While researching recipes for creative ideas to use up all those hard boiled Easter eggs I came across several recipes for Hard Boiled Egg Chocolate Chip Cookies. I looked twice. Three times. Four times. And while I thought the concept sounded incredibly strange, I learned that using cooked egg yolks in cookies is quite common in many European countries. The recipes varied only slightly in their ingredients - the amounts of flour, butter and vanilla used, but the singular common ingredient was the hard boiled egg. With a million better things to do on a gorgeous Saturday in early Spring I decided to put those off those other things demanding my attention so that I could give this recipe a try.

I was admittedly skeptical.
I was admittedly ready to toss the entire batch into the trash.

But I didn't. I couldn't.
Because these cookies were simply fantastic.
Or perhaps I should say they were egg-cellent! ;)

Into the flour and butter mixture goes the chopped egg!

All pulsed and the egg has completely disappeared... The kids will never know it was in there!
It will be our little secret... Shhhh!

Add the sugars, vanilla, salt and a dash of cinnamon and
this is starting to look like a traditional chocolate chip cookie mixture!

Well, after we added the chips it does!

The cookie dough is very crumbly, even more so than a shortbread
But the butter, once cooked, will act as a bonding agent.

And, voila!
The result was a perfectly crispy and crunchy cook that was just the teensiest bit soft in the middle.

Ingredients:
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
1 stick of butter cut into chunks
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup white sugar (1/4 cup)
1/4 brown sugar (1/4 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of chocolate chip cookies

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 ºF.
In a food processor - as opposed to a mixer - mix flour and egg until well blended. Add chopped egg and repeat until the mixture resembles coarse sand or fine crumbs.

Lastly, by hand, mix in the chocolate chips.

Using a small ice cream scoop press dough into the scoop and then onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
The mixture is very crumbly and it will fall apart. This is normal. Gently press together with your hands. The butter, when melted, will serve as a binding agent.
Bake for 10-13 minutes.
Remove cookies from oven and let them sit on the cookie sheet for at least 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

I cooked these cookies in 10, 12 and 15 minute batches. The 15 minute batch was the darkest and the crispiest and perhaps the least fragile of all. The 10 minute batch was the softest and in my opinion the 12 minute batch was the perfect combination of crispy, crunchy and chewy.

This was a fun project to try and I think I will have to test this out with oatmeal raisin!