Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

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A few weeks ago, I was talking to someone about chocolate chip cookies, which is one of my favorite subjects. The French like them, too. They just call them les cookies, as if they didn’t need further clarification. But every time I make a batch of chocolate chip cookies, I have zero trouble handing them off to people. Who can resist a chocolate chip cookie, especially when it’s warm, with oozing chunks of melted chocolate surrounded by chewy oatmeal, and soft, butter-rich dough?

I’ve got a number of chocolate chip cookie recipes on my site; salted butter chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip-tahini cookies, buckwheat chocolate chip cookies, and (of course) chocolate-chocolate chip cookies, with a double…I mean, triple dose of chocolate. But one I just revisited was this one made with mesquite flour. And let me tell you, you’ll want to revisit it, too, once you make them.

The recipe is from Super Natural Cooking my friend Heidi Swanson and uses mesquite flour which is not something you come across every day. At the time (which was back in 2007), I found a small bag of it when I was on book tour in Texas and stashed it in my suitcase until I got home. Thankfully mesquite flour seems to be more widely available now, perhaps due to the interest in whole-grain cooking, or gluten-free baking. Either way, it’s easy to get and worth stocking in your pantry, if just to make these cookies. And for what it’s worth, in addition to making chocolate chip cookies, it also gave me a chance to engage in one of my other favorite activities: chop up some chocolate.

Mixing up the dough, and scooping it into rounds, I snatched a few samples as I went. Like the pages of Proust, I was flooded with memories of why I loved these cookies so much.

It’s been eleven years, so I made a few updates to the recipe. (Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all go back eleven years and change a few things?) But they’re still every bit as good, if not, even better.

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Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Super Natural Cooking (Ten Speed) by Heidi Swanson
One of the changes I made to the original recipe was to chop up my own chocolate and use those bits in place of traditional chocolate chips. I like the way the chocolate is irregularly spaced in the cookies, but feel free to use regular chocolate chips if you'd like. Mesquite flour is definitely wonderful in these cookies and is often called mesquite powder. If you decide to use whole-wheat pastry flour, you can find it at natural foods stores as well as Bob's Red Mill, Amazon and King Arthur Flour. This makes a lot of cookie dough, so feel free to freeze half of the dough in a zip-top bag for use another time. Tip: If you form them into mounds first, then freeze them, they'll be ready to bake later.
  • 2 1/2 cups (330g) all-purpose or whole-wheat pastry flour
  • 1 cup (100g) mesquite flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder, preferably aluminum-free
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 8 ounces (1 cup, 225g) unsalted butter, cubed, at room temperature
  • 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
  • 1 cup (180g) packed light brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 2 cups (160g) rolled oats (not instant)
  • 2 cups (360g) coarsely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chocolate chips
  • Prepare two baking sheets covered with parchment paper or lined with silicone baking mats.
  • Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
  • In a bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or by hand in a large bowl (and a strong arm!), beat the butter until soft. Add the sugar and beat until creamy. If using a mixer, stop it once or twice and scrape down the sides.
  • Add the eggs one at a time until completely incorporated, then the vanilla.
  • Add the flour mixture in three batches, incorporating it as you go.
  • Mix in the oats and chocolate chips. The dough is quite stiff at this point and if you’re not using a powerful standing electric mixer, you may wish to roll up your sleeves and use your hands, like I did.
  • Set mounds, each a generous two tablespoons (about the size of an unshelled walnut) of dough, evenly-spaced onto the baking sheet. Use your hand to slightly flatten the tops of the rounds of cookie dough.
  • Bake for 10-11 minutes, until just beginning to set. A few minutes before they'd done, open the oven door and use a pancake turner or metal spatula to lightly tap the tops of the cookies down, so the tops are flat. This helps keeps the cookies moist, once baked. (These cookies are better underdone than overdone, so keep an eye on them closely near the end of the suggested baking time.)

Notes

Note: The original recipe calls for ‘natural cane sugar’, which are unrefined sugar crystals. I’ve made this with both granulated white sugar and light brown sugar crystals and they both came out fine. For a softer, chewier cookie, I suggest using light brown sugar crystals, if you can find them.

Links & Resources:

Mesquite flour on Amazon

French Sugars

Chocolate-Covered Caramelized Matzoh Crunch

Clotilde’s Very Chocolate Cookies

Baking Ingredients and Substitutions

Why you should use aluminum-free baking powder

Julia Child’s Chocolate Mousse

“Baked” Brownies

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92 comments

    • Nabeela

    You are all killing me with your chocolate chip cookie recipes. I’ve been dying to try the chocolate chip ice cream sandwich recipe from your book…but where can I find the time when I am busy churning, lets see, pear caramel ice cream, mango sorbet, peach ice cream…the list goes on and on. I’d need my toes along with my fingers to count the number of recipes I’ve tried from your book. Thanks a lot David for making ice cream making so easy for the home cook. My husband and guests are very thankful for your book too ;)

    • flavia

    The fact that the flour came from Argentina left me wondering if I can find it here in Brasil (I have never heard of it). I am certainly giving it a shot ASAP !! In a non-related matter, I baked your pound cake with passion fruit glaze last night… It was delicious! I was wondering if poppy seeds worked with passion fruit though… It is one of my very favorite fruits and readily available to us year-round…

    • Kat

    this mesquite flour sounds wonderful! do the cookies come out smoky tasting?

    • David

    flavia: I wonder if it’s like those ‘French’ ceramic butter holders they sell in the US, where you’re supposed to add water to the bottom to safely store butter at room temperature.

    When I couldn’t find one here, I asked a Le Creuset rep, who said, “We make those for the Americans.”

    • Sara, Ms. Adventures in Italy

    Mesquite flour….you have me intrigued. I guess it’s another thing to keep my eye out for! Crazy of all crazies..maybe it’s available here in Italy :)

    • Maryann

    I love your tip about knocking the cookies over the head, David :)

    • Jill

    I thought it was the type of butter/shortening used that determined the moistness. I’m searching for a chewy oatmeal cookie if you want to help me with that one. Do I just whack it a bit too?

    • brian

    Hi David, so what’s the flavor that the mesquite adds? Smokey, spicey? I think these cookies deserve a different name since the ingredient list strays pretty far from more traditional chocolate chip recipe (not that traditional is better). Maybe something like cowboy cookies? I dunno.

      • Bethany

      Cowboy cookies are already a thing. They have oatmeal and nuts along with the chocolate chips.

    • Hillary

    Those cookies seem like they’re to die for. What great secrets!

    • Marvin

    These cookies looks so delicious David! I clicked on your link for mesquite meal and I have a silly question. What exactly is it made from? Mesquite beans? What are those?

    • Amanda

    I thought I’d let you know that in searching for Mesquite flour online, I came upon this site : Casa de Fruta
    They sell it in small 7 oz bags if you just want to try it out ($4.95) or you can buy bigger 16 oz & 36 oz bags as well. 
    As for Marvin’s question as to what mesquite IS and other peoples questions on the flavor it imparts, Casa’s (and mesquitemagic.com’s) site says this:
    ——————————
    This traditional Native American food is produced by gathering ripened seed pods from the mesquite tree and grinding them into a high protein flour.  Desert dwellers have used mesquite pods as a staple food for centuries and bartered with them to neighboring tribes.   Mesquite meal is great for flavoring steaks, chicken, pork and fish. It can be added to vegetable stir-fries, scrambled eggs, biscuits, breads, soups, even ice cream.  The list is endless.

    Mesquite meal can be used as either flour or a spice. As flour, it is generally used in combination with other flours using about 30% mesquite. As a spice, sprinkle generously then grill, fry, broil or add it to almost anything for a great mesquite flavor. It won’t take long to adjust the amount to use for your personal taste.

    In addition to its great taste, the major benefits of mesquite meal include high dietary fiber content, high protein and a high lysine content. It’s also a good source of potassium and zinc.

    • radish

    Now I am really intrigued – and I actually have that natural sugar Heidi uses/recommends as we are now a white sugar free household – I miss the white sugar though (after all, it’s what I know!!) I’ll hunt the mesquite flour down and give these cookies a go. I love your second secret – it would have never occurred to me to do that – I’ll have to try and see!

    • Sarah

    Heidi’s chocolate chip cookie recipe is my absolute favorite! I love the smokiness of the mesquite flour and that the cookies have some heft to them. God, I love Heidi so much. :)

    • sarah

    you are a very BAD influence…i have now spent $20 on fleur de sel, $10 on the aluminum-free baking powder..and now i’m hunting for mesquite flour!

    btw, what temperature do you bake the cookies at? (did i completely miss that part?)

    • Dominique

    hello david, I am a huge fan of yours and admire your talent!!! I was wondering if I could replace the mesquite flour with something else.. I live in crete, greece and I don’t think i will find mesquite flour ever!!!! What about a whole wheat flour or a bread flour?? by the way, I bake your chocolate chip cookies all the time and they are the best!!!!

    • charlotte s

    mmm these cookies look absolutely delicious! i’ll second dominique’s Q- what do you think i can replace mesquite with?
    thanx for your lovely and extremely entertaining posts!

    • joanne

    Oh lordy, now I’m gonna have to go searching for the mesquite flour. Oh by the way, I found a tortilla warmer at my local suburbian Target! Just under $5.

    • Womans Health

    Oh gee, wonder if I’ll be able to buy that flour here in our bulk health food store. We live in a rural community in the mountains but this recipe sounds incredible. What an excellent blog:-))

    • Julieta

    David, I’m argentinian, a pastry chef, and now I feel soooo bad that I don’t know what is that flour, but I think I know the tree :(

    • David

    Sarah: $10? I just pick up a few cans at Trader Joe’s for $1.69 each. Even in Paris, it’s only a couple of euros—and it’s imported!

    But I know what you mean; when I saw the price of the mesquite I was apprehensive, but like the fleur de sel that I’m sure you’re enjoying, I think you’ll find it worth it.

    Julieta: Isn’t it funny what is, and isn’t available? Even though we share a border with Italy, it’s impossible to find a lot of the Italian products that are so easily available in the US. I think it’s because we Americans are such good shoppers! ; )

    Joanne: Less than $5? Thanks for rubbing it in! Next time I swing through the states, I’m stopping by for warm tortillas as a consolation prize…

    brian: It’s an unusual sweet-smoky flavor. I love it and am looking forward to trying to use the rest of the mesquite flour in other applications.

    Dominique: I’m not sure. You could likely use flour, but I might try grinding up oatmeal and using that. That’s another way to ensure moist, soft chocolate chip cookies.

    • William A.

    I can share my own chocolate chips cookie recipe, it’s easy and they are really tasty!

    4 1/2 cups crispy rice cereal
    1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 cup butter, softened
    3/4 cup white sugar
    3/4 cup light brown sugar
    2 eggs
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

    1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Process cereal in a food processor or blender to a fine powder. Measure out 1 cup of the powder and combine it with the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

    2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla. Gradually blend in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheet.

    3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. To keep cookies from getting too brown on the bottom place the cookie sheet with the raw cookie dough on it on top of another empty cookie sheet before placing the cookies in the oven. The extra cookie sheet helps keep the cookies from getting too brown on the bottoms.
    I also love
    david’s cookies    !

    • fanny

    Sometimes I would rather give up my french citizenship; even if that means giving up on you…
    Trop yummy ces cookies!

      • gfy

      Oh wow, I used to subscribe to your blog…just wanted to say Hi!

    • SilBsAs

    I feel terrible!! I live in Argentina and as Julieta said,I didn’t even know it existed…I’ll do a serious research. Thanks for the idea anyway!

    • suzanne

    Another tip for keeping the cookies moist is to add an extra egg yolk (or, if there are 2 or more eggs called for, eliminate the whites from one of the eggs in the recipe).

    Then you can use the extra egg white in David’s Banana Cake!

    • Dana

    Completely off topic, but I needed to share. After making A LOT of the flavors from The Perfect Scoop, I finally got up the courage to make up my own ice cream flavor today, and it came out deliciously. It’s an apple ice cream, but instead of cooking the apples on the stove top, I baked them with cinnamon and brown sugar, so the result ended up tasting like apple pie.

    Apple “Pie” Ice Cream

    2 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
    3/4 cup brown sugar
    1 tsp. Cinnamon
    1 1/2 cups cream

    Preheat oven to 375. Mix apples, cinnamon, and 1/2 cup brown sugar in a baking dish. Cover with foil and bake for 30-45 minutes, mixing about every 15 minutes. When apples are very soft, take out of oven and pour apples and the liquid in the pan into a blender and puree well. Add a scant 1/4 cup of brown sugar to the puree, adjust for sweetness of apples. Strain through a mesh sieve, and then mix in cream. Chill in refrigerator, then churn.

    • David

    William: Thanks for the recipe!

    I wonder if the ground-up Rice Krispies would be the same as just using rice flour? I brought a box back from the states, but I’m hoarding it for Rice Krispie treats (my French friends love them!)

    And Dana, too bad I don’t have Volume II in the pipeline; your recipe looks delicious. I bet it would be fun to add some sort of mix-in, like toffee or caramelized dough, to recreate the ‘crust’. Glad you’re getting good use of your ice cream maker in preparation for the holidays…

    • Figs Olives Wine

    David, I can’t wait to try your tapping trick. What a good idea! Thanks.

    • Max

    sounds great, I’ll have to try it!

    • catalunya spain

    Excellent recipe, thanks a million – must give this a try at the weekend!

    • Rohan

    David, these sound amazing. I’m sitting at work and going crazy with thoughts of smoky, gooey chocolate chip cookies. But where on earth does one find mesquite flour in New York? I’ve been on the phone with Zabar’s, Citarella, Whole Foods and Fairway for the last half hour and no-one seems to have it. Perhaps some of your readers would care to shed some light on the matter?

    • David

    Rohan: You can find mesquite flour using some of the links in the post. There are a few sources online that I posted, as well as a link to the forum on Heidi’s site for more tips at the end.

    Do try the cookies—I’m hooked!

    • Catherine

    Just sourced some mesquite flour in Australia (where I live) – AUS$22.95 for 500g… eek!!! Still you and Heidi have made it sound so wonderful, I think I’m going to have to try some so I don’t die from curiosity…

    My main tip for moist cookies is to keep a constant eye on them while they are cooking.

    Never trust the recipe’s time, because it was tested in a different oven. Invariably (maybe I have a hot oven?) I have to shorten the time. I just wait until they are the colour that I like them to be – a lightish golden brown and just starting to darken round the edges – and out they go to cool. Some may call this undercooking them, but it works for me.

    • David

    Catherine: You have little sympathy from me, my chèrie. I paid $6.99 for a 7 oz bag…but I also had to fly round-trip to Texas!

    You might want to search around some more, or check if there’s any gluten-free sources in your area or on the ‘net, that are in Australia or New Zealand. Sometimes it’s called mesquite ‘meal’ as well.

    I’m also interested in trying this cookie with buckwheat flour at some point in the future, which is more available. If I do, I’ll post the results.

    • dddg

    I tried these with buckwheat flour this weekend, since I couldn’t find mesquite flour (and I did it without reading the comment of yours, above, too!) — they turned out puffed and pale (no doubt because I also used white flour and sugar) with dark speckles, without the crackles that your cookies seem to have. I was expecting a more pronounced grain flavor to them and will try a higher proportion of buckwheat flour next time. Still, the friends that tried them ate them up.

    • Joanna

    HI David,
    I’ve been wanting to make these ever since you posted the recipe, and finally am going to this week. The mesquite flour is available at the co-op just down the street from my house. QUESTION: I just noticed the absence of brown sugar in your recipe. Is there a specific reason for this? J’adore brown sugar, and hate the idea of not using it in a chocolate chip cookie. Do you advise against replacing one of the 2 cups of sugar with brown sugar?
    By the way, the candied bacon goes quite awesomely with your maple ice cream recipe (sans walnuts) as well. It’s been a huge hit with my pals.

    • David

    Hi Joanna: Heidi’s original recipe calls for natural cane sugar, which I believe is unrefined sugar crystals, which is a brown sugar, but granulated. (I know she personally uses this one.)

    This is a great recipe & I’m glad you’re giving it a try!

    • Joanna

    Thanks, David. I made them yesterday and ended up using half unrefined can sugar (not the stuff Heidi uses, I was too cheap to spring for it – just the slightly tan stuff that’s the consistency of granulated sugar) and half Billington’s All Natural Dark Brown Molasses sugar, which is just so divine it makes me weep: http://sugarsavvy.net/2006/08/30/title_125/

    So, I really like the cookies! But, I somehow feel like I need to qualify/explain them before letting people taste them, which is probably getting old. I added a little more sea salt in the batter (a Cyprus flake salt) as well as a smattering of the same salt on top of the dough-balls before baking (I’m obsessed with salting my sweets). And I used E.Guittard semi-sweet baking chips, broken up. Thanks for sharing this one – a really unique and worthwile recipe!

    • Gabrielle Langholtz

    Hi David
    I’ve been salivating over this recipe forever, and I just came across mesquite flour at the Slow Food Presidia at Terra Madre last week! Im so excited to make these cookies! xx

    • emma

    These are the only chocolate chip cookies I make anymore. They’re the best!
    I make them exactly as Heidi’s recipe directs but instead of tapping them down when they’re just out of the oven like David suggests, I use an ice cream scoop to drop them on the baking parchment and gently flatten them with the heel of my hand before popping them in the oven.
    The 36 oz. bag of Casa de Fruta mesquite flour lasts a pretty long time, but I mainly save it to make these yummies.
    A few months ago there was a segment on “The Splendid Table” on mesquite flour.
    It was a interview with a former food writer from the Los Angeles Times. He suggested using it as a rub for grilled meats, particularly pork ribs.

    • FN

    David – I made these a few days ago using your recipe. They were pretty “mesquitey” the first day and after a day or two, the mesquite flavor died down a bit, which made them taste better to my tongue.

    Interesting experience.

    • AM

    hi, david – help! i am on the quest for the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie recipe. i was so excited to try your recipe, and even more delighted when i got my mesquite flour in the mail (it’s lovely and has a decidedly delicious smell to it). i followed the recipe and broke out my best, highest quality chocolate bars to chop up. the cookies looked great out of the oven… so i had my foodie friends over to try them, and everyone complained about the aftertaste. one of my friends even said that the cookie left a garlicky flavor in her mouth for over an hour afterward. others completely agreed with her. i assure you that nothing in my cupboards came in contact with any garlic – but the cookies had a very strange aftertaste. what do you think? did i get some bad mesquite flour? i’m devastated – i thought my quest was over!!!

    • David

    AM: I’ve made this recipe, which is from Heidi Swanson’s book Super Natural Cooking, and not noticed any off-flavors, other than the smoky flavor of mesquite.

    It is an unusual flavor that folks might not be used to, but everyone I’ve given them to has loved these chocolate chip cookies as much as I do. Unfortunately I can’t comment about your mesquite flour because I can’t see or smell it.

    • pratibha

    http://www.desertharvesters.org/
    for those of you who want to know more about mesquite
    i am a pretty big fan of Brad.. and I live in India.. surprising that folks in US don’t know more about him…

    • Bonnie

    Made these today with fabulous results! I know that fleur de sel is everywhere these days, but for the second batch I added a few grains on the top of each scoop before baking (in addition to the salt in the recipe) and they were even better! Try it..it’s fleuricious!

    • Michael

    Hey David,
    This recipe seems odd, as in unusual. Usually the 2 cups of sugar would be 2 cups of brown sugar. In addition, the butter content would usually be a bit higher, 12 ounces or 3 sticks of butter instead of 2 sticks. Are you aware of this?

    Michael

    • David

    This recipe is adapted from Heidi Swanson’s book, Super Natural Cooking (page 182). I stuck pretty close to it, although she calls for “natural cane sugar” but I used regular sugar. One could use regular brown sugar, too.

    • Michael

    I see how the white sugar works, you made me look at the recipe a fifth time. My fault. The recipe is still undisputed champion.

    • Eva

    David,

    please help!! I baked these mesquite cookies and they did not turn out chewy at all!! What did I do wrong? The cookies turned out dry, very crispy and not moist at all.

    I followed your recipe step by step. Maybe I used too much baking soda? Since I could not find the mesquite flour here in Switzerland, I used plain white flour. Maybe not enough butter? The baking time was about 15 min, so that should not be too long.

    Please advise as I am a big fan of your cooking and would like to make these cookies perfect.

    What other flour can I use instead of mesquite flour?

    Thank you in advance.

    Eva

    • David

    Eva: Since you didn’t use mesquite flour, unfortunately the cookies will come out differently than the ones shown here. If you swap ingredients in recipes, results will be different. For the original recipe, you may wish to consult Heidi’s excellent book, Super Natural Cooking.

    I have made these with buckwheat flour and they come out good, but the mesquite flour is quite special. As I live in Europe as well, I can’t easily find mesquite flour, so I bring it back from the states. It’s worth getting it…these cookies are great!

    • judy

    Do you use ancho chili powder with chocolate?

    Yes, I have. Although I haven’t with these cookies. -dl

    • Mandakini

    Hi!
    I have been researching about Mesquite flour since last night like a possessed zombie! I live in India, where no one has obviously heard about this flour. Someone I know will be travelling to Providence from India this week. So they might be able to buy it, but I cannot find a single store in Providence that stores it… also a lot of websites talk about low Glycemic Index….as in good for diabetics… how true or proven is this

    Please help!
    Thank you!

    I LOVE LOVE your site

    • Mandakini

    Thank you David!

    Since I dont live in the US, wanted to know if there was any chain of shops that store this kind of stuff all over the US.

    Thanks again.. will try…

    Do you want anything sent to you from India? :-) Let me know…

    • Debbie

    I live in Oklahoma and can’t find Mesquite Flour locally, but just might have to go see the family in Texas to save on shipping from Amazon or have family in California ship to me from Casa de Fruta.
    I was looking for this recipe, thanks!!!
    I need to experiment with the White Flour substitute, but that’s an easy fix actually. I have non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and can’t have gluten or wheat based products.
    Looking forward to using the Mesquite flour, meal flour and powder in recipes!
    Love experimenting in my kitchen again!!!
    Making old recipes new and exciting!

      • Alene

      Me too! I have a horrible gluten sensitivity and am going to try the recipe with other flours that are gluten free. David, when I saw that mesquite flour is gluten free, I jumped for joy! Another obscure flour to add to my collection. Debbie, I see your comment is from 2010! If you see this and tried the recipe with other flours, I’d love to hear about it. If you can remember, lol.

    • Crystal Farrar

    Hello

    Your chocolate chip and hazelnut cookie recipe is wonderful. I was wondering if the flour in that recipe can be replaced with Mesquite flour? I’m off to buy some. (for londoners, Wholefoods market sells them)

    Thanks,
    Crystal

    • lela rose

    david-
    i used mesquite powder (which i assumed was mesquite flour)…as stated, it was quite pricey, $8 for 2oz. i also did not have an aluminum free baking soda so used a double acting. the batter is very metallic tasting and the taste strong- almost inedible. the cookies came out better than the batter but still with a little metallic taste. would the aluminum in the baking powder react in a funny way with the powder? i am from texas originally and am very used to the flavor of mesquite. i am wondering if powder is different than flour? also, i bought a liquid mesquite powder at the same store to give that a try…similar to extract i guess. would you recommend this or not?
    thank you for your help. i do love your recipes.
    best,
    lela rose

    • David

    I don’t know of any difference between mesquite powder or flour, but I always use aluminum-free baking powder for the reason you described. This is the mesquite flour that I used in this recipe.

    I’ve not heard of liquid mesquite ‘powder’–I don’t know of anything that could be a liquid and powder. If it is an extract, I would not use it as it’s probably close to Liquid Smoke.

    • Ethrane

    A heads up for lurkers wondering about a replacement for the mesquite flour — yes, you will still get wonderfully moist and tasty cookies if you use ground up oatmeal instead. No exotic flavors, perhaps, but it still makes an unusually good cookie.

    • Tammy

    I found your recipe and couldn’t wait to try it. This past Saturday I went to Central Market (Austin) but they no longer carry mesquite flour. So what choice did I have but to go out and gather a bag full of rattling dry mesquite beans from my front yard …and grind them!

    My $20 coffee grinder did a good job of grinding. I used a fine mesh strainer to separate the meal from the chaff, then I lightly toasted the meal in a cast iron skillet. The smell was wonderful…!

    Then the cookies came out of the oven…the taste…is completely addicting! It’s like honey and coconut with a slight metallic finish all at the same time. Each bite makes me want more.

    This is the first time I’ve used a recipe with measurements in gram increments. As a soap maker I appreciate the exact amounts and look forward to trying to more of your recipes.

    Thank you for the great taste experience.

      • gfy

      Ooo you’re lucky, in Hawaii I tried to do this but it was so difficult to find pods without worms in them. Maybe pulled directly from the tree itself instead of teh ground would have been better in my case but the pods were too high to reach. Freshly ground mesquite powder, wow, must have made your cookies incredible!

    • Beth

    I finally couldn’t wait a moment longer to break out my frozen mesquite flour stash and make these. Oh…my. I did use evaporated cane sugar, and instead of chocolate chips, 100 g. chopped Green & Black’s 67% Espresso bar and 100 g. chopped Scharffenberger 82%. This was plenty of chocolate for me. I let this recipe slide by when I first saw it on Heidi’s site, so glad not to have made the same mistake twice. Thank you, David!

    • Elizabeth

    My mother and I made these last night, but with double the mesquite flour. The flour is incredible–I’d never used it before, but I’m always trying to find an excuse to spend more money than I should at my local natural foods store, so I jumped at the chance (aka this recipe).

    They’re really wonderful–without a doubt the best dough in the world. The recipe was so big we made a few batches: some with walnuts and golden raisins, others with walnuts and dried cherries, and I think maybe some with pine nuts in them. There’s still some dough in the freezer! I feel completely prepared for any surprise holiday parties, put it that way.

    Absolutely delicious – thanks for sharing and for recognizing Heidi’s wonderful blog as well.

    • wildbill

    Funny you should talk about how good “les cookies” are ….especially warm. My favorite is bake them…..freeze them…..then nibble fresh out of the freezer……..mmmmmmgood!

    • gfy

    Those cookies look amazing but are also a bit thicker than I prefer. If I wanted to loosen up the dough for a flatter/crispy chewy goal, would I add a more water, butter, or egg white? Instinct says to go for one more egg white but what would you do if you wanted that type of chocolate chip cookie?

    • Hannah

    Regarding butter quantity. Should it be 1/2 cup or 8oz? Because 8oz of butter =1 cup.

    • David
    David Lebovitz

    gfy: I’d probably go with water although I can’t say how much. If you do try them, let us know how they turn out.

    Hannah: Thanks. I didn’t know if people had scales so added that in. Fixed!

    • Taffy

    Yes, you’re killing us with all these superb cc cookie recipes. I still haven’t gotten over the buckwheat flour ones (which I’ve made twice, along with buckwheat crepes). Keep up the great work…now,off to find mesquite flour. And what’s the deal with the aluminum free baking powder. ?

    • Tucsonbabe

    David,
    If you are ever in Tucson in July or August stop by with a big suitcase. We have four huge mesquite trees in our garden which are the bane of our existence because of the pods they drop. we must haul away at least 100 pounds of pods each summer.
    Perhaps I will try picking the pods before they drop and grinding them…but probably not! I’ll stick with Amazon. Love the recipe and will definitely make it.

    • Matt

    Question. I have a scooper with the same mechanism. The gear often pops out if the batter is to thick, and I go through a struggle to re-sync the gear so the the sweep will cover the full 180. Is there a decent brand of scooper with eject mechanism that doesn’t have this failure mode?

    • Taste of France

    Where do you stand on the letting-the-dough-rest/age for a day or three technique and have you tried it with this recipe?

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Most professional bakers naturally let dough rest overnight and I usually do that as well because I’m often cooking in advance (unless I need to bake the cookies right away). I didn’t try a side-by-side with these but if someone does, it’d be interesting to see if there is any difference.

    • Margaret

    When I was growing up in west Texas, all the ranchers hated mesquite trees, considered them pests and did everything they could to remove them from their land. My how things have changed — I’ll have to gather mesquite beans from the park close to my house and grind to make the four…. who would have thought :)

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Yes, I think they are quite invasive. I know when grilling over mesquite was popular, some people were happy to have a use for all that mesquite : )

        • Margaret

        Yes, funny how things change :) The story goes that Texas was mostly beautiful grasslands until the cattle drives (going through Texas) dropped mesquite beans from their feed sacks, changing the landscape forever.

    • Margaret

    Interesting link about how to make your own mesquite flour if you live in the southwestern US from Kansas to Texas to southern California…beans are available mid July to September.

    • Susan McLeary

    Hi David .. This sounds delightful and although based in New Zealand where mesquite flour won’t be easy to find, I want to make these. I enjoy your blogs and am part-way through your latest book.

    I’m a bit confused about your cup sizes though. You convert 1 cup of mesquite flour as 100g, 1 cup of granulated sugar as 200g and 2 cups of rolled oats as 230g. Help?

    FYI With an English baking heritage we normally convert 1 cup to 250g of flour or similar texture product.

    Can you clarify please? Even if I substitute mesquite with plain flour, do I stay with your conversions?

    Kind regards

    Susan

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      Hi Susan:

      I’ve been considering moving to one measuring system because it’s like writing multiple recipes at the same time, and perhaps referring to a conversion page on my site.

      A cup of sugar (in France and in the U.S.) weights 200 grams. 1 cup of all-purpose (T65 flour, in France) is 140 grams, and the mesquite is 100 grams. (Rolled oats are 80g per cup and I fixed that in the recipe, above.)

      I noticed Nigella Lawson converts 1 cup of flour to 150 grams so it’s interesting that you say 250 grams, which is nearly twice as much. Her conversion for sugar is the same as mine. I’m interested that English bakers use 250 grams per cup of flour as a conversion. I tried to find more info on that and couldn’t any.
      (Someone from Australia told me an Australian tablespoon is different than a U.S. tablespoon, which I find interesting as well.) Probably another reason we should all switch to metrics : )

        • Pete

        I’m in England and I’ve never heard of a cup of (say, plain) flour equated to 250g. That’s crazy. A UK cup and a US cup are almost the same size and therefore basically the same weight for any given method of scoopng. I equate a US cup of all purpose flour to 125g of UK plain flour. I settled on this after buying a standard US cup measure and averaging out a dozen scoops. However, I generally see 140g used as the conversion and so be it. Who knows how they settled on that?

        Without wishing to open the can of worms that that is the US measurement system, David I’m BEGGING you to adopt weights (preferably grams) as the default measures in your recipes. It’s the sensible thing to do on a blog that has global appeal.

    • Natalie

    WOW these cookies look amazing! So chocolatey ♥

    • Deana Sidney

    I am a serious fan of ANYTHING smoked. I smoked flour to use for pasta and it was sublime. Will have to try this. thanks

    • Y. Torres

    Here in South Texas, our property is covered in Mesquite trees. An elderly lady in the community gave me a fabulous recipe for making mesquite bean jelly. My husband and I now make this jelly for everyone and have yet to find anyone who does not love it. Very unique flavor! Also, never pick your mesquite beans off of the ground (bugs/mold). Snap them right off the tree when they are purple/yellow tinged and almost dried out.

      • Margaret

      Could you please share the recipe? My older friends here in south Texas tell me the ranchers used to grind the mesquite beans and mix them in with cattle feed to get the cows to eat — they loved them:)

        • Y Torres

        Margaret: I would be glad to share the recipe. Out of town at the moment, but will post it when we return. We would be happy to mail you a jar if you would like to try it.
        David, I assume it is okay to share an unrelated recipe in this space?

        It’s ok to share recipes here. If it appears on another website, you can just provide a link to the source. If it’s adapted from elsewhere or someone else, you’re welcome to note that. Thanks! – dl

          • Margaret

          Thank you!

    • Lynne

    Hi David,

    I’m curious if you’ve found mesquite flour anywhere in France. I live on the border of France and since I haven’t been able to find the flour in Switzerland, thought I would ask if you’ve had any luck. The cookies look amazing!

      • David
      David Lebovitz

      I’ve always purchased it in the States and brought it over but I did a quick search on Google and found it here and here. It’s kind of expensive in France, but Sol Semilla has a shop/restaurant in Paris in the 10th, so if they stock it there, anyone interested can save on shipping ; )

      I used the search term “farine de mesquite,” which is also written on the box I used it the post, but see they also call it caroube du Pérou in French, so you might want to try using that as a search term as well.

    • Sue Fourmet

    Ebay has several mesquite powder sellers offering 8 or 16 oz quantities at what appear to be reasonable prices. Some have free shipping.

    • sharon Berg

    Dear David,
    I am living temporarily in Melbourne, Australia and never expected to find mesquite flour here. The other day I discovered a bulk food store, went in to browse, and lo and behold, they had mesquite powder and good chunk chocolate. I purchased enough for a batch of your mesquite choc chip cookies, went home and made up a batch.

    Since I don’t have an electric mixer in this short-term rental, and didn’t want to fuss with creaming the butter by hand (I don’t have a decent mixing bowl either) I gently melted the butter and proceeded with the recipe.

    Perhaps this affected the texture to some extent but the cookies came out excellent. The mesquite has a profound influence on the flavour. They are so much more complex than the standard all flour recipe. I loved them and will make them again but they don’t have the same comfort food quality of standard choc chip cookies.

    I’m very glad to have discovered mesquite flour and will use it in other recipes as well. My partner says it adds a rich chocolaty flavour while I taste the coconut and hazelnut flavours.

    We’ve moving to Paris for several months at the beginning of April and I will try to squeeze some in to my baggage. I may have to sacrifice some clothing. Tant pis.

    • Lea

    The cookies are fine, but I don’t find the smoky flavor of the mesquite flour that enjoyable. The 3 adults and 1 teenager who tried them all agree that the cookies are OK, but we all far prefer chocolate chip cookies made without the mesquite flour.

A

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