chocolate chip, pistachio, and pomegranate molasses cookies
Last Friday I was baking cookies to take to The Occasional Coffee House, the listening room concert series my friend Heather and I do together at her church in Madison, Connecticut. Now that it is warming up, I knew I wanted to make my lemon, basil, and crystallized ginger cookies; I also knew I wanted to come up with something new since my friend Laura Clapp was performing.
Sometimes when you are looking for a new thing you realize it is sitting right in front of you.
I knew I had chocolate chips. And I had a bag of shelled pistachios (the Costco size) that I keep around for snacks. I also had a recipe I had printed out some time back for chocolate pistachio cookies, but I wanted another layer of flavor in the cookie. So I was perusing the collection of things in my pantry and I saw the pomegranate molasses.
Here’s how my mind works: pistachios and pomegranates go together in Mediterranean cooking, pomegranates and chocolate are a good dessert combination, and molasses is a sugar substitute in baking. So I gave it a try.
They are really good. They have a a lot of chocolate and nutty crunch and then, at the end, you get this kind of tangy, almost citrusy after note. The folks at the concert ate them all.
chocolate chip, pistachio, and pomegranate molasses cookie
1 cup butter, room temperature (227 grams)
1.5 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup pomegranate molasses
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
16.5 oz. all purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
16 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
8 oz. rough chopped shelled pistachios
In a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar, and molasses for four or five minutes, so that it fluffs up well. Add the eggs and vanilla and run the mixer for another couple of minutes.
While the mixer is running, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl, then add them to the stand mixer after the eggs and vanilla are incorporated. Mix until well blended, but don’t run it along time.
Pour the batter into the bowl you used to create the flour mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the dough for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350°.
Line your baking sheets with parchment or use a Silpat, if you have one.
Scoop the cookies on to the baking sheets (I use a 2 oz. scoop) and then shape them to look like little hockey pucks. Bake them for 12-14 minutes. Let them cool on the baking sheets (that you have sitting on cooling racks) for at least ten minutes before transferring them to the wire rack.
Makes about 40 cookies.
Now I just have to remember where I bought that pomegranate molasses so I can make them again.
Peace, Milton
