Kitchen Wench

I have many formative childhood memories involving my dad taking me to get chocolate malts, usually as a special treat after something crappy, traumatic experience (like the dentist).  If that’s not emotional eating, I don’t know what is.  But I digress.   The point is, I have deeply rooted positive associations with the taste of malt powder.  So when I saw The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for malted chocolate chip cookies, I let out a great squee of excitement and rushed home from work to bake these.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of these cookies.  You’re really not missing much, as they are surprisingly unattractive.  I presented one to a coworker and he said, “I’m not sure I want to put this in my mouth.”  But the ugliness becomes a moot point because as soon as you eat one, you find that it’s totally necessary to eat at least five more.  This is an exceptional cookie.  There’s only one slight flaw…

They don’t taste like malt.

The malt flavor is really strong in the dough, but somehow it morphs during baking into this warm toffee flavor.  Don’t get my wrong, these still taste awesome, and clearly the malt is doing something to give it that deeper flavor and a great crisp-chewy consistency.  (And I love that in a chocolate chip — none of that gooey, partially cooked center for me.)  But it didn’t taste like my childhood, which I realize is maybe a lot to ask from a humble baked good. Still, these cookies are fantastic, and I would 100% make them again.  And you should too.

Malted Chocolate Chip Cookies

From The Pioneer Woman

• 2 sticks of butter
• ¾ cups brown sugar
• ¾ cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cups (rounded) malted milk powder
• 1 bag (12 oz)  milk chocolate chips

1.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Using a stand or hand mixer, beat together butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. Add malted milk powder and beat until combined.

3. Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter mixture, beating gently until just combined.

4. Add chocolate chips and stir in gently.

5. Drop by teaspoonfuls (or use a cookie scoop) on to a parchment lined cookie sheet.  This dough is very buttery and the cookies will spread a lot during baking.  Depending on how big your cookie sheet is, expect to fit 6-8 cookies per pan.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.  Keep an eye on these — they can get brown really fast, and you may need to reduce the temperature to 350 if they start burning around the edges.

Makes ~3 dozen cookies.