The Jacques Pepin Chocolate Chunk Cookies recipe is an old one I found years ago on the back of a bag of Scharffen Berger chunks. Unfortunately I haven't seen the chunks in grocery stores as of late, but I'm sure there are ways to get them. In any case, you can make the recipe with your favorite chopped chocolate or even chips
Old Post With Recipe From Bag
Today’s cookie is from the back of a bag of the new Scharffen Berger Baking Chunks, a product my grocery store started selling a few weeks ago. I hope they keep them on the shelves because I’m becoming addicted.
The baking chunks come in semi-sweet and bittersweet. I’ve been buying the semi-sweet, which includes this recipe from the great chef Jacques Pépin.
These cookies are very simple to make and the chocolate dough makes a great backdrop for the excellent chocolate chunks. I made the dough in a food processor as directed, but I don’t see why you couldn’t make it in a regular mixing bowl – just cream the butter & sugar first.
Recipe below.
Note: Due to my misunderstanding of the recipe, I didn’t roll the log of dough in a tablespoon of sugar…..I just mixed all the sugar in. Nothing bad happened.
Jacques Pépin Chocolate Chunk Cookies
4 oz unsalted butter, I used European style
2 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
1 cup all purpose flour (127 grams)
¼ teaspoon sea salt (I actually used scant ½)
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (10 grams)
½ cup baking chunks (I used more)
Set aside chunks and 1 tablespoon of sugar**(see rant). Mix remaining ingredients in food processor for 30 seconds or until smooth. Transfer dough to a sheet of plastic wrap and roll (or shape) it into a 10 inch log about 1 inch thick (my log was scraggly, but looked better after it chilled). Chill 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put rack in center. Unwrap cold log and sprinkle evenly with remaining tablespoon of sugar. Cut log into 20 cookies each about ½ inch thick. Spread chunks on board and press each cookie into them (I pressed chunks into the cookie, but I like to do things backwards). Line a cookie sheet with parchment and arrange cookies 1 inch apart chunks facing up. Bake 14-15 minutes. Cool on rack.
**(rant) I wish the recipe said to set aside 1 tablespoon of *the* sugar so people would know the 1 tablespoon of sugar was coming from the ½ cup. But the recipe just says to set aside chunks and 1 tablespoon of sugar. So I’m assuming they meant out of the ½ cup, as there’s no listing in the ingredient list for an extra tablespoon of sugar. I also wish they’d listed the ½ cup chunks at the top since the directions say to set them aside.
RogueCook says
I just made these tonight and they look beautiful but they taste so salty! I am pretty sure this is my fault and think that somehow there must be salt in my sugar. I will try them again with brand new sugar. The chunks are a divine, rich chocolate.
Anna says
I just read all the comments and love them! Can't answer every single one right now, though. I do want to add something real fast for people wondering what the Carla Rollins cookie is. It's a recipe from Gourmet Magazine called "Chocolate Chip Cookies" and it's one of my favorites. I would be fabulous with these chunks.
Here's the redux. This is a half batch version.
Carla Rollins/Gourmet Chocolate Chunk Cookies
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I round up to 7 oz by weight)
3/4 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoons salt
4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled completely
3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs (watch directions!)
3/4 teaspoons vanilla
8 oz (or as much as you want) excellent quality baking chocolate – 58 to 70% cacao, chopped into chunks (such as above).
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
Beat together butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed for 2-3 minutes. The mixture will become pale and a bit lighter.
Beat 1 egg with a fork in a small bowl and add a little less than 1 tablespoon of it plus the 1 remaining whole egg to butter mixture, beating with mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla. By hand, stir in flour mixture until just blended, then stir in chunks.
At this point, chill the dough for many hours. I recommend chilling overnight.
Scoop about 1/4 cup batter for each cookie, arranging mounds 3 inches apart, on 2 baking sheets. Flatten mounds into 3-inch rounds using moistened palm of your hand. Form remaining cookies on additional sheets of parchment. (I don’t always flatten the mounds).
Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until golden, 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to cool and continue making cookies in same manner using cooled baking sheets.
Note: I take the cookies out when the cookies are brown around the edges and look underdone in the center. They will cook internally as they cool. If you find the edges are cooking way too fast, try baking the cookies at 350 degrees instead.
Makes about 14 large (4 1/2-inch) cookies.
These are big, kind of flat (but not ugly) and have chewy centers with crisp edges. They taste like bake shop cookies.
Anna says
Wow! Thanks for posting, Alison! Everyone who wants to see Alison's Jacques Pepin photo, click on her name ;).
Anna says
Hooray Terri! If the Krappy Kroger carries them, then I suppose all the Klassy Krogers will too.
Terri_A says
Anna- Thanks for posting these! I just picked up a bag of these chocolate chunks at my Krappy Kroger two days ago and was looking for a recipe worthy of Sharffen Berger pieces! Silly me didn't even think to read the package!!!
Alison says
Anna - I was lucky enough to see Jacques Pepin having lunch at a Mexican cantina while I was visiting San Francisco last month. He was so nice when I asked him for a photo op. I posted the pic of the two of us on my "San Francisco Treat" blogpost. I'll have to give this recipe a try...they look great!
Chou says
I love the chunks--they just look so elegant.
Jennifer says
Don't you just hate recipe mistakes and/or unclear directions? One time my husband made chocolate chip cookies and they came out oddly flat. I wondered what went wrong and asked him about the recipe, which was on the back of a bag of chocolate chips (aldi's brand, I think), and it had you literally put all the ingredients in the bowl and once, then mix!
Natalie says
Those look great! I say, the chunkier the better.
Stephanie says
Yum, yum, and YUM! 🙂
Veronica says
I'm going to look for those baking chunks-I'll bet they make great cookies-yours look so rich!
Lisa magicsprinkles says
Thanks for the tip - I'll be searching the aisles for these babies.
Michelle says
Oh MUST TRY! 🙂
Michelle
Sue says
Those look decadent!
Scharfen Berger baking chunks won't show up here anytime soon either. Joe, from Culinary in the Desert lives in a more urban area of MN than I do. Maybe he'll spot them and mention them on his blog when he does.
I've been wanting to make the Carla Rollins CCC's again http://www.cookiemadness.net/?cat=241 with different chocolate. This chocolate would probably be perfect.
Rina says
Anna, the next time you are in San Francisco, I'll take you to the Sharffen Berger Factory Tour in Berkeley. They let you taste chocolate and always have a piping hot pot of hot chocolate handy. I might make a trip there to score these baking chunks, thanks for the info!
clumbsycookie says
Those are huge chunks!
Katrina says
Wow, Sharffen Berger chunks. Haven't seen those. Gonna have to start looking.
Jessica says
Those look fantastic...hope to see some of those chocolate chunks in my supermarkers soon (well, maybe the gourmet shop - it'll be years before those make it to supermarkets in CT).
Lisa Ernst says
Yum! The cookies and the new baking chunks.
VeggieGirl says
LOVELY!! Thanks for the note about the sugar, too.
LisAway says
These sound a tiny bit like World Peace Cookies. They look delicious, too.