TASTE

If you’ve ever had François Payard’s flourless chocolate cookies with walnuts, you know what transcendent bliss feels like. If you’ve never had François Payard’s flourless chocolate cookies, get yourself one and get the Kingdom of God within you, bite by heavenly bite.

If you can’t make it to Payard in New York (or Vegas or Rio) you can still come close to Paradise, if you play your cards right. The recipe we chocoholic plebeians have prayed for has finally been published, allowing even the lowly to recreate the divine qualities of French baking. (Celiac and Passover friendly to boot!)

I found the recipe in New York Magazine. My batter looked and tasted exactly as I would have anticipated. When it baked, however, some of the chocolate “dough” meted around the nuts, rendering my cookies significantly flatter than the Payard version I am so deeply in love with.

Nevertheless, they were delightful—chewy and crunchy around the edges, as I prefer my cookies to be. They require very few ingredients, just one fork a big bowl and a nut-chopping block. They are remarkably easy to construct.

Next time I do them, I will probably add more nuts to thicken the cookies a tad. Ironically, copying the great François would mean deviating from his recipe—which makes me wonder if the Payard cookbook is engaging in a conspiracy to keep us civilian bakers frustrated and lowly. But maybe that’s a paranoid suspicion…

Here’s how it went:

Roast 2 ¾ c walnut halves in the oven for 9 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool, then coarsely chop. * Mix 3 cups of confectioner’s sugar (if you are Kosher, grind your own granulated sugar into confectioners, since the store-bought stuff contains cornstarch to prevent clumps) with 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder and 1/4 tsp salt. When finished, add the chopped walnuts. * Add 4 egg whites and 1 tablespoon of pure vanilla (pre-mixed) in 3 batches to the dry mix. Bake at 320 degrees for about 14 minutes, or until tops are shiny, shifting cookie trays to ensure even baking.

The recipe warned about over-mixing, so I opted out of using an electric apparatus and went with fork and forearm instead. (Initially, I went with a whisk, but the walnuts got stuck inside the wires.)

The recipe also suggested laying 12 cookies on a parchment-lined paper and baking two batches. IGNORE THIS!!! Don’t put more than 9 on a pan—they spread like nobody’s business. In the end, I chose to make my cookies larger with only 4 to a cookie sheet. This makes them extra-delicate, however, so be sure to let them cool completely before tinkering.

Crumble these on vanilla ice cream, and you’ll bypass St. Peter entirely.