White chocolate and pear cookies with lime and cardamom

The original recipe is by Yotam Ottolenghi, writing for the UK Guardian in 2018. Here is the link: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/nov/24/pear-recipes-cheesecake-choc-chip-cookie-ginger-cake-yotam-ottolenghi, and this is what he says about it:

This is the first time I’ve put fresh fruit in a cookie.  I had some doubts as to whether it was going to work, but they were a great success.  The acidity and juiciness of the pear is a welcome addition to the rich cookie dough.  Don’t skip the dough chilling:  it gives the gluten time to develop, resulting in a chewy yet crisp texture.

Now, I made it exactly according to the recipe and found that a) 30 huge cookies is too many, b) they tend to fall apart, and c) they were a bit too sweet for my taste. So here is my adjusted recipe, and I hope you enjoy a different take on chocolate chip cookies…

Prep time is 15 min, baking time is 20; allow two hours for chilling in the middle. This quantity makes 18 pleasantly large cookies.

Ingredients:

250g (½ cup, one stick) unsalted butter, softened
175g (1½ cups) all-purpose flour
2-3g (1 tsp) freshly ground cardamom
2-3g (1 tsp) ground ginger
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
4g (¼ tsp) kosher salt
150g (1½ cups) light (soft) brown sugar
Zest and juice from one lime OR 1 tsp lime flavoring
1 egg
100g (½ cup, or 4 oz) white chocolate chips
100g (net weight) or about 2/3 conference pear, peeled, cored, in small dice

Method:

Sieve the flour, ground cardamom, ginger, salt and baking soda into a medium bowl and stir.

Using a stand mixer or a handheld electric beater, combine the softened butter, sugar and lime zest or flavoring. Cream on medium speed until slightly lighter in color, but not too fluffy – about two minutes. Add the egg, mix until just combined, then add the dry ingredients and mix until just starting to combine, but some dry bits are still visible. Add the white chocolate and pear, and mix again until fully combined.

Using your hands (or a golf-ball sized ice-cream scoop), shape the dough into 18 balls, and arrange snugly on a small oven tray. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and chill for two hours.

Heat the oven to 180°C / 375°F. Put the chilled cookie balls on a lined baking tray spaced about 6cm (2½”) apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until golden-brown around the edges but still puffy and soft in the center. If you prefer a crisper cookie, bake for two to three minutes longer. Leave to cool slightly on the tray before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

These will keep for a few days in an airtight tin… but we find that storage is not an problem!

Here is the printable .pdf for  White chocolate and pear cookies.