Ruby + Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Have you ever gone into your kitchen with a craving, ready to make something and realize that you don’t have that one key ingredient to make it?

I went to make cookies this weekend with my daughter and quickly realized I didn’t have butter! Honestly, it’s probably the first and only time this has ever happened in the history of our household. We don’t just usually have butter in the house, but it never leaves our grocery list. Pre-Covid, I used to stop by the grocery store on my way home and pick up butter, just in case, only to find four pounds of it waiting for me at home.

Luckily for YOU (my two readers and my mom - hi mom!), the lack of butter turned into an incredibly delicious experiment gone perfectly right. I just so happened to have a box of cream cheese in the back of my fridge that I’d been saving for carrot cake (coming soon!), so that got used and the cake will have to wait. These cookies are tangy, chewy and ever so glamorous with their Neapolitan-esque visual. You’ll actually forget these don’t have butter in them!

My daughter got to enjoy one with her lunch the other day, and watching her gulp down her milk with each bite made me think, you probably need to enjoy these with a cold glass of your favorite milk or dairy alternative.

Also, if you’ve ever wondered what I typically keep on hand in my house to readily make a quick batch of something delicious? Here’s the list:

• Butter (salted and unsalted, at least 1 pound of each)

• All purpose flour (and a GF alternative!)

• Dark chocolate bars (70%, which I find to be the perfect baking chocolate)

• Baking soda

• Baking powder

• Sugar

• Brown sugar (or molasses just in case I run out and need to make a quick brown sugar)

• A few cups of extra items from previous baking experiments (desiccated coconut, peanut butter chips, ruby chocolate chips, creamy peanut butter, Oreos, Biscoff cookies, toasted nuts, any and all dried fruit, etc.)

Now on to the cookies…

Ruby + Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 8 ounces cream cheese, slightly cooler than room temperature

• 2 1/2 cups light brown sugar

• 2 eggs, large

• 1 tablespoon vanilla

• 6 ounces dark chocolate

• 2 cups ruby chocolate, chunks or chips

Process

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and brown sugar on medium until smooth and homogenous. Add vanilla and eggs and beat on medium heat for 3-5 minutes, until contents are a little frothy. Add flour mixture in three parts, beating on medium-low and scraping down the sides of the bowl each time. Once mixture is just formed, add both chocolates and mix until chocolate is evenly distributed throughout.

Let dough chill overnight, or for up to 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350F. Scoop chilled dough into 25 2-ounce balls (or about 17 3-ounce balls if you prefer larger cookies, like me!), with about 3 inches of room on a parchment or silpat lined sheet pan. Bake for 8 minutes and then use Sarah Kieffer’s pan banging method to shake out some of the air, placing in oven again for about 7 minutes, or until top is a light golden brown and top is no longer shiny. Give pan another little bang at the end for good measure!

Let cool for about 10-15 minutes before removing from pan. Once completely cooled, serve immediately or store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.