Triple Chocolate Almond Cookies

Adapted from Cathy Lowe, Food Network
About 40 cookies

• 2 1/4 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 sticks (8 oz or 220 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1 cup (220 g) packed brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1 tbsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup (45 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup (6 oz or 160 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup (6 oz or 160 g) white chocolate chips
• 1 cup (30 g) chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then mix in eggs, almond and cocoa thoroughly. Gradually add flour, salt and baking soda until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Drop dough by spoonfuls¹ onto a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches/5 centimeters between cookies. Bake for 10 - 13 minutes², then remove cookies to a baking rack to cool.

For cookie bars, pat dough into a 9" square baking dish and bake for about 20 - 25 minutes. Remove and cool on a rack, cutting squares before entirely cool to the touch.

When completely cool, cookies can be frozen for long-term snacking or stored in a jar or a bag.

Notes:

1. For consistent cookies, use a disher or a cookie scoop. I used a #20 disher (2.5 ounce capacity) to scoop out dough, which I then split in half. This disher is very popular for making the large cookies often seen in restaurants - about 6 fit on a standard half sheet baking pan.
2. Dark cookies like these make it hard to determine when they're done. The cookie should look "set", but not gooey. They should be relatively easy to remove from the pan with a sharp spatula or cookie turner. If they smoosh together, rather than sliding easily, they're not done.