Food52 Genius Recipe #24 Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Chocolate chip cookies are my all time favorite cookie. They're an absolute classic for a reason and I'm always on the lookout for a recipe with a different spin on the traditional ones. When I saw that these were made entirely with whole wheat flour, I was convinced that these would not taste very good after the disasters I've had using whole wheat in bread baking so far. I was so wrong in that assumption and couldn't be happier about it. There isn't a lot to go on about with this recipe. It's very similar to many standard chocolate chip cookie recipes, with the whole wheat being the major difference. If you're somebody who does much baking, you understand why that would be such a drastic change. If you're not, you need to understand whole wheat flour has very different properties than all-purpose flour does.

The major difference between the two types of flour is the protein content. An average bag of whole wheat flour has a protein content of about 14%, where as an average bag of all-purpose flour is around 10%. That makes a big difference when it comes to what each should be used for. Wheat flour is great for bread baking because of it's high gluten content, but it's also very dense compared to all purpose. The latter is almost always called for in cakes, cookies, and most other pastries. I've seen cookie recipes that used some whole wheat flour for additional flavor or texture, but never without mostly all purpose. Not having all purpose means you can't really get that cakey texture that you sometimes get with cookies.

Honestly, I didn't miss the all purpose flour that much. The small balls of dough spread out a ton to make really large and thin cookies that had a great texture. They were crispy along the outsides and quite chewy, in the best way. The thing I enjoyed the most was the nutty flavor from the whole wheat toasting. I used dark chocolate chunks that Aldi carries and they create the most wonderful pockets of melty chocolate throughout. I would make these again and will definitely do so now that I have most of a 5lb bag of whole wheat flour left to use in the cupboard. I think using this as a base recipe and then mixing in other types of chocolate or maybe some peanut butter could be really nice.

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