Chocolate Chip-Filled Melted Moment Cookies

Dear parents: Admit it. You have a favourite child. Yes, you may say you love all two or three of your munchkins exactly the same, but we all know that's a lie. One kid always tends to get a bigger slice of pie than the other. But, don't worry! We totally understand. It's the same for us at C&C. Yogurt is our star child: every cake it touches turns to gold. Marshmallow is that kid we love, but heaven almighty does it ever annoy the hell out of us (plus, it's always sticky). I'm not even going to talk about Icing Sugar. It's sort of the black sheep of the family.

Recently, we've adopted a new kid into our cookie family - her name is Cornstarch. She had me hooked when I first tasted the velvety texture of Alfajores. I now religiously bookmark any recipe that involves our new star child just so I work with that lovely silky taste again. The cookie recipe we've posted below is a great example of how cornstarch can really kick up a classic. Melted Moment Cookies come in many flavours, but we chose the Chocolate Chip-Filled variety as a starting point. Boy oh boy what a starting point.




When I made the original batch, I've got to tell you that we were a bit disappointed. Not in the flavour or texture - perish the thought! - but in the little itty bitty size of the cookies. Not to one to disappoint Mr. C (who would have eaten those little dots by the handful), I doubled the size of the next batch. The cookies came out big and crumbly - definitely not as delicate as the original - but, let's face it, we were never ones for dainty little baked goods.

Chocolate Chip-Filled Melted Moments
recipe adapted from The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookboook

The Cookies
Makes about 32 large cookies (or 16 sandwiched pairs)

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract (if you want to live a little, try different extracts - almond, coffee, orange, etc)

1) Preheat to 300F. Sift the flours, cornstarch, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl.

2) With an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy in a medium bowl. Add the extract and mix well (scraping down the bowl with a spatula when needed). Switching to a spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

3) Roll 1 teaspoon of the dough into balls and space them on your baking sheet. Flatten your dough down with a fork, making the diameter to be about 2 1/2 inches. Bake the cookies for about 25 to 30 minutes (The tops of the cookies should not brown). Cool fully before filling with icing.

The Filling
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

1) Beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla together with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in chocolate chips.

2)Spread about 2 teaspoons of filling on half of the cookies. Squish the remaining cookies down gently into the filling. Enjoy with a large cup of milk.

Note: if you want to try the smaller version of the cookie, then simply half the recipe and make 1/2 teaspoons balls of dough instead of our 1 teaspoon rendition


this melted moment is brought to you by the letter "chocolate" and the number "chip"