Stubborn Flourless Chocolate Cookies

Happy December! Or should I say Merry December? What better way to kick off the month than with a new cookie recipe?

I call these stubborn because no matter how perfectly round I poured the batter, they always had a mind of their own and formed shapes I didn't think were possible. In fact, some of the shapes were so obscene that I can't show them on the blog. I wonder if that's the cookie's way of telling me something.

I digress.



These are greatly inspired by François Payard's recipe, which you can find here. They're beautiful (albeit misshapen) shiny, cracked topped cookies that almost stick to the roof of your mouth. They remind me of biting into an old fashioned peanut butter sandwich; the white bread almost disintegrated in your mouth, the peanut butter stuck everywhere, and the tall glass of milk disappeared way too fast. These cookies are so delectably gooey that one is all you need, despite them being paper light.





Oh, they're also virtually fat free, aside from the chocolate chips I added to half the batter. But don't let that fool you into thinking these are a 'healthy' cookie - the batter is pretty much all sugar. Delicious, fudgey sugar. If a brownie and a meringue had a lovechild, this would be it.


Flourless chocolate cookies with lavender and sea salt
Ingredients
- 3 cups confectionery sugar
- 3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 4 large room temp. egg whites (or 3/4 cup liquid egg whites)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried lavender blossoms, hand crushed
- Fleur de sel, for the top

Ingredients
- Preheat oven to 350.
- Sift together sugar, cocoa and salt. Fold in lavender blossoms. With your mixer on low, slowly add in egg whites and beat until batter is wet. Don't overbeat or the egg whites will stiffen.
- Drop rounded tablespoons of batter on a parchment lined baking sheet, at least 3 inches apart, sprinkle with fleur de sel (or other sea salt) and bake for 15 minutes. These will spread so don't put more than 5-6 on a baking sheet at once. Continue doing this until batter is gone. Allow to cool, gingerly remove from the parchment paper, and store in an airtight container.

Makes 2 1/2 dozen