What would it feel like if vacations lasted forever? ย Would it feel as good as I think it would? ย Yes. ย Yes, it would.
Reality hits hard after you’ve had days to let your brain ease into a happy mush.
I’m not complaining. ย Does it sound like I’m complaining? ย Ok… maybe a little. ย It’s just hard to let vacation time slip out of my hands.
Maybe permanent vacation is like only eating these cookies for the rest of your days. ย Sure, they have both chocolate and vanilla, but you can’t eat cookies forever. ย They’d lose their cookie goodness. ย Maybe permanent vacation would somehow start to feel like work. ย Constant cookies and vacation? I’d be willing to experiment ย just to see how the two would treat me after a few years.
While I’m day dreaming of vacations past, I’d like to send a big fat thank you to my darling friends who hosted us this weekend.
Britt is one of my few friends who actually still has a land line. ย Phone with a cord!? ย Well done.
Seattle is a great city. ย A big thank you for all of your Seattle suggestions. ย I actually used to live in Seattle so this vacation was half sightseeing and half old stomping ground good times.
Now… cookies.
Salted Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart
These cookies are the perfect combination of vanilla and dark chocolate. ย They aren’t too sweet and the chunky sea salt really brings out the rich chocolate flavor. ย They’re pretty impressive for slice and bake refrigerator cookies. ย Can you dig it? ย I can.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 14 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 large egg yolk, save egg white for brushing cookie dough
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or scraped vanilla beans from 1/4 vanilla pod
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons semi sweet chocolate, very finely chopped
- course sea salt
- Sift flour and salt into a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Mix in egg yolk and vanilla bean or extract. Gradually add flour mixture; mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Remove half of the dough; set aside. Add cocoa powder and chopped chocolate to remaining dough; mix on low speed until well combined. Turn out chocolate dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a 10-inch log, about 1-inch wide and 1/2-inch tall. Repeat with reserved vanilla dough. Wrap each rectangle in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until slightly firm, at least 30 minutes.
- Remove the chilled doughs from the fridge. ย Brush the top of the chocolate piece with a bit of a remaining egg white. ย This will help the chocolate and vanilla stick together. ย Press the vanilla piece on top of the moistened chocolate piece. ย Press lightly. ย Rewrap dough and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut log into 1/4-inch-thick rounds; space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. If dough becomes too soft to slice cleanly, return to freezer until firm. ย Sprinkle course sea salt onto the chocolate half of the cookies. ย Press in lightly with fingertips.
- Bake until firm to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; let cool. Cookies can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.
71 Responses
I will definitely try making these in my shop tomorrow! They look fabulous!
These look simply awesome! Yum!
I made these cookies yesterday and they were really beautiful! And they were WAY more addicting than I anticipated.
I am thinking of making them again, this time with orange zest in the dough. YUM?
So Joy, I’m on a quest to comment on all your blog posts of the recipes I have tried!! I LOVED these cookies. Not too sweet and they had the best buttery texture!!! I didn’t have coarse sea salt so I made it without but they were still yummy :)
I just pulled these out of the oven, in a house full of gamers. They are almost ALL gone! Had a little trouble slicing them evenly while frozen, but that was the only hiccup. I think I may have eaten half a cup of the dough itself, LOL. Thanks Joy, these are beautimous!
Just a suggestion for the cookie slicing, try filling a cup with hot water and dipping the knife in it so that the knife is hot when you slice. Kind of like warming the ice cream scoop. :)
Hi Joy,
These cookies sound really good. I am looking for cookie dough recipes that freeze well. I like to make a lot of cookies at Christmas time and I want to be able to make the dough way ahead of time then bake the cookies later. Can you help.
i think this would be a good recipe for freezing. Also try my Chewy Ginger Chocolate Cookies on my homepage right now. Yum! Happy Baking!
I made these and enjoyed them. I cut whole log down the middle, flipped one side over, and pasted it back together with egg whites. It was easy and made the cookies into a checkerboard design. Thanks for all the wonderful recipes, Joy.
So I was just looking through your recipe index looking for a dessert to bring to my dinner club…and noticed you’re friends with my friend Britt! Such a surprise! I love your blog and drool over it often :)
I just made these cookies and they’re delicious! Not too sweet overall, and I love the added flavour of salt. Bringing them to my sister’s tomorrow, and I have a feeling she’ll be requesting these again..
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
My 14-year-old sister and I just made these on a rainy English Sunday and we’ve decided, delicious though they are buttercream improves everything so we’re making white and dark chocolate icing to spread on each different coloured half and sandwich them, oreo style.