Chia-Chip Cookies

I love cookies. Cookies are the best type of sweet-thing. A cookie is a happy thing. Can you tell? I have a thing for cookies. Maybe it is the variance in texture, color and flavor that is possible to achieve with a cookie that attracts me; or maybe it is the simplicity, yet intricacy, of the craft. Needless to say, cookies have a very dear and important place in my life, and that means you, dear reader, are going to be reading about them, a lot.

It's unfortunate that most cookie recipes call for ingredients which cannot be had locally (I don't know of any sugar plantations on the West Coast), but sometimes we can only do so much. I've been interested in adapting this recipe to incorporate more local, organic fruits, but as of yet I have not had success.



My Mom utilized the Toll-House recipe for her baking needs for the first 14 years of my life, after which I moved to Oregon where my Dad imparted his magical, and sometimes obsessive, baking habits upon me. This cookie recipe represents the synthesis of the all-American classic chocolate chip cookie with the kooky-odd-bizarre homegrown cookie that I bake now, and was probably inspired by some un-holy combination of parental teachings.





These cookies are dense. If you enjoy a doughy cookie with perceptible flour content, then this is not for you. With 4 cups of things (walnuts, oats, chocolate chips) for a single recipe in addition to the 2 and 1/4 cups of flour, this is a cookie that is full of, well, stuff. They are moist, crunchy, gooey, sweet, and bitter all at the same time. The veriflavored cookie we may call it.

The first time I had these cookies was at my parent's home in Portland. Coming back from college to a redesigned, re-fooded house was quite the shock. After I moved out, my parents switched grocery stores. They left the generic Fred Meyer in favor of the local health-food company and my former employer, New Seasons Market. Spurred by my Mother, my parents had switched from a semi-organic diet to one that was organic in its entirety. They promptly re-tilled their garden and planted hundreds of starts. Sometimes I wonder if it was my parents who are responsible for my intense interest in local, organic foods...who knows. Anyway, I was skeptical when my Mom started talking about these cookies. My Dad had always been the better baker in the family, usually turning out more creative and delicious recipes than my Mom, who mostly depended on old-time classics from Better Cooking and other grease-covered cooking tomes. So my skepticism was warranted.



These cookies melted my skepticism. Instead of the dry, crunchy, overly-rich, and simple Toll-House chocolate chip cookies, I bit into a complex, moist and delicious cookie. This was a surprise. Immediately I knew that my Mom was on to something, so I asked. "It's the chia," she said, although knowing my Mom, she probably ranted for twenty more minutes about the benefits of the chia seed.



Chia seeds? What the hell are chia seeds? Surely not the little, tiny, seeds which are used to entertain the slower-paced, micro-gardeners among us. I had never heard of them until my Mom started to rave on their behalf. Chia seeds are a traditional South American food, which are often used in cakes, biscuits, pancakes or as a gruel. They are also a wonderful fat substitute and a perfect moisture retainer. They are almost equal to their weight in protein, which means they are good for you. And it gets better, chia seeds are FULL of Omega-3 fatty oils as well as Omega-6. I could go on about the benefits of chia seeds, but I have faith that you can discover their benefits for yourself.

If you have a stand-mixer, this recipe can be made in under 5 minutes, and baked within 15. I recommend the use of a stand-mixer if you have one because of the large quantity of voluminous ingredients. Doing this with a spoon by hand is difficult work, but it can be done if you feel like selling some tickets to the gun show. It's just not preferable for me.


Ingredients:
-- [2 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour]
-- [1 tsp. baking soda]
-- [1 tsp. baking powder]
-- [1/2 tsp. cinnamon]
-- [1/2 cup white sugar]
-- [1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar]
-- [1/4 tsp. salt]
-- [1/2 cup (1 stick) butter]
-- [2 tbs. chia gel]
-- [2 eggs]
-- [1 tsp. vanilla]
-- [1 cup oats]
-- [2 cups dark chocolate chips]
-- [1 cup whole walnuts]

I find that it is very important to use whole-wheat flour for this recipe. Using white flower yields a less visually appetizing cookie. This is why it is also essential that dark-brown sugar is utilized. The darker sugar adds a deeper level of complexity to the cookie than does the lighter sugar. Wholesome Sweetners produces an excellent, organic sugar and it's the one we use exclusively in our kitchen. It can be purchased online and in almost all health-food stores; I've found that Amazon.com has the best prices, always beating my local grocery, but with you must buy six packages at a time. Finally, the use of dark-chocolate chips is also important but not required. I find that the cookies lack in some way if semi-sweet chips are used. The cookie tastes more sugary and less delicious. So, if you can find them please use them, but if not feel free to use any regular chocolate chip.

Preparation:

1. Preheat over to 375°
2. Set butter out to soften
3. In the mixer bowl (or another if you are not using the mixer) add white sugar, packed dark-brown sugar, salt, butter and chia gel
4. Cream together white sugar, packed dark-brown sugar, salt, and butter on low speed until combined, about 3 minutes
5. While creaming: Combine flour, baking power, and baking soda in a separate bowl.
6. Add eggs and vanilla to the mixer bowl, beat until egg has been incorporated into dough, about 2 minutes
7. Add the bowl with the flour mixture to the mixer. Depending on what type of mixer you have you may have to spoon it in slowly to avoid a "flour-fall," however, if you have a Kitchen Aid Professional or a similar model, you should have a stir function, so just throw the whole bowl in with the liquid mixture and let combine, about 3 minutes
8. When combination is complete add the chocolate chips, oats, and walnuts to the mixer. Be careful at this point because the mixer could go a little nuts. These ingredients are hard for mixers to handle. Kitchen Aid recommends that you do not run their mixers for more than 4 minutes at a time, so keep that in mind while making this recipe, as it is quite hard on the internal gear workings - if your doing it by hand...good! it's great exercise.
9. Use two tablespoons to scoop out the dough into golf-ball sized pieces, I can usually fit between 16-24 on a standard baking half baking sheet
10. Bake at 375° for 8 minutes.


Cooling is very important for these cookies. If you follow the recipe and bake for only 8 minutes the cookies will be almost liquid when taken out. They must cool for 4-9 hours. I prefer to make this recipe at night so they can cool while I sleep. This is entirely preferential. If you would like to eat the cookies sooner rather than later, then I would recommend baking them for 10-11 minutes at the same temperature. This will significantly alter the texture of the cookie towards the more crunchy side, but they are still amazing and most importantly, they become immediately edible.