Chewy Chocolate Cookies (like Whole Foods and Gluten-Free!!)

I have an addiction.  It is to the Chewy Chocolate Cookies at Whole Foods.  Oooey-gooey brownie-like goodness in the middle and light crunchy outside that melts in your mouth. After lots of googling and recipe reading, I found this recipe.  I told Mark that if I had time, I would try to make them for the Texas Tech game.  I described that they were a flourless chocolate cookies with only 3 grams of fat and he said something like they would be hockey pucks and we would feed them to the dogs.  For the record, this may have been the one and only time Mark has ever been wrong.  ;-)  I don't have any pictures of the finished product so I guess I'll just have to make another batch!

I've made these twice now and the recipe may vary depending on how big your egg whites are and how tightly you pack the powdered sugar.  Pack the powdered sugar tightly!  I hand mix everything until it is wet and then let the Kitchen Aide mixer take a turn at the dough for about 30-45 seconds on high.  

I also learned (thanks to a phone call that interrupted my cookie making) that the cookies turn out better if you let the dough sit and stiffen for about 15 minutes before you start scooping it out.  Once you put the dough balls on the cookie sheet, press them down just a bit.  If you put walnuts in, the cookies don't fall and you end up with walnut piles.  Also, be careful not to let them overcook. It's hard to know since the dough is dark.  My oven cooks a bit hot and I never went over 8 minutes.

I love them with walnuts, but the calorie count goes up.  I looked at the walnut label and I'm guessing the cookies end up being about 9-10 calories a piece....but walnut fat has to be good fat, right?!