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Recipe: Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies
This recipe is taken from the newly released Phoenix Cooks: Recipes from the City’s Finest Chefs by Christina Barrueta courtesy of Country Velador’s Super Chunk Sweets & Treats.
Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies
This wonderful cookie has been crowned one of the 10 Chocolate Chip Cookies Worth Traveling For by National Geographic and the Unofficial Chocolate Chip Cookie of Arizona by Phoenix New Times. “People come far and wide for our little desert cookie, so it seems only right to share it in a cookbook about the local culinary scene,” says chef Country Velador. “It’s a shortbread cookie made with raw sugar, which gives it a sandy texture, just like the desert sand, and you’ll taste nutty, caramel tones from the mesquite flour. I recommend getting a bar of good chocolate and chopping it up, versus using regular chocolate chips.”
Makes 2 dozen cookies
Ingredients
2 cups (4 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups raw sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light mesquite flour
2 tsp kosher salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Method
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 10 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Meanwhile, sift flours into a large bowl. Add salt and baking soda and mix well to evenly distribute. Stir in chocolate chips.
Scrape the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and, using a spatula or your hands, mix until completely combined. Use a 1/2-cup cookie scoop to scoop out dough and portion them out onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours, until firm. Cookie dough can be made in advance and frozen for 6 to 8 weeks or kept in the refrigerator for 7 days.
Preheat oven to 325ºF.
Space cookies 2 inches apart onto another parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes. Rotate baking sheet and bake for another 10 minutes. Set aside to cool, then transfer to an airtight container. Cookies can be stored for up to 4 days.
Excerpted from Phoenix Cooks: Recipes from the City’s Finest Chefs by Christina Barrueta. Photographs by Joanie Simon. Copyright 2020 by Christina Barrueta. Recipe copyright by Country Velador, Super Chunk Sweets & Treats. Recipes are chef tested. Excerpted with permission from Figure 1 Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.