Today, on the last day of 2020, we’re going to show you our final Christmas cookie recipe. Over the past few weeks we’ve highlighted some of the cool, delicious, international cookies we whipped up for the holiday season this year, and today’s the last day for some sweet goodness. Like the pumpkin pecan cookies we featured a few days ago, these sweet treats don’t have to be limited to the holidays – you can make them in any season, so as we move into a new year you can keep them on your cookie agenda. We realize that buckwheat might seem a little strange for a cookie, but trust us – replacing some of the regular flour with buckwheat instead makes for a cookie with more of a depth of flavors, which really enhances the chocolatey goodness wrapped up in these cookies as well. These are based on a recipe from Bon Appétit, which let us use up some of the buckwheat flour we had rattling around in our kitchen to delicious ends.
To make these, you’ll need:
- A stick of butter
- Flour
- Buckwheat flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- 6 ounces (1 1/2 bars) of bittersweet baking chocolate
- Sugar
- Brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- Vanilla extract
For this dough, you’ll first want to take your chocolate and roughly chop it.
Then whisk together a cup of flour, 1/2 cup of buckwheat flour, 1/2 teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda, and a large pinch of salt. In a small pan, melt your stick of butter over low heat, and once it’s completely liquid place it in a new bowl and add in 1/2 cup of sugar and 2/3 cup of brown sugar. Whisk the sugars and butter together hard until you have an even mixture, then whisk in a teaspoon of vanilla, one whole egg, and two egg yolks. Stir in your flour mixture, then all but a large scoop of your chocolate (set the rest aside).
Cover your bowl in plastic wrap and stick the dough in your fridge for 2 hours, then when you’re ready line baking sheets with parchment paper and portion out pieces of dough that are around 2 tablespoons each. Roll each into a smooth ball and place these balls five to a baking sheet. Press pieces of the chocolate you set aside into the tops of each cookie.
Bake the cookies at 375°F for 5 minutes, then rotate the baking sheets from the top to the bottom rack and spin them from front to back to bake for another 5 minutes – your cookies will be done once they’re lightly browned at the edges. Right when they come out of the oven, while they’re still hot, sprinkle a tiny bit of extra salt on top, and then let them cool fully before you chow down.
We really liked that these take your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe and throw in some curveballs: the buckwheat flour makes the cookies brown and crisp and adds some different, richer flavors than what you might usually find in similar cookies, while the chopped baker’s chocolate gives more of a solid chocolate taste than just using chocolate chips. The extra chocolate on top of each cookie is a fun bonus and makes each one look cool and unique. It’s also nice that these cookies are pretty easy – the only even remotely difficult part is chopping the chocolate, and then it’s just a matter of whisking, stirring, shaping and baking. And even though the holiday season is about to pass us by until another year, these cookies are great for any occasion, or no occasion at all, so this is a recipe you can keep on hand for any time in the future. Enjoy!