Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookes

I heard about a bakery in Scottsdale, Super Chunk, that sells mesquite flour chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t tried them from the store yet but I heard they were delicious so I attempted to make my own. It’s hard to find mesquite flour but I got it online at nuts.com. There aren’t many recipes for mesquite cookies online but I found this great recipe here and decided to try it. I substituted the all purpose flour with Bob’s Red Mill gluten free All Purpose Flour and they came out great. Nutty with a slight coconut flavor - definitely levels up an average chocolate chip cookie. This recipe used an interesting technique of pressing down on the cookies which I’ve never done before. They were fantastic!

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups Bob’s Red Mill gluten free All Purpose Flour (or regular all purpose)

1 cup mesquite flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

3 large eggs, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups quick cooking oats (the original recipe called for rolled but I didn’t have any! this was fine)

2 cups coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chocolate chips

What To Do

1. Prepare two baking sheets covered with parchment paper or lined with silicone baking mats.

2. Preheat the oven to 375ºF

3. In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment beat the butter until soft for a few minutes. Add the granulated and light brown sugar and beat until creamy. If using a mixer, stop it once or twice and scrape down the sides.

5. Add the eggs one at a time until completely incorporated, then the vanilla.

6. Add the flour mixture in three batches, incorporating it as you go.

7. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips.

8. Set mounds, each a generous two tablespoons (about the size of an unshelled walnut) of dough, evenly-spaced onto the baking sheet. Use your hand to slightly flatten the tops of the rounds of cookie dough.

9. Bake for 10-11 minutes, until just beginning to set. A few minutes before they'd done, open the oven door and use a spatula to lightly tap the tops of the cookies down, so the tops are flat. This helps keeps the cookies moist, once baked. (These cookies are better underdone than overdone, so keep an eye on them closely near the end of the suggested baking time.)