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Chocolate
Chip Cookie for Charity
 The Young Women’s
Christian Association National Capital Area chapter held a contest in 2005 to
find a new recipe for the chocolate-chip cookie that they will use as a fundraiser. The weight and ingredients (all natural ingredients, no artificial sweeteners or flavors, no transfats) criteria were very
specific, as the idea behind the contest was to find a recipe that could be
commercially produced at enough of a profit to make the fundraising viable. From 1951-1982,
the YWCA used cookie sales for fundraising, but lost the recipe in a move to
new headquarters, hence the contest.
Christine
Lee, a DC-area attorney and passionate home baker (pictured below), was one of ten finalists who
was invited to prepare her cookie in person.
She was willing to share her recipe:
Cherry
Almond Chocolate Chip Bliss cookie
A chewy
almond cookie bursting with dried tart cherries and semi-sweet chocolate chips.
- 2.5 sticks
butter, unsalted and softened (10 oz/280g)
- 2 cups
granulated sugar
- 3 large
eggs
- 1
tablespoon almond extract
- 8 oz/225g whole
or sliced almonds
- 4.5 cups (610g/21.8
oz) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon
salt
- 2 teaspoons
baking soda
- 2 cups (12
oz/330g) chocolate chips
- 1.5 cups (8
oz/ 225g) dried pitted cherries, such as Montmorency
 Preheat
oven to 350F/180C. Grind almonds in a
food processor until fine (should yield approximately 2 cups of ground
almonds). Set almonds aside. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda in
a medium bowl and set aside. Cream
together butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer. Add eggs and beat to combine. Beat in almond extract. Add flour mixture and ground almonds and stir
to combine. Stir in chocolate chips and
dried cherries.
Use a #20
scoop to portion out dough (if you don’t have the scoop, make balls containing
a little over 3 tablespoons of dough-about the size of a golf ball) and place 3
inches apart on ungreased nonstick cookie sheet. Use your fingers to flatten down dough to the
height of a half an inch. Bake for 12-13
minutes or until light golden brown around the edges.
Cool on pan
for five minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Yields
24-36 cookies.
Baker’s
note: Use regular sized chocolate chips
to get a full chocolate burst in each bite.
photo (right): by Brig Cabe, DC Examiner, 12 July 2005
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