven and deflate, leaving lots of ridges and little puffs. Using superfine sugar, which traps more air then regular sugar, helps the process as do all the nuts, which create more air pockets.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
The picture above is what my dough looked like. It was soft and easily scoopable. Even though it was light, the cookies baked up quite dark maybe due to more caramelization from all the dissolved sugar. Overall, these are super good cookies for people who like rich, chewy, cookies. To make them even better, throw in some chunks of chocolate toffee. With toffee, the cookies will spread a little more with the toffee, but you can push them in with a spatula. And don't skip any of the mixing steps or substitute ingredients. The dough needs all that air to do its magic.
Recipe
Chocolate Cloud Cookies aka Chocolate Clouds
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cup superfine sugar (235 grams)
- 1 ⅓ cup packed light brown sugar (260 grams)
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into cubes (room temperature) (I actually used salted) (230 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature and beaten
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (240 grams)
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt or up to ½ teaspoon
- 2 cups toasted sliced almonds, don't leave any out
- 2 cups chocolate chips (Ghirardelli Bittersweet)
Instructions
- Preheat to 350°F. Line three half-sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Rub sugar and brown sugar together through a coarse wire-mesh sieve into a medium bowl; set aside. Note: I did this and it didn't do much since my brown sugar was already soft and lump-free.
- Beat butter on high speed for 1 minute in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Gradually add sugar, then vanilla. Beat for another 5 minutes, scraping bowl often, until mixture is lightens in color. Gradually beat in the eggs.
- Sift flour, baking soda & salt together into a medium bowl. With mixer on low, add dry ingredients mixing just until each addition is incorporated. Add almonds and chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
- Portion the batter with a 2-inch diameter cookie scoop spacing 3 inches apart. Flatten tops just slightly for even baking. These spread quite a bit. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes one sheet at a time or you can bake two sheets at at time using the bottom and middle racks and switching racks halfway through. Also, rotate the pan (or pans) halfway through. t The cookies will deflate and their signature cracks will appear on the tops.
- Let the cookies cool for about 5 minutes directly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.
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