Mexican Chocolate Lava Cookies

Mexican Chocolate Lava Cookies

The holidays have arrived and, like myself, you are probably finalizing menus and about to dash off to the local farmers market, the grocery store, and your local delicatessen with shopping list in hand. Tis the season for home cooks to go into overdrive and, once again, manage to put a noteworthy holiday feast on the table with a certain air of relaxed aplomb.

Christmas in Buddhist Thailand is a non event other than retail of course. So every year rather than cooking a traditional western Christmas dinner I gravitate towards a meal drawn from another culture. This year I am doing a Mexican Christmas supper beginning with a Sopa de lima from the Yucatan (click here). Following that a succulent Barbacoa (click here) from central Mexico along with  frijoles refritos (click here) and a spicy slaw with apples and avocados. For dessert I’ve come up with a recipe for Mexican Chocolate Lava Cookies that will be served with cinnamon ice cream drizzled with caramel sauce. Cocoa is native to Mexico and often combined with cinnamon and, yes, chile in both savoy and sweet dishes that date back to the Aztecs. The soft chocolate “lava” chunks in these cookies are a reference to the active volcanoes that dot the landscape in central Mexico, and the caramel sauce is a nod to the Spanish influence in Mexico’s evolving cuisine.

I have adapted this recipe from a recipe by Jacques Torres for his now famous chocolate chip cookies that forever changed the conversation about what the best chocolate chip cookie should be.

There may be just enough time left to add these cookies to your holiday preparations, but if not do try them first thing in the new year!

Mexican Chocolate Lava Cookies   makes 24

• ½ cup pecans (or walnuts) lightly toasted
• 4 ½ ounces cake flour
• 4 ½ ounce bread flour
• 5 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
• ½ cup + 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
• ½ cup + 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• ¾ teaspoon baking soda
• ¾ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon fine salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon allspice
• ¼ teaspoon pure ground red chile powder ( New Mexican)
• 1 extra large egg
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 10 ounces dark chocolate (best quality), chopped into chunky shards
• crystallized salt (Maldon)

Ideally make the cookie dough 24 hours before baking.

Preheat the oven to 325 F/ 160 C   with the baking rack set in the middle position.

Spread out nuts in a single layer in a baking tray and toast them in the oven until they are fragrant, about 10 minutes. Remove the nuts from the oven, set them aside to cool, and turn off the oven. When cool break the nuts up by hand and set aside.

Combine the cake flour and bread flour in large mixing bowl and stir to combine.

Combine the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nut meg, allspice, and red chile powder in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and cream at medium high speed for 5 minutes or until the mixture is a light color and fluffy in texture.
Add the egg and mix on medium speed until the egg is completely incorporated into the dough. Add the vanilla and mix to incorporate.

Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture and mix until the flour is completely mixed into the dough.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and add the chocolate and nuts and, using a silicone spatula, mix until combined.

Cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 180 C    with the baking rack set in the middle position. Set up 2 cooling racks.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and, using a scale divide the dough into 1 ½ ounce portions. Roll the portions into balls between the palms of your hands.

For best results, baking one tray of 6 cookies at a time will deliver the best results. Refrigerate the remaining balls of dough until you are ready to bake them.

Place 6 balls of dough on the tray with plenty of space between them. Top each ball with a light sprinkle of crystallized salt, patting the top lightly so the salt sticks to the surface. Transfer them to the oven and bake for 6 minutes. Open the oven and rotate the tray from front to back and bake another 6 minutes.

Mexican Chocolate Lava Cookies

The cookies should be just slightly golden but still very soft while not looking overly moist on the middle of the top of the cookie. You do not want to over bake these cookies so their texture will remain soft, the chocolate still holding its shape, once the cookies are cool.

When done remove promptly from the oven and place the tray on a cooling rack for 5 minutes. Then gently remove the cookies from the baking sheet and place them directly on a cooling rack.

Repeat the same process for the remaining cookies.

When the cookies are nearly cool you can serve them at once while still slightly warm.

Otherwise let the cookies cool completely and then store in a large cookie tin with the cookies stacked in just 2 layers.

As mentioned these cookies are ideal served with cinnamon ice cream. The caramel sauce is optional, but it does make a very special taste of Mexico.