Savannah Chocolate Chewies
The cookies are large, very dark, very chewy, and since they have egg whites and no yolks (and no butter) they are a sort of meringue; a decidedly chocolate meringue.
8 ounces (generous 2 cups) pecans
3 cups confectioners sugar
2/3 cup unsifted, unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably dutch-process)
1 tsp powdered instant coffee or espresso
2 tbsp unsifted all-purpose flour
Pinc of salt
3 egg whites (they may be whites that were frozen and thawed)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
-
Preheat the oven to 350ºf. Line cookie sheets with parchment or with
aluminum foil shiny side up. Pecans should be chopped rather finely. No
pieces should be larger than a green pea, set aside. -
Place sugar, cocoa, coffee or espresso, flour, salt, egg whites, and
vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat slowly at first until the dry
ingredients are moistened, and then beat at high speed for 1 min. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the nuts. -
It is important now to spoon out the cookies as soon as possible. Once
they are spooned out they can wait before baking, but if they remain in the
mixing bowl for any length of time, they will not be beautifully shiny when
baked. Use a tablespoon for spooning out the cookies (not a measuring spoon) make each cookie one rounded tablespoon of the dough – and use another spoon for pushing off the mounds of dough. Place the cookies at least 1 inch apart on the prepared sheets. -
I think these bake best if you bake only one sheet at a time. Bake for 15
minutes, reversing the sheet front to back once during baking to ensure even
baking. When done, the cookies should be dry and crisp on the outside, wet
and chewy inside. -
If you have used parchment paper the cookies may be removed from the
paper with a wide metal spatula as soon as they are done, and transferred to
a rack to cool. If you have used foil, the cookies will have to stand on the
foil until they can be lifted easily with your fingers
Yields 12 large cookies
Maida Heatter’s Cookies