salted apricot pecan spelt chocolate chunk cookies

salted apricot pecan spelt chocolate chunk cookies

• 6 Jul 2020

I've been visiting my Dad in Brisbane and during the week I decided it was time to do some baking. I know it sounds kind of weird but I find baking relaxing. I looked online and found a rye cranberry chocolate chunk cookie recipe from Mokonuts in Paris that had garnered rave reviews. 



Although I had the base ingredients of butter, plain flour, eggs, sugar and chocolate, not surprisingly Dad didn't have rye flour, cranberries or poppyseeds in the cupboard. In true COVID-19 spirit I decided to make the cookies with what was available.



So instead of rye cranberry chocolate chunk cookies, they became salted apricot spelt and pecan chocolate chunk cookies.



I also used the Sarah Kieffer pan banging technique once the cookies came out of the oven before gently flattening the top of the cookies with a metal spatula.




Here's the recipe for you which makes 20 cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60 g eggs. My oven is a conventional oven so if you have a fan-forced oven you may need to reduce the temperature by 20ºC or switch off the fan function.


Apricot pecan spelt chocolate chunk cookies – makes 20 cookies adapted from here
Ingredients
130g wholemeal spelt flour
85g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch sea salt 
½ tsp bicarb soda
140g unsalted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
100g light brown sugar
¾ tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
50g chopped toasted pecans
80g diced dried apricots
115g 70% dark chocolate, chopped into chunks
Sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions
Sift together the flours, baking powder, sea salt and bicarb soda; set aside.

In a separate bowl or using a stand mixer, cream the butter, sugars and vanilla until light and creamy. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture and mix until flour has just combined before adding the pecans, apricots and chocolate. Divide the dough into 20 pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Cover and refrigerate the dough overnight or for up to 3 days.

Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Preheat oven to 200°C. Arrange the cookies on the trays, leaving 2 inches between each cookie. Sprinkle tops with salt flakes.

Bake the cookies one tray at a time in the centre of the oven for 10-12 minutes. Pull the baking tray from the oven and firmly tap on the bench a few times then using a spatula, tap the tops so they are flat. Let the cookies rest on the tray for 3 minutes, and then carefully transfer them to a rack. Repeat with the remaining tray. Allow the cookies to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.



I only baked 6 of the cookies and froze the rest for later. I had one still warm from the oven and it was delicious! Crunchy, salty, slightly tart from the apricots and melted bittersweet chocolate. What's not to love? If you make these please don't use Turkish apricots because they won't provide the tartness needed. If you can't find any other kind of apricots, then I'd use cranberries as originally suggested or dried sour cherries instead.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian