Flourless Dark Chocolate Espresso Cookies with Butterscotch Chips

by Baker Bettie February 29, 2012

Yes, I said flourless. But no, don’t change the channel! These cookies are for everyone! And by everyone, I mean those who are gluten eatin’ and those who are gluten avoidin’!

I made these cookies last night and I couldn’t believe how amazing they were. I was so excited!

Then I went to take pictures of them today and I wasn’t so excited. They were really hard to photograph and I just wasn’t pleased. But I decided to make due anyway.

Then my husband told me they looked like “turd cookies.” Uh. Gross. So I debated not putting them up. You see my husband is not only my biggest fan, but he can be one of my biggest critics too. That is why I love him so much. He challenges me.

Meet my other biggest critic. Our grumpy kitty, Shadow, who is not amused by me or my sous chef Wyatt.

But I HAD to post these. They have blown my baking mind. And they are about to blow yours.

I’ve been doing some research to refine my old gluten free cookie recipes (I am just not happy with their texture). But in the meantime I was searching for other flourless recipes and I ran across these.

You may have heard of them because I saw several other bloggers have posted about them.

Heres the deal. Four ingredients: Powdered sugar, cocoa powder, egg whites, salt. The results: The chewiest, fudgiest, chocolate cookie I have ever made. And they are gluten free! And dairy free! Say what?!

The original recipe is from King Arthur Flour. Don’t ask me why they have a recipe for a flourless cookie. It doesn’t make since to me either. But I’m happy they do!

I tweaked it a bit and came up with a good base recipe. I then spruced it up with some espresso powder and butterscotch chips.

This is also a great time to do a little educating about cocoa powders. YAY learning!

Here we go with installment #4 of Baker Bettie’s Cookies Are The New Cupcake Series!

In baking you will almost always want to use unsweetened cocoa powder. Sweetened cocoa powder is good for mixing to make chocolate milk or hot chocolate, but unsweetened is what you want to use for baking so that you can control the sugar content.

You will hear about two different kinds of unsweetened cocoa powder: Natural, and Dutch Processed. There are also powders out there that are a combination of the two, like Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder, which is what I usually use.

When I first started baking I thought that the two kinds of powder were interchangeable. They aren’t. They not only have different flavors but they react differently in baked goods.

Natural Cocoa Powder is darker in color and richer in taste than the reddish dutch-processed cocoa powder. It also has an acidic component to it that needs to be neutralized with baking soda if the desire is for the baked good to rise (leavening).

Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder is a reddish brown color and is more mild in taste. It has gone through a treatment to neutralize the acidic component. Therefore, baking soda (whose purpose is to neutralize acidity to create leavening) is not effective with dutch-processed cocoa powder and baking powder must be used if leavening is desired.

This recipe does not call for either baking soda or baking powder because it is not meant to rise. The recipe calls for dutch-processed cocoa powder and because of the acidity of natural cocoa powder, the cookies can taste burnt before they are finished cooking if you try to substitute.

I used Hershey’s Dark Chocolate Cocoa Powder in this recipe which is a blend, and it worked well. The acidity is not as high in this powder as with a powder that is only natural and not blended with dutch-processed.

You would never ever, ever, ever, in a million years, guess that these were gluten free. Never. Seriously!

*A few mix-ins and flavors that would be awesome with these are: chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, pecans, walnuts, dried cranberries or cherries, orange zest, peppermint or mint extract, cayenne, cinnamon, coconut, and many, many more!

Flourless Chocolate Cookie Base Recipe adapted from King Arthur Flour

2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2-4 egg whites
Add ins and seasonings of your preference

Whisk together the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and kosher salt. Add two egg whites and whisk into the dry ingredients until completely incorporated. You are wanting a thick, brownie batter, consistency here. If you need more moisture add another egg white and part or all of the 4th until it is the right consistency. Chill the batter for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or foil and spray them with non-stick spray (this is important or it is difficult to get them off the paper.) Using a small cookie scoop (about 1 tbsp) scoop batter onto the cookie sheets 6 on each. Bake for 8-12 minutes until the edges are set. (10 minutes was perfect for mine.) Remove from the oven and let cool completely before removing from the foil or parchment. RESIST the temptation to eat them while warm. They are impossible to remove from the paper or foil while warm. Makes 16-18 cookies.