Mixing Bowl

SWEET CHOCOLATE A cake turned into cookies is almost as good.

Tarmo Hannula

Chocolate Cake Cookies

By SARAH RINGLER

Ilove the idea of taking all the ingredients in a German Chocolate Cake and combining them into one bowl to make cookies. As you can imagine, it isn’t a perfect equivalent, but it’s not a bad cookie. The recipe is from Samantha Seneviratne in the Aug. 28 New York Times. They are very chocolatey, but lack some of the gooey texture of the cake.

In case you thought that this cake originated in Germany, like most of us would, you are wrong. The name came from a new kind of baking chocolate developed in 1852 for the Baker’s Chocolate Company by English American chocolate maker, Sam German. It had more sugar than previous varieties and earned the name of its creator, “Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate.” The Baker’s Chocolate Company began in 1764 in Dorchester, Mass.

The cake itself, made with German’s chocolate, turned up as the “Recipe of the Day” in a Dallas newspaper in June 1957. A woman, identified as a Texas homemaker, Mrs. George Clay, is credited as the creator. General Foods, which owned the Baker’s brand at the time, widely promoted the recipe, drastically increasing sales of its chocolate at the time.

Pecans, a central ingredient, are native to northern Mexico and the southern United States. They were a common part of the indigenous diet in those areas and the name roughly translates from the Algonquian word for nut. It is the state tree of Texas and the large wild trees can be seen growing alongside the road in the eastern part of the state with nuts for the taking falling alongside the trees in the fall.

GERMAN CHOCOLATE COOKIES 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup natural cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 8 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter, 1 stick 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cup lightly toasted, sweetened, shredded coconut 1 cup chopped bittersweet chocolate bits 1 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Toast shredded coconut for 15 minutes. Watch carefully. When done, set aside to cool. Turn oven up to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

In a large bowl, beat softened butter and the two sugars with an electric beater for 2 minutes on medium speed until fluffy. Then, beat in the egg and vanilla and continue to beat until the mixture is smooth.

Add the dry flour mixture and mix over low speed. When flour mixture is well mixed, add pecans, chocolate bits and toasted coconut.

Spoon out 2 tablespoons of dough and form into balls. Set out on cookie tin 2 inches apart. Bake cookies until dry on the top but soft in the center for about 10 minutes. Remove pan from oven and tap on the counter to slightly flatten cookies. Let them sit on the pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Makes about 2 dozen.