Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies (gluten-free, grain-free)

We recently visited a local bakery, The Bakery off Augusta, and bought a few items to try. As we were leaving we snagged samples of a chocolate cookie that ended up being super delicious. The woman at the cash register said they were gluten free and only had four ingredients! So I stood there and said, hmm, chocolate, nuts, sugar, and eggs?

And that's when I knew I had to figure out how to make these chewy gooey cookies.

It didn't take long to find the likely recipe online, although it has five ingredients (also vanilla.) I think these are made for Passover because they contain no flour or leavening. I was most intrigued by the mixing method, which takes advantage of the egg whites to thicken the cookie batter and add structure to the cookies.

François Payard’s Flourless Chocolate Walnut Cookies Recipe 
As seen on Food Republic
Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Level of Difficulty: Easy
Serving Size: 12 4-inch cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar
pinch of salt
2 3/4 cups walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place a rack each in the upper and bottom thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350°F. 
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. 
3. Combine the cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar, salt and walnuts in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed for 1 minute. 
4. With the mixer running, slowly add the egg whites and vanilla. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes, until the mixture has slightly thickened. Do not overmix it, or the egg whites will thicken too much. 
5. With a 2-ounce cookie or ice cream scoop or a generous tablespoon, scoop the batter onto the prepared baking sheet, to make cookies that are 4 inches in diameter. Scoop 5 cookies on each pan, about 3 inches apart so that they don’t stick when they spread. If you have extra batter, wait until the first batch of cookies is baked before scooping the next batch. 
6. Put the cookies in the oven, and immediately lower the temperature to 320°F. 
7. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, or until small thin cracks appear on the surface of the cookies. Switch the pans halfway through baking. 
8. Pull the parchment paper with the cookies onto a wire cooling rack, and let cool completely before removing the cookies from the paper. 
9. Store in an airtight container for up to 2 days. 

Notes from JennyBakes:

I feel my version was lumpier and less refined than the bakery's but I will tweak a few things next time - more finely chopped nuts, maybe mixed slightly less, maybe more manual spreading of the batter, which kept its shape from how it was placed on the cookie sheet. I think I may have underbaked them a bit, since mine were thicker. The bottoms were nicely baked but inside was more gooey than chewy, not so much that it was gross, but definitely borderline.

I'm also curious about trying this with different nuts. I think this recipe is dying to be made from Oregon hazelnuts! Also instead of Dutch-processed cocoa I used cocoa powder from my co-worker Libby who brought it to me from Ecuador!