These chewy, rich chocolate cookies have minimal fat. These flourless chocolate cookies get their texture from egg whites and their flavor from cocoa powder, which contains the only fat in the recipe unless you add the chocolate chips or nuts. Fabulous cookies.
2 1/4 cups (9 ounces) confectioners sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (3 ounces) natural cocoa powder
3 large egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup each chocolate chips and toasted walnuts or pecans
Whisk together the sugar, salt, and cocoa. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, stir together the egg whites and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the egg whites, and mix at low speed of an electric mixer for 2 minutes. The batter will seem dry at first, but will become shiny and smooth as it mixes. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate the batter for 3 hours, or up to overnight. Preheat the oven to 350F. Thoroughly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets. Drop the dough in ping pong-sized balls onto the prepared baking sheets; a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, reversing the pans (top to bottom, bottom to top) midway through. Remove them from the oven, and cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
Yield: fourteen big (3 -1/2″) cookies.