Making No-Flour Chocolate Cookies!

This recipe is from the book Cookies to Die For! by Bev Shaffer, that I recently acquired. It makes about a dozen flourless chocolate cookies with walnuts.
“Ingredients

• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• Pinch of salt
• 2 cups walnuts, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 4 large egg whites, room temperature

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Using an electric mixer, in a large bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, and salt. Add walnuts; mix to blend.

In a small bowl, whisk together vanilla and egg whites.

With mixer on low speed, slowly add egg mixture to dry ingredients. Scare bottom and sides of bowl. Turn speed to medium and mix for two minutes to blend well.

Using a ¼ cup measure or equivalent cookie scoop, drop dough onto prepared cookies sheets, spacing at least three inches apart.

Place cookie sheet in oven and immediately turn oven to 325 degrees. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes or until thin cracks appear on the cookies’ surface.

Cool completely on a wire rack before attempting to remove cookies. Makes about one dozen” (Shaffer 90).

For my first post I tried to start with a recipe that would be interesting. The lack of flour showed no issues and this recipe was easy to do within an hour! I finished mixing all of the ingredients and scooping them into a cookie sheet in about forty minutes, after gathering all of my supplies first.

I did like this recipe; however, I did stray away in some cases. Shaffer recommended that the two cups of walnuts were toasted (Shaffer 90), but for the sake of convenience, I did not do this process before mixing. Also, the egg whites I used were not yet at room temperature when I mixed them, also for the sake of convenience.

For my first time baking cookies without flour, I liked the results. This brought a new experience and almost a new way for me to bake cookies in the future. However, from a critical standpoint, there were flaws. I think the walnuts did overpower the chocolate flavor, and a ¼ measuring cup was an issue since these cookies spread a lot when in the oven.

For the future if I ever did try this recipe I would change things. For starters, I would try toasting the walnuts beforehand, to see any differences. Also, since the walnut flavor was overpowering, I would reduce the amount of walnuts and I would add more sugar and cocoa powder. I also think that with a strong walnut flavor, the cookies ended up a little bland. I was thinking that maybe I could add something, like chocolate chips, to make the cookies more interesting.

What do you think I could add to make this recipe more flavorful?

Shaffer, Bev. Cookies to Die For! Gretna, LA: Pelican Pub., 2009. Print.