Not to be a downer, and I’d argue you can’t be a downer with chocolate chip cookies in hand, but, well…

What the hell, right? I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but here in California it’s pretty concerning at the moment. Cases are going up, people are still talking about somehow going back to school or back to work in September, idiots walk casually around sans mask, and I feel like the groundhog ready to go back inside the burrow for 6 more weeks. I just don’t see how we avoid another lockdown if this keeps up.

I’ve been a major pessimist about all of this and I don’t think we’ll see anything like “normal until 2022. I’m not going to turn into a prepper or anything and start hoarding canned goods, but I did keep this stunner of a cookie in my back pocket for the inevitable day we all might need it. Unfortunately, that day might be soon.

I’m calling it a stunner because it is, built off a really beautiful chocolate chip cookie from Claire Ptak, of Violet Baker in London (and royal wedding cake fame). The secret to her cookie is that she uses egg yolks instead of the usual whole eggs, and the result is really rich and somehow both hefty and delicate. These baked up exactly how I always want my chocolate chip cookies to look. I was hooked.

The problem I encountered, however, since I made these back in March and April, was a shortage of standard ingredients. I still can’t believe that we as a nation decided to get through a pandemic with sourdough, but we did, and the resulting run on flour made life difficult for us regular bakers who may have been unprepared for the national raid on the baking aisle. So I had to improvise. Butter was augmented with peanut butter, all purpose flour was replaced with buckwheat and then whole wheat when I found some, and I rediscovered my stash of coconut sugar (though I’m calling for regular sugar here since I discovered you can buy sugar like this online).

The resulting cookie was not just adequate. It was truly delicious, so much so that I don’t really want to bake the original version even when I have the right ingredients! The peanut butter added a subtle background to the chocolate and was complemented really nicely by the nutty flour. I was glad that I’d only made a half recipe, and these are rich enough that I’d only double this if you have a lot of people to feed.

So, I really hope we don’t all have to relive what we went through in March and April, but I think there’s a very real chance some of us might, so paraphrasing my philosophy from the start, things are terrible. Eat the cookie!

Pantry Pull Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is adapted from Claire Ptak’s egg yolk chocolate chip cookies in The Violet Bakery Cookbook. Her cookies are fantastic as is, but I really love the flavors my substitute ingredients have added here.

Makes 8-10 cookies

• 5 tbs unsalted butter, softened

• 3 tbs peanut butter (any kind you have on hand)

• 1/2 cup plus 1 tbs light brown sugar

• 1/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1 tbs water

• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (real, fake, use what you have!)

• 2 egg yolks

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tbs all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or buckwheat flour is very nice here)

• 1/2 tsp kosher salt

• scant 1/2 tsp baking soda

• 3/4 cup large, dark chocolate pieces (such as Valrhona feves)

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer add the butter, peanut butter, sugars and water and mix until completely combined but not yet fluffy.

2. Add the vanilla and egg yolks and mix until fully combined. In a small bowl, combine the flours, salt and baking soda and whisk together, then add to the mixer bowl. Mix on low speed until almost fully combined, then add in the chocolate and mix for about a minute, until all the ingredients are well combined and the chocolate pieces just start to break up a bit.

3. Divide the dough into 8-10 equal portions, form into balls and place on a parchment lined baking sheet that will fit in your freezer. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze until firm, at least 1 hour (overnight is great!).

4. When ready to bake, arrange the dough balls on parchment lined pans, spaced well apart. Let sit at room temperature while your oven heats to 350 degrees (if your oven takes longer than 10 minutes to reach 350, preheat your oven before taking the dough from the freezer). Bake cookies, 15-18 minutes, until golden brown around the sides but still a bit underdone in the centers. Start checking at 15 minutes (especially if you formed smaller cookies) as these can go from perfect to torched around the edges pretty quick. Let cool, then enjoy!

Notes:

• Have fun with the mix-ins here! Sub your favorite alternate nut butter or tahini for the peanut butter, use whatever chocolate pieces you have, play around with different flours! I really love the nuttiness of buckwheat with the peanut butter.

• The original recipe calls for 3 egg yolks, and I halved it, but I’ve got 2 egg yolks here plus a tablespoon of water for a couple reasons: replacing part of the butter with peanut butter removes some of the moisture from the recipe, and since whole wheat and buckwheat flours require a little more water content than AP, the extra bit of yolk and added water are there to make sure we don’t get a dry cookie.