Chocolate Marble Cookies

Today I pulled out an old cookbook that I purchased many years ago but hadn’t looked at for ages. As I browsed through the pictures and recipes, I was surprised by how many of the recipes I had actually tried. I believe that it is also the first recipe book where I made notes for nearly every recipe I tried.

Since the book was of American origin, I look back and wonder if some of the recipes didn’t turn out as advertised because of the difference between Canadian flour and American flour. Normally I don’t think recipes vary too much across the border, but I would have to agree that in some things, Canadian flour acts differently than American.

A friend of mine who lived in Italy for a time once told me that she visited a specialty grocery store and discovered that Canadian flour was considered to be a specialty item. Apparently Canadian flour is know for its higher gluten content – important when you are making bread since it helps hold everything together and make the dough light and soft. Who knew? In Canada we’re blessed with great flour (unless, of course, you need gluten-free 😉  ).

My notation for these cookies was: “Pretty good – if you like sour cream.” I guess I wasn’t much of a fan for the tangy taste the sour cream added back then. I must admit, however, many years later, I think these are very tasty and have a thick and creamy texture that regular cookies don’t usually have.

They also look very pretty and are easy to make. One down side is that they need to be eaten pretty quickly as they will dry out faster than other cookies. They can be frozen to prolong their lifespan, but when you do this the soft, liquid chocolate hardens up and the texture changes slightly.

Another thing to remember is to not over-do these. Don’t over-mix when you add the flour or they become tough, don’t over-mix the chocolate or it won’t have the pretty marble effect and don’t over-bake or they become too hard.

I hope that you are successful making these cookies and that everyone enjoys this “twist” on chocolate chip cookies.

Although I have not personally tried, I imagine that you could substitute all kinds of different chocolate in this recipe for different results. The possibilities are endless – dark chocolate, white chocolate, orange-flavoured chocolate, mint… let me know below if you try anything different – and how it turned out.