Adding Cocoa to Baked Goods: Can I do this?

[Kim Shook]

Say I want to make a regular cooky chocolate. Can I just add some cocoa to the flour mixture? I was thinking it might add an interesting layer of flavor to chocolate chip cookies, but didn't want to go all the way to full fledged chocolate chocolate chip with melted chocolate.

If I can do this, do I need to make any adjustments to the amount of other stuff. And how much should I add to a cooky made with, say, 2 c. flour?

Ta! Kim

[miladyinsanity]

I think you could, but there are chocolate chip cookie recipes with cocoa doughs that don't have melted chocolated.

World Peace Cookies! World Peace Cookies!

(Sorry, having a moment. )

[etalanian]

You can substitute some cocoa for flour. Remove a little less flour than you are adding in cocoa. For instance, if you are adding 1/2 cup of cocoa, decrease the flour by 1/4 cup.

Eileen

[shaloop]

I have found THESE Chocolate white chocolate (or I use chocolate chocolate chip) by Ina Garten to be very good.

[Kim Shook]

Thanks so much, everyone! I'll be making these tonight for the Christmas freezer!

Kim

[Sunny Simmons Steincamp]

I second the World Peace Cookies. I don't even LIKE chocolate (in fact, I think it's kinda icky,) but I understand the appeal.

Have fun baking... I might do some tonight for my house full of teenagers!

[emilyr]

If you're doing a refrigerator type sugar cookie, it's fairly easy to add several different kinds of additions. Alton Brown adds peppermint and chocolate to make pinwheel cookies here, and I always use the Joy of Cooking basic cookie recipes. I think the new 75th anniversary edition has something like 13 different versions.

As to adding cocoa, I've always done it with the eggs after creaming the sugar and butter. I don't know if there's any benefit to this, but it's the method I've always used.

[Pierogi]

Let me start by saying, I'm a great cook. I ain't a great baker, but I *AM* a science geek, so I understand that baking is much more of a science than cooking is. Having now outed myself to this board I'm looking for some advice.

I've been working really hard this year to BECOME a baker, and I'm getting better. I can usually turn out a decent baked good if, *IF*, I follow a recipe precisely. Riffing on a recipe for baked goods still is out of my capabilities, however.

I bought some scones at Trader Joe's a while back that I loved, and I'd like to replicate. They were double chocolate---chocolate dough with chocolate chips folded in. So good. I have some really good basic scone recipes that I can make with no problem, and get reliable, good results. I tried once to add cocoa powder to the batter of one, along with the chips, to get the double chocolate effect. I *did* increase the liquid (that much I knew) but, it was......meh. Sorta dry, and not "chocolate-y" enough.

Is there a general rule of thumb to compensate for the addition of the extra "dry powder" that cocoa would add to a recipe like this? Or, should I just seek out a chocolate scone recipe ?

I'd sort of prefer to use the recipes I have, since they only make 4-6 scones, (or the recipes halve easily) and I'm only cooking for me, so I don't want 20 of these things hanging around getting stale. Thank you all so much !

[Sebastian]

I've found that in baked applications, 6-8% cocoa with an add'l 50% as much water (3-4%) usually does the trick. of course, eerything's application specific, so you may (and likely will!) have to adjust based on the application (other ingredients in the recipe), and the type of cocoa powder you're using (i'd make sure it was a good dutched cocoa)

[pastrygirl]

Try decreasing the flour a little bit. Cocoa absorbs a lot of liquid. If you only increase your liquid, you're throwing off your other ratios a bit, like then there's less butter in relation to dry & liquid ingredients, and you wouldn't want less butter, would you?

Also, scones do freeze quite well. Wrap in plastic and freeze, then let them thaw 15 or 20 minutes at room temperature, and bake as usual.

[rooftop1000]

I have also added a touch of butter to cocoa additions to simulate real chocolate more

tracey

[tsquare]

You might add a touch of salt and vanilla to get the more chocolate flavor as well. The original fat ratio should be pretty high in the original recipe to not get a dry scone.

[Pierogi]

Sebastian, pastrygirl, Rooftop1000 and tsquare, thank you so much (as well as the moderator for merging this...) I will give your suggestions a shot and let y'all know how it goes.