When you are in the mood for the salt air and quiet seaside towns in the summer, whip up a batch of these Seaside Chocolate Chip Cookies. Close your eyes and feel the sand in your toes and splurge on a moment remembering summertime picnics on the beach with this chocolate and macadamia nut indulgence.
Seaside Chocolate Chip Cookies?
What do chocolate chip cookies have to do with the seaside you ask? Everything! My favorite summer memories are stopping at the local sub shop for foot long sandwiches and chips and driving the hour plus to the New Jersey seashore to spend a day in the sunshine and salt air. Of course, the cooler was packed with cold drinks, and stashed away for later were always homemade chocolate chip cookies. Because it was warm out, the chocolate chips remained semi melted and gooey. There is nothing like burying your feet in the cool sand and surf, staring out into the endless blue waters, while sinking your teeth into a homemade chocolate chip cookie.
Ingredients
You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat” right? Well, that goes for what you cook too. A cookie is only as good as the ingredients you use. There’s no room for cheap substitutes when you are preparing cookies. Good flour, grass-fed butter, organic eggs, the best chocolate chips, quality nuts, and maybe even a little homemade vanilla extract will ensure you have a winner every time.
- I prefer using Jovial Einkorn flour in all my baking. It is a healthier, ancient grain, and many who suffer from gluten issues have found relief using Einkorn.
- Grass-fed butter is just unbelievable with its beautiful yellow-orange color, exceptional flavor, and increased vitamin and mineral content. Bonus: You can get grass-fed butter at Costco in bulk, too!
- My favorite sugar is Panela Unrefined Cane Sugar. Not only do I use it in all my baking as a perfect substitute for white or brown sugar, but the flavor is exceptional. It is essentially natural brown sugar without anything removed. (Brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses added to it). Why process the sugar when you can get it in its natural form with all the vitamins and minerals intact?
- I usually buy nuts at Costco or Trader Joe’s because their prices are great.
- My preferred chocolate addiction is Guittard 63% extra dark chocolate chips or Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips. They melt nicely, and their flavor is fantastic!
- Technically, Parchment Baking Sheets are not an ingredient, but they deserve an honorable mention because I use them for EVERYTHING I bake/cook. I even dedicated a special drawer in my kitchen for easy convenience. These are 200-count unbleached parchment sheets. Opening the drawer and slipping a sheet out is so handy.
The Recipe
Seaside Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, room temp (I use salted Kerrygold grass-fed or Kirkland grass-fed butter).
- 1 1/2 cups Panela, Sucanant, or Coconut Sugar (unprocessed sugar), or you can use 1 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar).
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (I use Einkorn all-purpose flour)
- 1 T cornstarch or arrowroot powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 3 cups dark chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli 60% or Guitard dark chocolate chips or a mix of both...why not?)
- 1 cup toasted macadamia nuts (you can substitute walnuts, but macadamia nuts are divine in this recipe and remind me of the sea).
Instructions
- In a cast iron skillet, toast macadamia nuts or walnuts until semi golden and flavorful. Set aside to cool, and then roughly chop into large chunks.
- In a Kitchenaid mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or hand mixer in a large bowl, cream together room temperature butter with sugar.
- Add eggs, one at a time until incorporated.
- Add vanilla
- Add flour, cornstarch or arrowroot powder, baking soda, and sea salt.
- Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.
- If you want a flatter cookie, scoop out 12 balls with a cookie scoop and bake at 350° for 10-13 minutes (depending on your cookie preference), on a parchment lined cookie sheet..
- If you like your cookies to have some height, scoop out all the dough with a cookie scoop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Don't worry about spacing. You are not baking them like this. Place the tray into the freezer for at least an hour. At this point, I place the frozen dough balls into a freezer bag so I can pull out however many cookies I want should the craving arise and I want a warm cookie with my tea. Brilliant!
- Now if you really want to go for the seaside vibe, where warm chocolate chip cookies are purchased on the boardwalk that are the size of your hand, then divide the dough into 5 oz a cookie (about 6 per cookie sheet), and bake for 20-22 minutes in a 350° oven. If I were giving these as a gift, I would do this. But for everyday—walk by the cookie jar and grab a cookie indulgence—I will stick to the regular cookie scoop size.
Are You Nuts or Not?
Seaside Chocolate Chip Cookies are amazing because they are loaded with chocolate chips and toasted macadamia nuts. Macadamia nuts are imported from Hawaii (a seaside state), and therefore the perfect choice for a seaside cookie. But if you don’t happen to have those on hand, walnuts will make a great second choice. Just make sure they are toasted. And if you don’t like nuts in your cookies…I’m sorry. That doesn’t compute. But if you are not a nut, like me, then feel free to add extra chocolate chips. These are your homemade cookies after all.
Size Matters
Technically, when you go to a seaside bakery, such as Levain Bakery in Long Island, New York, the cookies are 6oz each. That’s gynormous! At $6 a pop, I should hope so. That may be a good size to share…not, but I prefer a smaller cookie so I don’t feel so bad snagging two or three. To get a consistent size cookie, I recommend using a scoop. They come in all sizes and make your cookies, muffins, meatballs, ice cream, Adaptogen Bliss Bombs, and melon balls, all uniform in size. I use a #40 cookie scoop for a smaller cookie, but if you want to go big or go home, use a #10 ice cream scoop…but don’t forget to bake a little longer. And if you are ever at the far tip of Long Island, stop at Levain. You probably would have eaten all your own cookies by then anyway. It’s quite a day trip.
Freeze the Batter Before It Goes In The Oven
The miracle is in the details. Something amazing happens when cold butter hits a hot oven…steam. The trick to adding height to your cookies, unless of course you like them flat, is making sure your butter is extra cold. The steam from the frozen butter causes the cookies to rise and become fluffy. So, taking the extra time to freeze these little bliss balls for at least an hour ensures a proper rise.
Also, what I love about chocolate chip cookies is the melted chocolate oozing everywhere when you break it in half. If I bake all the cookies at once and place them in a cookie jar, they get stale and cooled (not my favorite). When you place the raw cookie dough balls in the freezer, you can pop them onto a cookie sheet and bake a fresh batch right before tea time, when company is on it’s way, or when you are asked to bring dessert to a potluck. To always have fresh baked cookies on the ready…now that is just brilliant!
BYO Cookies
Granted, bakeries line the streets of these seaside villages, but I am rarely tempted when I know I have my own Seaside Chocolate Chip Cookies to indulge in. Whether you prefer your cookie flat or high, underbaked or crispy, 6 oz or 2 oz, bake them the way you like them. And if you have the chance to take a picnic to the beach, stop for subs, BUT bring your own fresh baked cookies from home. Sink your feet in the cool sand and sea and smile. I promise to not say, “I told you so.”
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Lodge, 9″ Cast Iron Skillet for toasting nuts. This is one of my favorite pans. Great for fried eggs, toasting nuts, and cornbread. Just make sure and keep it well seasoned and you will have a friend for life.
Parchment Baking Sheets These are the best price for unbleached parchment sheets 200 count!
Guittard 63% extra dark chocolate chips
Ghirardelli 60% chocolate chips
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In everything you do -eat, play, and love- may it always be Seasoned with Joy!
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