Chocolate Gobs

When you have less than a stick of butter and no brown sugar, the hunt is on for a good cookie recipe. I went first to Baking: From My Home to Yours from our national treasure, Dorie Greenspan. She came through on page 70 where very rich looking Chocolate Chunkers nestle cozily onto page 71. Calling for 3 tablespoons of butter and no brown sugar but five kinds of chocolate that incredibly and embarassingly were on hand, I made them. Toasted pecans and golden raisins broke the chocolate haze and I did not faint. However, one is enough for now. I will now decide who among my sturdy acquaintances can stomach the remainders.

I am the first person to appreciate a recipe name and probably one of the first to pause in midstep at a clunker. Dorie's name of Chocolate Chunkers is a bee in my bonnet, avoiding as I do words like chunk or nugget for any food. We know they were once favorites at Soho Charcuterie (now closed) and still served at Sarabeth's where they are called Chocolate Chubs. Another word I don't use. At Soho Charcuterie, they were named Chocolate Gobs. Finally. I can approve as we recall Wonka, everlasting gobstoppers, and England's Roald Dahl. Chocolate Frogs. Chocolate Gobs.

1/3 C all-purpose flour
1/4 C unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t baking powder
3 T unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 C sugar
1 t pure vanilla extract
6 oz semisweet chocoalte, chopped into chunks
6 oz premium-quality milk or white chocolate, chopped into chunks
1 1/2 C coarsely chopped nuts, preferably salted peanuts or toasted pecans
1 C moist, plump raisins (dark or golden) or finely chopped moist, plump dried apricots

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment. Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add the butter, bittersweet chocolate, and unsweetened chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, just until melted—the chocolate and butter should be smooth and shiny but not so hot that the butter separates. Remove the bowl from the heat and set it on the counter to cool.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until they are pale and foamy. Beat in the vanilla extract, then scrape down the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the melted butter and chocolate, mixing only until incorporated. With a rubber spatula, scrape down the bowl, then, on low speed, add the dry ingredients. Mix just until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough, which will be thick, smooth, and shiny. Scrape down the bowl and, using the rubber spatula, mix in the semisweet and milk (or white) chocolate chunks, nuts, and raisins—you'll have more crunchies than dough at this point. (The dough can be wrapped in plastic and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
Drop the dough by generously heaping tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about an inch of space between the mounds of dough. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes. The tops of the cookies will look a little dry but the interiors should still be soft. Remove the baking sheet and carefully, using a broad metal spatula, lift the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool to room temperature. Repeat with the remaining dough, baking only one sheet of cookies at a time and making sure to cool the baking sheets between batches. If, when the cookies are cooled, the chocolate is still gooey and you'd like it to be a bit firmer, just pop the cookies into the fridge for about 10 minutes.