Black. Cocoa. Powder. Say it with me! Black. Cocoa. Powder! There it is on the left side compared to Dutch process cocoa powder on the right. It is by far my new favorite culinary discovery. This is the cocoa powder that gives Oreos their color and richness – not that I have eaten an Oreo lately, even though they are vegan.
I looked up black cocoa powder on The Kitchn website:
“Black cocoa powder is an ultra-Dutch processed cocoa powder. All the acidity has been neutralized, rendering the cocoa powder completely mellow, non-bitter, and very black. Think of black cocoa powder almost as more of a coloring ingredient than a flavoring one—it will turn your baked goods as deeply black as you could ever hope for.
Because it’s been so heavily Dutch processed, this cocoa powder presents some challenges when baking. It contains almost no fat, which can make baked goods dry and crumbly. You can either use half black cocoa and half regular Dutch-processed cocoa in your recipe, or you can up the fat a little bit.
Black cocoa also contains no acid, it won’t react with baking soda. Be sure to use baking powder instead, substituting one teaspoon of powder for every 1/4 teaspoon of soda called for in the recipe.”
A friend passed along a little jar of black cocoa and I decided my first baking project would be to make chocolate chip walnut cookies. I started with my recipe for my Even More Fabulous Aquafaba Chocolate Chip Cookies and tweaked it to incorporate the cocoa powders. It was just a matter of adding cocoa powder in the right proportion – adjusting the flour and splitting the cocoa powders 50/50 – and adjusting the baking powder measurement.
These little beauties are delicious, crispy, chewy, nutty and chocolatey. I’m in love!
Makes a baker’s dozen (13) using a 6cm diameter ice cream scooper or 34 using a 4cm diameter scooper.
Dry Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup Black cocoa powder
1/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips
1/4 cup walnuts
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
1 cup vegan cane or beet sugar
1/4 cup coconut sugar
1/2 cup sunflower oil
6 tablespoons aquafaba (chickpea bean water)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350. Line a big baking sheet with parchment paper.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a big bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk the aquafaba until it is foamy. Add the sugar, oil and vanilla and whisk to combine.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon into a dough.
Using the ice cream scooper, scoop out the dough, pressing it onto the side of the bowl to pack it well, and then drop onto the sheet with a bit of space in between the cookies.
Bake for 20 minutes. When the cookies are cool to the touch, gently move them onto a cooling rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
