Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
December 9th, 2021
The olives have been harvested and the new oil is fresh off the press so we just had to find a way to incorporate it into some of our recipes this year. This has actually been something we have wanted to do for some time now as we always get requests for recipes sans butter. And being in Tuscany, of course, people are always asking specifically about olive oil.
We always look forward to the olive harvest. Gaia has a grove in her garden in Florence and where I am living in the country we have several fields that we harvest every year. It certainly is a lot of work, no doubt about it but it is one of those jobs that we are always happy to get started and always happen to finish. The days spent out in the fields are long but at the end of the day the work is rewarding and there is nothing like tasting your own oil straight from the oil mill with a glass of red wine.
Anyways, here is the recipe and it’s fantastic. The oil gives them a chewy texture but in the best way possible. They are also slightly less greasy than the traditional cookie due to the addition of oil. After much trial and error we finally found the perfect combination of butter and oil. We are sorry to say but these cookies just don’t work without the butter. The butter holds the cookies together and without at least some, the cookies just fall apart. This being said, we were able to cut the butter by more than half and replace the rest with oil.
When recipe testing, we were pretty surprised by how strong the fresh oil smell overwhelmed the sweetness of the cookie dough. Traditional American Chocolate Chip Cookies such as these are pretty sweet and so that is what you always smell, sugar and chocolate but with the addition of the strong scented olive oil, it just took over and it was wonderful! The oil we used to make these cookies was not literally just out of the olive oil mill. We let it sit about 2 weeks to lose a little bit of that spiciness that the really fresh oil has. This being said, there is no reason at all why you could not use the freshest of oil and add a little spice to your cookies. In fact, if you do, please write to us and let us know what you think.
Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 box Make and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
- 1 large egg
- 60 grams butter, softened (a bit more than 4 Tablespoons)
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
- Preheat oven to 375°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix the butter with ⅓ of the cookie mix until well combined. Add the egg and mix.
- Add another ⅓ of the cookie mix and stir well. Incorporate the oil and the last ⅓ of the mix, scraping down the sides of the bowl when necessary (we found an electric mixer or kitchenaid was best for these cookies)
- Spoon tablespoon size balls of dough spaced 2 inches apart onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and crisp on the edges. Let cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
