Soft yet crumbly chocolate chip almond cookies

There are many cookie recipes with chocolate chips out there, and here I am, adding yet another one to the pile. There is nothing original in this simple chocolate chip cookie recipe here, and my key ingredients are simplicity and being able to make them fast. This is the recipe I turn to a lot lately, every time I crave for chocolate chip cookies and don’t want to spend more than 10 minutes on preparation.

There are two things that make this recipe a little bit different from others: the resulting cookies are soft yet crumbly instead of chewy (I use colder butter that is not completely melted); and I use ground toasted almonds for additional flavor and texture.

After all Christmas cookie baking, I had a hard time switching to more chewy cookies, so I’ve applied a sort of shortbread approach to this recipe, using colder butter (yet without refrigerating or freezing the dough), plus I added ground almonds to the cookie dough. This allowed me to create a crumbly, non-chewy, sand-like, somewhat shortbread-like (but not completely) texture that I really enjoy and so, it seems, does everybody else who tries this cookie.

I don’t melt the butter to liquid or to the consistency that’s very soft, like you would do for a regular chewy cookie. I let the butter melt at room temperature for about an hour or so, just until it is soft enough to be used with the mixer, but still a bit hard that you really have to work your mixer to blend it with sugar to achieve creamy consistency.

While I really like toasted almonds, ground and added to the cookie dough, they are quite optional. Another lovely variation of this cookie is omitting toasted almonds and instead adding coarsely chopped walnuts to the cookie dough at the same time you would add chocolate chips.

1) Preheat oven to 350. Spread almonds on a cookie sheet and toast for about 10-15 minutes to desired toastedness. Let them cool completely.

2) In a food processor, grind toasted almonds until very finely ground, almost powder-like or very fine coarse-meal. Do not over-process, or you will end up with almond butter. Set aside.

3) In a large bowl, using mixer, blend butter with brown sugar until creamy. (Note: The butter should not be melted: I usually take a stick of butter out of refrigerator and keep it at room temperature for about an hour). Because your butter is somewhat soft but not too soft, you might have some chunks of butter flying away while using the mixer, but eventually everything will be creamy.

4) Add vanilla and an egg and continue beating until creamy again. Add finely ground almonds from step 2 and mix to incorporate. Add baking powder, flour, and 1/8 teaspoon salt and beat on low speed for a minute, then on average speed for a couple of minutes until all dry ingredients are incorporated.

5) Using spatula, fold chocolate chips into cookie batter.

6) Place spoonfuls of cookie dough onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes at 350. Mid-time through baking, I like to pull the cookie sheet out and flatten the cookies with the butter knife: because the dough is made with colder butter, they don’t spread out as much, and flattening them out just a bit helps their appearance. Don’t flatten them out too much, though. Remove from oven and let cookies cool. The best texture that I like is achieved when cookies are bright brown on the bottom and not browned on top (baking 15 minutes exactly at 350). If cookies are undercooked and the color on the bottom is too light brown, they will be too soft.

Grinding almonds in food processor

Ground almonds are mixed into the cookie dough

Cookie dough with ground almonds

Mixing chocolate chips into cookie dough

Chocolate chips are mixed into the cookie dough