This is a recipe coup like I haven’t celebrated in years. The last two really whoop-worthy were a particular restaurant chocolate soufflé cake that my Dear Husband adored around 1998, and my ikebana-sensei’s daughter-in-law Nori-chan’s goma dare (now that’s a mouthful) around 1989 in Osaka. Every once in a while I really can’t figure out how to recreate something at home. I get twitchy about it and can’t let it go, have to putter in the kitchen with a proverbial bee in my bonnet until it’s as good as the real McCoy. These bittersweet chocolate cookies, which are our current obsession at Rustica bakery in Minneapolis, took some guesswork and tinkering, but here they are, ready for their glass case moment (and, dare I say, even better than the originals—especially when you get to eat one straight from the oven).
These coal black cookies are seriously good. They defy description, really. They’re definitely a cookie, but they’re somehow more than a cookie. They’re intensely dark with black cocoa, and layered with large discs of Belgian dark chocolate. They’re also soft and moist in a distinctly non-cookie way, almost cookie meets flourless chocolate cake.
One Sunday morning when my Honey Girl was in Kindergarten, we were at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Tokyo at a post-service coffee. Up she marched to a woman we didn’t know but whom she had decided was rather out of sorts to reveal that if she needed some emergency chocolate, her mother always had some in her purse. If you love chocolate like I do, drop everything and bake a batch of these cookies. (Maybe even keep one or two in your purse.)
Bittersweet Chocolate Cookie Tips
Black cocoa is ultra Dutched, or alkalized. It is used to make Oreo cookies. It is available here.
Measure the cocoa powder by packing it into a cup measure and leveling it.
Measure the all purpose flour by running a whisk or fork through the flour, scooping it gently into a cup measure, and leveling it with a knife.
Cream of tartar acts to activate the baking soda in this recipe. Look for it in the spice aisle.
Belgian Belcolade bittersweet chocolate discs are available here.
Bittersweet Chocolate Cookies
Yield: about three dozen cookies
Ingredients:
1 ¼ c. European-style butter, softened
1 2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 ¼ c. sour cream
1 t. vanilla
1 1/3 c. black cocoa
2 c. all purpose flour (I prefer King Arthur.)
½ t. coarse salt
¼ t. baking soda
¼ t. cream of tartar
½ pound Belcolade chocolate discs or other high quality bittersweet chocolate pieces
Method:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the sour cream and mix well.
- Scrape down the bowl.
- Add the cocoa powder, flour, salt, baking soda, and cream of tartar and mix until incorporated.
- Stir in the chocolate discs.
- Cover the bowl with cellophane and chill it in the refrigerator, at least several hours or overnight.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees and line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into balls about the size of a ping pong ball, dip them in sugar, and place them on a baking sheet about three inches apart.
- One sheet at a time, bake them for five minutes. Then rotate the baking sheet 180 degrees and bake an additional five minutes.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
What a cute story!
Hallelujiah! You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for this recipe! Trying it tomorrow. Thanks so much.
So, did Rustica publish their recipe somewhere? I would love to compare my recipe for their cookies with the real McCoy. If you ever stumble on it again, please let me know!
Did you buy black cocoa powder somewhere in the Twin Cities? If so, where? I couldn’t find it at Whole Foods or Kowalski’s.
I couldn’t find it locally. I ordered it online from King Arthur Flour. Here’s a link: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/black-cocoa-12-oz. You can get the Belgian chocolate discs from them, too. (*They haven’t paid me to say this!)
I have been trying to figure out how to replicate the Rustica recipe for sooo long! Thank you for posting this – I’ll give it a try ASAP.
Hope you like it. Happy to have helped a fellow Ole!
Hi Laura!
Your t. I assume stands for teaspoon(tsp.) NOT tablespoon (Tbs.)
Thanks much!
Yes! Little t, teaspoon. Big T, tablespoon.
What are your thoughts about freezing some of the dough in balls to defrost and bake a small batch later?
Dan,
I would think that would work well. Wrap the dough well before freezing and allow it to come to room temperature before baking.
Thank you! I love these cookies and can’t get them locally!
I’m going to tweak the recipe again soon. I think they use Callebaut chocolate chunks now–at least that’s my best guess.
Thank you , thank you ! I adore these cookies and was hoping to find a similar recipe! I am so delighted to have found your site, I have been reading it for an hour now and don’t want to stop. You have a beautiful way of writing about food, life and minnesota, all things dear to my heart. I am getting off the couch to bake some cookies now and am hoping to have a batch ready when my sweet boy gets home from school!I can’t wait to make everything on this site, and I look forward to your next writings……….
Oh, thank you so much! That is so kind of you and so touching to me. I think the best cookie on the site is my Grandma Fladeboe’s ginger cookies. The bittersweet chocolate are on my list to tweak one more time.
The batter is delicious–but we could not get the cookies off the parchment. We tried when they were cool; we tried when they were hot…no luck either way. We scraped crumbs we will use for something else. And, since we doubled the recipe, there is a lot of batter left, which we are going to use for black bottom cupcakes. But what did we do wrong??
Thanks for sharing, and thanks for the recipe. I would love to do it right!
Margo, Hmmm, that is a mystery. I can’t seem to find an answer for you in any of my books, and without being there next to you as you bake I can’t tell what you might have done differently. So many things might have affected outcome: oven temperature, ingredients, the way you measure and mix. I’m so sorry the recipe was a flop for you.
I just took a swing at these over the weekend for a holiday cookie exchange at my office. I did it on short notice and so didn’t have time to get black cocoa and used Valrhona instead.
The results are delicious, but they don’t hold together as well as the Rustica cookie. The dough pools or “flares” easily at the bottom and gives the cookies a brittle bottom edge (I see evidence of this in your photos too), while the Rustica cookie is chewier, with firm, rounded edges. Also, in the Rustica cookie there is still a clear “cookie dough” flavor of egg, butter, and sugar—possibly brown sugar—whereas this recipe was more hit-you-over-the-head chocolately.
I doubt my coworkers will complain, but with the remnants of my Valrhona powder I think I’ll try some adjustment to the recipe so the cookies are less delicate and more chewy. I’d like it if they were better travelers.
Greg, Thank you for the feedback. This recipe has been on my list to tweak. I’ll repost when I do. Let me know if you rework the recipe with better results.
Wondering which are better. These or the midnight chocolate cookies….
Hubs and I are planning to bake on Christmas Eve.
Shay, I think the midnight chocolate cookies–definitely. Happy baking and Merry Christmas!