Toasted Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cinnamon and Espresso Powder

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I had a hard time naming this one anything catchy, because really it is just the classic Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie with some tweaks and twists. The more baking posts I do, the more you'll probably notice that I love cinnamon, I add it to most of my baked goods.

So in this recipe, we have a couple things going on. The Tollhouse chocolate chip cookie recipe is not only purportedly the original chocolate chip cookie recipe, but it also so good, it's a good base for experimenting, as it pretty much always comes out a winner with no tweaks. I love cinnamon, so adding a touch into the cookie dough here doesn't give the cookie an overwhelming cinnamon taste, but tasting the cookie gives you a hint that something else is going on. Likewise, the espresso powder adds a nice "mocha" hint to the cookie. Neither overpower the original taste but add subtle complexity to the standard flavor base. Toasted Sugar works very similarly. It's a technique developed over at Serious Eats that I have been experimenting with. Toasting the sugar, in this case baking it in an oven safe metal pan before use, gives the sugar a less sweet and more caramel-y note to the cookie. If you do attempt Toasted Sugar, I do advise you to be careful, because the first time I attempted it I was dumb and touched the metal handle after it came out of the oven, burnt my hand in several spots and dumped two cups of sugar onto the floor and had to start over. If you do attempt it though, it's a very delicious and easy substitute for regular sugar to give a more complex flavor without much extra work.

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Toasting Sugar

Like I said up top, this comes from Serious Eats. I put two cups of sugar into an oven safe metal pan, into a 350 degree oven and let it sit for about 25-30 minutes and then took it out and poured it into a container and let it cool completely before covering. The sugar will be a slightly tan color that is a little hard to discern while looking at it, but comparing it to the original sugar you used will show it looks pretty different. Once it's completely cooled, you can use it in place of normal sugar without any substitutions.

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Dry Ingredients

2 1/4th Cups Flour
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Cinnamon Powder
1/4 tsp. Espresso Powder
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Wet Ingredients

1 Cup (2 sticks) Softened Butter
3/4th Cup Packed Brown Sugar
3/4th Cup Toasted Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs (Room Temp)
2 Cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

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Directions

1. Combine your dry ingredients together in a small bowl.
2. Place Butter, Brown Sugar, Toasted Sugar and Vanilla Extract into Mixing Bowl and mix on low to cream butter and sugars together.
3. Once combined, add Eggs one at a time into mixing bowl, only adding the second one once the first one is fully combined in. 

4. Once the second egg is fully combined, slowly add in flour mixture until it is fully mixed in.
5. Once all the flour mixture is incorporated, add Chocolate Chips
6. Make sure any loose flour is mixed in and chocolate chips have been thoroughly incorporated, then set the entire mixing bowl in the refrigerator for 1 hour.. This helps to stop cookies from spreading in oven.

7. After 1 hour, take dough out of the fridge and preheat oven to 375 degrees. By the time the oven is ready, the dough should be soft enough to scoop.
8. Drop cookies by rounded tablespoon onto an ungreased baking sheet.
9. Bake for 9-11 minutes
10.Let cool for about 5 minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire rack to cool completely