Fishel's Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Fishel’s Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Gluten Free and Decadent

For my father

Adapted by My Little Blue Heron

from Molly O’Neill’s adaptation from Freds of Barney’s New York

Freds is the pricey restaurant at Barney’s Madison Avenue in New York City. Regular shoppers at Barney’s can afford to be regular customers at Freds (there is no apostrophe). I had a look at Freds's menus, and I liked Estelle’s Chicken Soup: “Grandma’s recipe to cure colds and stay thin”. It weighs in at $14. Donning no more than a $10 price tag, there's an "assorted cookie" selection on the dessert menu.

O'Neill adapted the recipe for her column in the Times and I adapted her adaptation for the GF crowd. 

I played around with the ratio of unsweetened and sweetened chocolates, and used vanilla-scented sugar (it's not at all required, but if you have it, it's a great addition.)

“Fishel” is Yiddish for “Fred”. My father’s middle name is "Fishel" or "Fred". My dad appreciates chocolate, pecans and good grammar. For him, a triple play.

Happy 2018!

May you be happy, healthy, peaceful, be well-accomplished in all you do,

and may you live with ease - in and out of the kitchen,

xojane

Fishel’s Chocolate-Pecan Cookies

Preparation:

Set racks to top and bottom third of oven and preheat to 325º F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Ingredients:

7.5 oz./212.6 g. semisweet chocolate

4 oz./113.5 g. unsweetened chocolate

3 oz./85 g./6 Tbsp. butter (unsalted)

3 eggs, size large, room temperature

200 g./7 oz./1 cup granulated white sugar (vanilla sugar, if you have it in your pantry)

¼ tsp. vanilla powder (Authentic Foods brand) or 1 tsp. GF vanilla extract

3 g./1 tsp. Kosher salt

5 g./1 tsp. baking powder (Aluminum-free preferred)

40 g./4 Tbsp. “cup for cup” Gluten Free flour, “King Arthur” brand recommended (WITH Xanthan gum)

177 g./6.25 oz. chocolate chips

100-125 g./1 c. pecans, toasted, cooled and coarsely chopped

Mis-en-place:

In a small bowl, whisk together: flour, salt, baking powder. Set aside.

When nuts are toasted (350º F. for about 6-8 minutes) and cooled, chop coarsely and set aside in a small bowl.

Measure out chocolate chips and set aside in a small bowl.

Crack eggs into a large glass or small bowl and set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl, combine chopped chocolates (don’t melt the chocolate chips!) and butter, and place over barely simmering water (make sure steam doesn’t get into the chocolate) and melt slowly, stirring often. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

Now you’re ready.

Procedure:

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until frothed. Add sugar and continue to beat until the mixture thickens and pales. Add vanilla powder (or extract.)

Add slightly cooled chocolate and mix until combined.

Add flour mixture until just combined.

Dump in nuts and chocolate chips and fold until incorporated.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop onto parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 10-15 minutes, rotating top to bottom/front to back, half way through the bake. Bake until just set. There may be some cracks on the top. That's fine. Remove cookies from sheets and cool on racks.

Yield: varies depending on size of cookie, but figure about 60-80 cookies.