Flourless Cocoa Cookies

Flourless Cocoa Cookies
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
Total Time
20 minutes
Rating
4(3,671)
Comments
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Glossy and near black in color, these intense, easy-to-make chocolate cookies are like a cross between fudge and the deepest of brownies -- and gluten-free to boot. We discovered them in "The Fearless Baker" by Erin Jeanne McDowell. A little cinnamon gives them a spicy complexity, but you can leave it out for a more purely chocolate flavor. Be sure to use bittersweet rather than semisweet chocolate, or they could end up cloying rather than balanced. —Melissa Clark

Featured in: The Year’s Best Baking Cookbooks, for Novices and Pros

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Ingredients

Yield:2 dozen cookies
  • 3eggs
  • 3cups/340 grams confectioners’ sugar
  • cup/106 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
  • ½teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
  • ¼teaspoon fine sea salt
  • teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1cup/140 grams bittersweet chocolate chunks
  • Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)

102 calories; 3 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 1 gram monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams dietary fiber; 17 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 70 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

  2. Step 2

    In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until well blended.

  3. Step 3

    In another large bowl, sift together confectioners’ sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon and salt. Whisk into eggs, changing to a spatula when the batter becomes too thick to whisk. Stir in vanilla and chocolate.

  4. Step 4

    Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop cookies onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 1½ inches between them. Sprinkle with flaky salt.

  5. Step 5

    Bake, rotating front to back, and top to bottom, halfway through, until set around the edges, cracked on top and slightly underbaked in the middle, 10 to 13 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool completely on the baking sheets. Store carefully in an airtight container.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
3,671 user ratings
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Comments

Delicious! I only used 2 cups of sugar and they were perfect. Can't imagine what they would taste like with 3 cups! The cookies have a very rich chocolate flavor. The outside "crust" tastes kind of like a macaron, but then the inside is very gooey -- almost fudge-like. Very unique cookie, different from any I've made before. They are very easy to make! I used bittersweet chocolate chips and they worked just fine for the recipe.

Too much sugar!!!!

These are best for a gluten free crowd. More like eating a piece of chocolate than a cookie. I used Valhrona cocoa powder and dark chocolate (62%). I think this is key to avoid them being too sweet. No problems with dryness, slightly crisp on outside, fudge-like on inside. Imperative to add the cinnamon and flaked salt--also added a little bit of espresso powder. The cinnamon hit a final note and offered a nice spicy finish. They took a wee bit longer than 13 minutes to be done.

You absolutely need the amount of icing sugar it states in the recipe…I don’t know if people were packing it into their measuring cups or what (thereby technically getting more into the recipe in fewer cups), but go by the weight and it is perfect. These cookies would be incredibly bitter otherwise. It also imparts a fudgey gooeyness, almost like a brownie, that would be nigh-on impossible to get without it.

These were kind of a flop for us. They were completely flat and although tasty and chewy, I ended up not taking them to the party I had baked them for because they just looked like and had the texture of a failed baking project. These cookies also made me realize, while I'm okay with eating batter that is slightly underbaked, I really don't feel comfortable offering it to other people.

I made this for the second time a few days ago. I tasted the first one cookie after I had been out, and realized I had forgotten to add the chocolate chips. It made no difference. They were wonderful….received raves when I took them to a gathering.

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Credits

Adapted from "The Fearless Baker" by Erin Jeanne McDowell (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017)

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