Chocolate Chip Cookies with Buckwheat Groats

Fine, you got me. I skipped a day, yesterday to be exact. I'm sorry. It's just that Sunday was such a nice day, so pretty outside and so full of other things to do besides cook and write, like walking in the Gardens and talking about our wedding and sitting around being indolent. Oh, and eating chocolate chip cookies with buckwheat groats. Of course. What were you doing?

Now I know that some of you pricked up your ears at chocolate chips, some others at cookies and then the rest at buckwheat groats. Otherwise known as kasha. What? In cookies? I know.

It's like this: a few months ago, in July, to be exact, we took a day trip to Fire Island with some friends. While waiting for one of the trains (we took two trains, a minibus and a ferry to get there) just before lunchtime, my friend Sara pulled out a Ziploc bag filled with cookies and offered me one. I don't usually eat dessert before lunch, but it was one of the those summer days where rules like that don't matter, where you happily drink beer at two in the afternoon and eat cookies before lunch and spend the day dreaming about moving to a beach community.

Anyway, the cookie. This was no ordinary chocolate-chip cookie. It had serious crunch to it, but also good chew, and then there was the taste: mysteriously minerally and roasty-toasty, in addition to the more familiar flavors of caramel and butter and bittersweet chocolate. "What's in this thing?", I wondered. Sara promised me the recipe. She got it from a friend, who got it from another friend, who got it from, well, I don't know.

It turns out that the cookie is made with whole-wheat pastry flour (though it's pretty resilient: this latest batch I made half with regular whole-wheat flour and half with white pastry flour) and buckwheat groats - which give the cookies that gorgeous crunch (the groats retain their integrity throughout the baking process). Don't mistake the groats and the whole-wheat necessarily for virtue: there's still a stick of butter in the recipe and a whole cup of sugar. But you can count on a bit more fiber and some blood-sugar regulation, apparently.

But all of that mumbo-jumbo aside, the real point is that these cookies taste delicious. I absolutely adore them. When they first come out of the oven, their centers are soft, with little crystals of crunch, and their edges are caramelized and the chocolate is oozy in the center. With a glass of milk, you're all set for nirvana. The next day, the cookies are a little harder perhaps, but no less brilliant. They keep well and make for excellent afternoon snacks.

Shall I go ahead and do it? It's been a while. Okay, here goes. They're lamination-worthy! Yes, indeed.

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Buckwheat Groats
Makes 20

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buckwheat groats (kasha)
6 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped into chip-sized chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a mixer or bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and two extracts until well-combined.

3. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt and buckwheat, and add to the butter mixture, beating to incorporate. When combined, add the chocolate and stir to combine.

4. Drop 2 tablespoon-sized balls of dough onto ungreased cookie sheets, 3 inches apart. Bake for 6 minutes, then reverse the sheet pan in the oven and bake for an additional 6 minutes. The cookies should be still slightly pale in the center and golden brown on the edges.

5. Cool the cookie sheet on a rack for 5 minutes, then transfer to the rack directly with a spatula.

Comments

[AA]

What kind of kasha is called for - fine, medium, etc?

[Luisa]

AA - I didn't know there were grades: there's only one kind of buckwheat groats available at my grocer and they were not labeled fine or medium... Arrowhead Mills is the brand.

[jenny]

oh my goodness. I made alice medrich's buckwheat sables a while back and couldn't get over the flavor that the buckwheat flour brought to the cookie. so nutty and uber-delish. just one question: did you find the groats in the baking section with other flours? or where one might go looking for them?

[Kathleen]

These look excellent! I'm a recent transplant to Hamburg - you wouldn't happen to know what buckwheat groats are called auf Deutsch, would you? I'd love to be able to make these and my German is still pathetic.

[Luisa]

Jenny - those cookies are really great (and I've got a buckwheat cookie recipe in the archives that is also BEYOND delicious). I found the groats in the same aisle with lentils and other pulses and grains.

Kathleen - buckwheat is Buchweizen auf Deutsch. I'd go to a Reformhaus and ask them for that and see what they give you. I don't know if in Germany you can find multiple buckwheat products, like flour, groats, etc. What you're looking for are small, triangulated grains that look a little bit like farro or barley. Good luck! Please do let me know what happens.

[A Mouse Bouche]

yikes--do you think someone who hates kasha in the form it takes at places such as jewish holiday dinners, paired with bowties or some such, would like these? they look promising, but i don't know how kasha-y tasting they are....

[Victoria]

These sound amazing. I know nothing about these groats, but I feel compelled to try them immediately.

[Rose-Anne]

What about those of us with ears that pricked up at the mention of chocolate chips AND cookies AND buckwheat groats? Do we get extra credit? :-)

I like the fact that you have friends who carry around baggies of cookies to share. Those are good friends to have. There's no shame in a cookie or two before lunch when they are homemade and offered with love.

[Brent]

I love the blog. We wrote a post about food blogs and we featured yours. I couldn’t find an email address or contact info on the blog so I decided to try and contact you here. I would love to send you an email of our post details. Thanks for the great blog, I always check it out.

[Eleonora]

Your blog is super. So are your photographies. They make me hungry. I have spent a nice moment when seeing them. Thanks a lot.

[Anna]

I think whole wheat flour adds a lot of flavor and texture and these look amazing. I have to get some buckwheat groats asap so I can make these. Thank you!

[Zoë]

Mmm, these look delicious. I've always made every single pastry, cake, and cookie with half whole wheat pastry flour and now I hate the bland taste of all white flour baked goods! But I've never had the kasha. Might have to look into that!

I'm enjoying that you are posting every day...but I can imagine that gets to be a lot of recipe experimenting!

[Luisa]

A Mouse Bouche - well, look, if you don't like buckwheat, these might not be the chocolate chip cookies for you. I happen to love buckwheat - and it works particularly well in cookies. Though I should also specify, I've never eaten kasha - only buckwheat pancakes, buckwheat cookies, buckwheat cake.

Rose-Anne - but of course! Extra credit all around. :)

Brent - Thanks! My email address is on my "About" page.

[mbbored]

Wow, I've never considered using buckwheat in cookies before. This is definitely going on my list.

[Jeanne]

I don't think I've ever seen or used groats of any description, buckwheat or otherwise. The cookies sound amazing though! Sorry to hear you missed a day of NaBloPoMo - I must say it is harder work this year than last year...

[maggie]

I just had kasha at Veselka on Sunday (wasn't it a glorious day?) and I have to say, I think I'd prefer it in cookies.

[Jackie]

Mmm...these look and sound wonderful. I love adding different grains, flours, and other healthy ingredients to baked goods. Thank you for this recipe - I'm going to try these very soon!

Jenny, I also made Medrich's buckwheat cookies (via Orangette) this past weekend! I couldn't find cocoa nibs in my 'hood so used toasted hazelnuts. Delicious!!

[Kristin]

What a great idea! These sound so good. I have a question though. The recipe calls for buckwheat groats, but in parenthesis it says "kasha". I was reading in a book I have called The Splendid Grain that the terms "kasha" and "buckwheat groats" are often used interchangeably, but that kasha normally refers to buckwheat groats that have been toasted. So my question is, do you know if the buckwheat groats or kasha you used was the toasted version? Since you describe the flavor as "roasty" "toasty", I would think so, but I wouldn't want to use the un-toasted ones (which I have) and then be disappointed that my cookies didn't come out as roasty-toasty as yours. :)

[Hillary]

I love kasha! I didn't know they were also known as buckwheat groats. Very interesting that you used them in your cookies!

[Luisa]

Jeanne - no big deal, as long as you post 30 times in the month of November, you're all set.

Maggie - ha! I guess I won't rush to eat it plain, then?

Kristin - my package of buckwheat groats indeed says that they have been "toasted".

[EAT!]

These sound like the perfect cookies. I just made a batch of chocolate chip cookies - in mini muffin pans - they had a nice crunch on the outside and a gooey center.

I'm not sure if I can find groats, but I am now on the lookout for them.

[Bernice]

Sounds yummy.... will try your chocolate cookies recipe at the weekend.

[Emily]

This reminds me of the peanut butter cookies my mom used to make, which had broken up bits of shredded wheat in them. These sound scrumptious!

[Kathleen]

Hi Luisa,

Just wanted to let you know that I found buckwheat groats at the small Reformhaus near my apartment, labeled just "Buchweizen." (The bigger, more commercial Reformhaus had flakes and flour but not groats.) They're not toasted so I'll have to run them through the oven first, but othwerwise I'm set. Thanks for your help!

[brita]

The recipe for these delicious cookies comes from The New Whole Grain Cookbook by Robin Asbell and Caren Alpert. They were the first recipe I tried after my sister gave me the book for Christmas last year, and I actually haven't made that many other kinds of cookies since. Most recently, I tried them with miniature chips that I had leftover from another recipe, and I liked how the size and shape of the chips mirrored that of the groats. Yum.

[Luisa]

Kathleen - glad you found them!

Brita - thank you so much for that info! Now I'm off to track down the book. Have you baked anything else from it? Worth owning?

[brita]

It's a beautiful book, with quite a range of grains. My favorite thus far (next to the cookies) is the creamy cannelini bean-amaranth soup with basil. I've also had my eye on the farro-studded focaccia...

[Jill]

Luisa,
I love love love these cookies. I made them on a lark and they were the most wonderful things ever. Through some sort of oven magic, the kasha developed this wonderful roasted coffee flavor- it was like a mocha chip cookie! These are totally lamination worthy!

[Amysue]

I have made these cookies 4 times now--and each time they have come out beautifully! I substitute Gluten Free flour and 1/2 tbsp of Xantham Gum for the Whole Wheat flour, though, since I'm that kind of girl. Best. Cookies. Ever.

[Ellie from Kitchen Caravan]

This is a great recipe!! Very tasty and not overly sweet. I just made a batch since my grandma will be over for a visit in about an hour. I didn't have any kasha on hand so I used thick rolled oats. I also used a bit of sherry in place of the almond extract. Next time I want to try it using Kasha - just need to stock up the pantry!