The best, melt-in-your-mouth, chocolate chunk cookies made with spelt flour.
Looking for a delicious recipe to make with that spelt flour sitting in the back of your pantry? Then look no further. This recipe, inspired by Sweetish, combines my love of oats, chocolate and butter to create the most irresistibly chewy cookie that will keep you coming back for seconds... and thirds and fourths.
Initially I was disappointed when I couldn't get my hands on white flour and had to settle for spelt flour, but now I think I've been converted. Spelt is an ancient grain similar in nutritional value to whole wheat. But let's get real, I didn't make these cookies for their nutritional value. The spelt flour contributed a nice, hearty texture with a nutty profile - I'm sure the added peanut butter helped with that bit.
Prep-time: 1.5 hours | Cook-time: 8-10 minutes | Clean-up time: 15 minutes | Yields: 24
Ingredients
1 cup spelt flour
2/3 cup rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup dark chocolate chopped into chunks
6 tbsp room-temperature butter cut into small chunks
4 tbsp chestnut spread (can sub with hazelnut or more peanut butter)
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 cup cane sugar (can sub with brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla sugar (can sub with liquid vanilla)
2 eggs
Instructions
In a medium-size bowl combine flour, oats, cinnamon, baking powder and sea salt
Add chocolate chunks to dry ingredients and set aside
In a large bowl combine butter, chestnut spread, peanut butter, cane sugar and vanilla sugar and beat until creamy
Add eggs one at a time to the butter/sugar mix and stir until just combined, being careful not to over mix the eggs
Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients slowly while mixing, stir until combined
Cover and set in the fridge for about an hour
When cookie dough is chilled preheat oven to 400 F / 200 C
Prepare a pan with cooking spray or butter
Scoop roughly 1.5 tbsp of cookie dough on pan, leaving enough space for cookies to flatten and spread out while baking
Pop the pan in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are brown - don't worry if the centre of the cookies seem slightly undercooked, they will continue to cook outside of the oven
Enjoy!
See below for recipe notes!
Chunk the chocolate
First things first, grab your dark chocolate and a knife and chop the chocolate in nice, big chunks. My favourite chocolate to use is Ritter Sport dark chocolate because you get a nice mix of chocolate shavings and chocolate chunks. For this recipe I used half a bar and it was the perfect amount of chocolate and went oh-so-nicely with the sea salt.
Dough-Re-Mi
In a medium-size bowl combine your spelt flour, rolled oats, cinnamon, baking powder and a good dose of sea salt - if you're a sweet n' salty fan like me. Take a whisk and stir the ingredients until combined. Add your chocolate chunks and set aside.
Next, place your chunks of room-temperature butter in a large bowl and add cane sugar, vanilla sugar, peanut butter and chestnut spread. I used chestnut spread because I happened to have some on hand since we picked up a jar at one of the infamous German Christmas markets. Truth be told, we actually thought it was hazelnut spread when we bought it and were surprised to discover it was chestnut spread which is much less sweet. It's great for baking and makes a surprisingly good meat marinade!
Beat the butter/sugar mix together until it takes on a creamy texture. Add eggs one at a time and stir just enough to mix them in to the other wet ingredients, being careful not to over mix the eggs. Slowly add the dry ingredients in, mixing until the ingredients are combined. Cover dough and place in the fridge for about an hour to chill.
It's all chill
Once the dough has chilled preheat the oven to 400 F / 200 C and remove the dough from the fridge. Prepare a pan with cooking spray or butter. Take a big tablespoon of the dough and plop it down on the pan, giving the cookies 1-2 inches of space.
Bake
Before placing the cookies in the oven sprinkle some sea salt over them to give them a nice sweet and salty combo. Bake the cookies for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are brown. Don't worry if the centres are still a little gooey when you take them out. They will continue to cook slightly outside of the oven giving them the perfect, chewy texture. These cookies stay nice and chewy even once they have cooled, but I won't judge if you eat them all while their warm!
Enjoy!
