Sea Salt and Olive Oil Brownie Cookies

So hours before attending a Hanukkah party yesterday, I decided that I should bake something to take with us. Mind you, my husband had already planned to take cocktails and we were not asked to bring anything else but sometimes this compulsion to bake takes over and I really can't resist. Unfortunately, I had two obstacles in my way: 1) I only had about two hours to bake and 2) I wasn't completely sure what was appropriate to take to a Hanukkah celebration. (I knew for sure that latkes and jelly filled donuts called sufganiyot were already on the menu.) As the self-induced anxiety started to kick in, I actually remembered to take a deep breath and listen to my intuition. After a few minutes of searching on-line and through my recipes at home, I felt drawn to a recipe that I wrote down months ago but had not yet tried. Seeing that it was made with olive oil, I decided that it would probably be a safe choice for a Hanukkah party. Erring on the side of caution, however, I left the cookies in the car until I ran the ingredient list past the hostess. My friends at the party seemed to enjoy these cookies and I hope that you will as well.


Ingredients:

½ cup olive oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon hot water
¾ cup flour
¾ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
1 ¼ cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips


Beat the oil and sugar together and then add the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla. Place the baking soda in a very small bowl and then pour the hot water over it, stirring until the baking soda dissolves. Stir the flour, cocoa, and ½ teaspoon sea salt together in a small bowl. Add these dry ingredients to the oil and sugar mixture and beat until dough starts to form. Mix in the dissolved baking soda and then stir in the chocolate chips. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle each ball with a pinch of sea salt.



Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. The edges should look set but the centers should still be puffy when you take them out. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet and then transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.


Notes:
  1. I didn't realize until the first dozen were baking in the oven that I had inadvertently omitted the vanilla. I did a rough calculation and mainly just trusted my gut to add the right amount of vanilla to the remaining dough and the remaining batches turned out fine. (We left that first batch at home.)
  2. The original recipe calls for 2 cups of chocolate chips and I really think that is too much. I poured in one 10 ounce bag of chips and that looked like plenty to me so I changed the amount in the ingredient list above to reflect what I used.
  3. You can take these cookies to another level by using flavored olive oil or sea salt. When I made them, I used regular sea salt in the dough and then for the sprinkling I used a sea salt blend that contained dried rose, chamomile, lavender, hibiscus, blue mallow, calendula, and cornflower petals. Next time, I would love to experiment with using an orange-infused olive oil.

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