Cook this: Salted chocolate buckwheat cookies from Good & Sweet
‘Their lightly cracked exterior belies the moist, tender and buttery interior,’ says Brian Levy
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
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Our cookbook of the week is Good & Sweet by Brian Levy. Over the next three days, we’ll feature more recipes from the book and an interview with the author.
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Buckwheat and chocolate make great partners. Here, Brian Levy pairs the toasty gluten-free flour with the earthy richness of cocoa in buttery, cylindrical cookies.
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The author and pastry cook used to live near Brooklyn bakery Bien Cuit, which provided inspiration for this recipe. “They had chocolate buckwheat cookies and I loved them. And I based this recipe on my memory of them,” says Levy.
“On the outside, they’re crumbly but on the inside they’re almost moist and brownie-like. The buckwheat helps achieve that combination.”
Levy’s cookbook debut, Good & Sweet, features 100 naturally sweetened dessert recipes. Unlike most recipes in the “naturally sweetened” category, though, he doesn’t use cane or coconut sugar, molasses, honey, maple or agave syrups, or fruit juice concentrate. He also steers clear of sugar replacements such as stevia.
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Instead, Levy relies on fruit in various forms and “unexpectedly” sweet ingredients. These salted chocolate buckwheat cookies, for example, get their sweetness from dates and a dusting of milk powder. The latter doesn’t just add a touch of sweetness — it serves an aesthetic purpose as well.
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Since demerara and powdered sugar were off the table, Levy looked for other ingredients to use as garnishes. Milk powder, sea salt flakes, bee pollen, coconut flour and pulverized freeze-dried fruits (and corn) add colour, flavour and visual interest.
“When you’re not using powdered sugar to sprinkle on everything, you have to come up with other ways of garnishing things and giving them that prettiness. And this recipe showcases that with the milk powder,” says Levy. “And then there’s the Maldon salt, which always gives a nice, crystalline finish.”
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SALTED CHOCOLATE BUCKWHEAT COOKIES
GF
Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 1 1/2 hours
1 cup (140 g) Medjool dates, pitted and chopped, at room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp (10 g) Dutch process cocoa powder
8 tbsp (114 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature (see note)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (115 g) buckwheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder/instant coffee
Scant 1/2 cup (80 g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
Maldon salt, for sprinkling
Nonfat dry milk powder, for dusting (see note)
Step 1
In a food processor, puree the dates, cocoa powder, butter and vanilla until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula as necessary. This can take up to 5 minutes. Add the flour, baking powder and espresso powder and process until a very smooth dough forms. Add the chocolate and process again until the dough is smooth (you want the chocolate to be broken up into tiny bits). Scrape the dough out onto a large piece of parchment and shape it into a rectangular mass, roughly resembling a building brick. Wrap it tightly and chill it for at least 30 minutes.
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Step 2
Once the dough is chilled, place a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 375F (190C). Line a 13 x 18-inch half-sheet pan with parchment.
Step 3
Use a sharp knife to divide the dough in two. Squeeze with your hands to coax each half into a rough, fat log. Use your fingers and palms to roll and refine them into smooth logs with a diameter of 1 1/4 inches. Use a sharp knife to divide the logs in half. Continue to divide each piece in half until you have 8 pieces per log, a total of 16 pieces. Arrange the cookies, flat side down, on the lined baking sheet. (The cookies won’t expand much while baking, so they can be set as close as an inch from one another.) Sprinkle a few flakes of Maldon salt over the top of each cookie, then lightly dust them with milk powder using a find-mesh sieve (or — carefully — your fingers).
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Step 4
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack.
Step 5
Try to wait at least 30 minutes to eat them or they will be a bit crumbly. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The unbaked dough logs can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to 4 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. Slice and bake the dough straight from the fridge or freezer; no thawing is necessary.
Makes: 16 cylindrical cookies
Note: To make this recipe vegan, replace the dairy butter with vegan butter and omit the milk powder.
Recipe and image excerpted from Good & Sweet. Copyright ©2022 by Brian Levy. Published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.
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‘Their lightly cracked exterior belies the moist, tender and buttery interior,’ says Brian Levy
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page.
Article content
Our cookbook of the week is Good & Sweet by Brian Levy. Over the next three days, we’ll feature more recipes from the book and an interview with the author.
Advertisement 2
Article content
Buckwheat and chocolate make great partners. Here, Brian Levy pairs the toasty gluten-free flour with the earthy richness of cocoa in buttery, cylindrical cookies.
Article content
The author and pastry cook used to live near Brooklyn bakery Bien Cuit, which provided inspiration for this recipe. “They had chocolate buckwheat cookies and I loved them. And I based this recipe on my memory of them,” says Levy.
“On the outside, they’re crumbly but on the inside they’re almost moist and brownie-like. The buckwheat helps achieve that combination.”
Levy’s cookbook debut, Good & Sweet, features 100 naturally sweetened dessert recipes. Unlike most recipes in the “naturally sweetened” category, though, he doesn’t use cane or coconut sugar, molasses, honey, maple or agave syrups, or fruit juice concentrate. He also steers clear of sugar replacements such as stevia.
Advertisement 3
Article content
Instead, Levy relies on fruit in various forms and “unexpectedly” sweet ingredients. These salted chocolate buckwheat cookies, for example, get their sweetness from dates and a dusting of milk powder. The latter doesn’t just add a touch of sweetness — it serves an aesthetic purpose as well.
-
Lebanese cookbook Forever Beirut raises funds to feed families in need
-
Chef Leandro Carreira on Portugal, ‘sleeping giant of gastronomy’
Since demerara and powdered sugar were off the table, Levy looked for other ingredients to use as garnishes. Milk powder, sea salt flakes, bee pollen, coconut flour and pulverized freeze-dried fruits (and corn) add colour, flavour and visual interest.
“When you’re not using powdered sugar to sprinkle on everything, you have to come up with other ways of garnishing things and giving them that prettiness. And this recipe showcases that with the milk powder,” says Levy. “And then there’s the Maldon salt, which always gives a nice, crystalline finish.”
Advertisement 4
Article content
SALTED CHOCOLATE BUCKWHEAT COOKIES
GF
Active time: 25 minutes | Total time: 1 1/2 hours
1 cup (140 g) Medjool dates, pitted and chopped, at room temperature
2 1/2 tbsp (10 g) Dutch process cocoa powder
8 tbsp (114 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature (see note)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup (115 g) buckwheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp espresso powder/instant coffee
Scant 1/2 cup (80 g) unsweetened chocolate, chopped
Maldon salt, for sprinkling
Nonfat dry milk powder, for dusting (see note)
Step 1
In a food processor, puree the dates, cocoa powder, butter and vanilla until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides with a rubber spatula as necessary. This can take up to 5 minutes. Add the flour, baking powder and espresso powder and process until a very smooth dough forms. Add the chocolate and process again until the dough is smooth (you want the chocolate to be broken up into tiny bits). Scrape the dough out onto a large piece of parchment and shape it into a rectangular mass, roughly resembling a building brick. Wrap it tightly and chill it for at least 30 minutes.
Advertisement 5
Article content
Step 2
Once the dough is chilled, place a rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 375F (190C). Line a 13 x 18-inch half-sheet pan with parchment.
Step 3
Use a sharp knife to divide the dough in two. Squeeze with your hands to coax each half into a rough, fat log. Use your fingers and palms to roll and refine them into smooth logs with a diameter of 1 1/4 inches. Use a sharp knife to divide the logs in half. Continue to divide each piece in half until you have 8 pieces per log, a total of 16 pieces. Arrange the cookies, flat side down, on the lined baking sheet. (The cookies won’t expand much while baking, so they can be set as close as an inch from one another.) Sprinkle a few flakes of Maldon salt over the top of each cookie, then lightly dust them with milk powder using a find-mesh sieve (or — carefully — your fingers).
Advertisement 6
Article content
Step 4
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. Transfer them to a cooling rack.
Step 5
Try to wait at least 30 minutes to eat them or they will be a bit crumbly. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. The unbaked dough logs can be wrapped and refrigerated for up to 4 days, or frozen for up to 3 months. Slice and bake the dough straight from the fridge or freezer; no thawing is necessary.
Makes: 16 cylindrical cookies
Note: To make this recipe vegan, replace the dairy butter with vegan butter and omit the milk powder.
Recipe and image excerpted from Good & Sweet. Copyright ©2022 by Brian Levy. Published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.