Amaranth Chocolate Chip Cookies
Thick and chewy amaranth chocolate chip cookies made with whole and ground amaranth. Amaranth adds a lovely nutty, earthy flavor and a slight crispness to the cookie texture.
Earlier this year I spent a week in mexico city where I was amazed to see how widespread amaranth was. I found it in the tortillas, in the cookies, croissants (amaranth flour in the dough!), some popular crispy chocolate snacks, and of course, in alegría (crispy sweets with amaranth and honey – literally “joy”).
Amaranth was first cultivated in mexico some 7,000 years ago; a staple among the Aztecs. Native to the americas it is sometimes considered ‘the fourth sister’ (the main three crops being: corn, beans and squash). When the spanish arrived it went through a period of erasure but lately it’s being revived and regaining its significance in mexico. By the end of our trip I was smitten with it. It has a lovely, earthy grain/wheat flavor and I’ve been adding it to different bakes for the past few months. My favorite way to use it though has been in these chocolate chip cookies.
Recipe origins
To develop this recipe I started working off my bakery style chocolate chip cookies: I find the butter/sugar balance in that recipe to be ideal and knew I’d need to just rework the flour to incorporate the amaranth. There was a particular amaranth cookie’s texture at panaderia rosetta (their blueberry amaranth) that I loved and wanted to sort of replicate here; producing a chewy but thick cookie so I opted for all brown sugar.
Should you wish to make these crispier or flatter; swap in some of the granulated sugar (half I’d say) for the brown.
Recipe Ingredients & Substitutions
Amaranth: you can find this popped or puffed, or as a ‘flour’ which is the same thing but ground into a bitty powder. If you only have access to the whole puffed pieces then you can grind the extra you’ll need, after weighing it, in a food processor.
Butter: european butter will likely taste butter and give you a slightly flatter cookie. I do use american style butter here though. Unsalted is best, it’s fresher and you can control the amount of salt added to the dough.
Sugar: light or dark brown sugar. The latter gives a more prominent molasses flavor and a bit more chew to the cookie.
Egg: whole egg. I haven’t yet tried replacing the egg with a flax egg (I would do 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed and 2 tablespoons of water as a starting point) but I think with the right ratio it could be done. If I do try it, I will update this section.
Flour: all purpose flour. The lower the protein content of your flour the more spread the cookies will have. I use a medium to high all purpose flour (11% protein content).
Chocolate: whatever you like, be it dark, semi sweet or milk chocolate. You can use a good quality chocolate chip (eg. guittard), or chop up a chocolate bar (not a baking bar!).
How to make amaranth chocolate chip cookies
Note: This dough needs a slight rest in the fridge as the butter is melted, plan ahead.
I like to toast my amaranth before adding it to the dough (something I do with oats in my oatmeal cookies as well) but if you’d like to skip this step you can.
To toast: set the whole amaranth (not the ground or ‘amaranth flour’) in a large frying pan over medium heat. We’re looking just for the amaranth to release a bit of fragrance, stop when it’s hot and you can smell it. Set aside to cool.
Make the Dough
Use a heat safe bowl: set the butter in it and warm the butter in the microwave for about 50-60 seconds until it’s almost but not fully melted.
Add the sugar to the bowl and whisk to combine. Reheat the mixture so the butter is now fully melted and the sugar is hot. Whisk very well, you’ll see the mix transform as you whisk into a shiny, thick mixture.
Whisk in the salt and vanilla. Crack in the whole egg and whisk to combine.
Add the dry ingredients: the flour, amaranth, amaranth flour (ground), the baking soda and baking powder. Switch to a rubber spatula to stir. If your cookie dough is hot, wait to add the chocolate (the heat from the dough will melt it). Once it’s cool to touch, stir in the chocolate.
Cover the bowl and set it in the fridge for at least three hours, but up to overnight.
Bake the cookies
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Use a disher to equally portion the cookie dough onto the pan, in 2 tablespoons per cookie. If you want smaller cookies, go down to 1.5 tablespoons per cookie (note, they will require less bake time).
Bake until the middles are puffed up and matte colored (not shiny – that is a sign of an uncooked dough) and the edges are golden. This will take about 12-14 minutes, depending on how dark you like the edges.
Enjoy! Keep the cookies in an airtight container to maintain freshness.
Amaranth Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Amaranth Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 150g unsalted butter cold is fine
- 200g or 1 cup brown sugar light or dark
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract pure
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 190g all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 35g or ½ cup amaranth flour (ground puffed amaranth)
- 25g or ¾ cup puffed amaranth or popped
- Up to 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Method
- Optional: set the whole amaranth in a frying pan. Heat to just toast the amaranth, when you start to smell it, take it off the heat to cool.
- Make the dough in a large heatproof bowl: Heat the butter until it’s almost but not fully melted. Add the brown sugar to the bowl and whisk well. Then heat again, for about 60 seconds. Whisk until the mixture comes together in a thick, shiny mixture.
- Whisk in the salt, vanilla and egg. Mix very well.
- Add in the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and amaranth flour. Stir to combine then add the toasted amaranth and the chocolate chips. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for at least three hours but up to 8 (overnight is fine too).
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (a little oil or butter holds the parchment down).
- Scoop spoonfuls about 2 tablespoons per cookie onto the pan. I use an ice cream disher for this so all the cookies will be even. Bake the cookies until the edges are golden brown and the middles look set, for about 12-13 minutes.
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