The Easy Addition For Double The Cocoa In Chocolate Chip Cookies

There's chocolate chip cookies, and then there's super-duper chocolate chip cookies. The mouthwatering term "double-chocolate" could mean adding extra chunks of baking chocolate or tossing in different types of chocolates, such as white chocolate or even fudge. But, there's a much simpler way to get a bonus chocolate blast in your cookies without the risk of unpredictable texture or flavor implosions. It's one of the rawest forms of chocolate and can be stirred into cookie batter in mere seconds: finely powdered cocoa

Created from roasted, ground cacao solids after most of the cocoa butter has been removed, cocoa powder harbors concentrated amounts of pure chocolate flavor that can instantly upgrade your cookies. Make no mistake: this is double chocolate bliss in every bite, so you'll be taking rich, warm, melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookies to new culinary heights. 

Baking with cocoa powder is easily accomplished by adapting a great chocolate chip cookie recipe and replacing a portion of the flour with cocoa powder. They have a similar consistency, so it's unlikely to alter the consistency of the cookies — unless you choose the wrong kind of cocoa.

Chocolate bars, chips, and blocks have varying levels of quality, which is mostly determined by the percentages of cocoa solids and true cocoa butter. Cocoa powder also has a hierarchy, but it's essentially determined by what's not included. Since cocoa powder comes directly from cocoa solids, it's already high on the quality ladder — but many of the powders available in supermarkets have quite a few additives that dilute the purity. That's especially true if they're intended for making sweet cups of hot chocolate or if the powder has been overly processed or pumped with stabilizers and other elements.

The ideal kind of cocoa powder for enriching chocolate chip cookies is pure, natural, unsweetened cocoa powder. It will keep your cookies out of the "way too sweet" category and can also save the texture. Those fillers in presweetened or Dutch-process cocoa powders could alter the density of the cookies as they bake, leaving you with shapeless versions of what you're craving.

Natural powders instead add complexity and rich, earthy flavor while doubling the chocolate pleasure. Because natural cocoa powder has a concentrated and slightly bitter taste, it only takes a small amount to transform chocolate chip cookies. Try it with a recipe such as Tasting Table's brown butter chocolate chip cookies by simply swapping a few tablespoons of the flour with pure cocoa powder.