When the Russian Jewish immigrant Isadore Gottlieb opened Gottlieb’s Bakery in 1884 on Bull Street in downtown Savannah, he began a baking dynasty. For generations, his cinnamon rolls, rye and challah breads and these chocolate meringue cookies were an important part of being Jewish in Savannah.
The cookies have an intense chocolaty-ness and an irresistible chewiness that seems to amplify if you freeze them briefly. The pecans toast magically as the cookies bake. The cookies can be gluten-free if you bake them with cornstarch or a gluten-free flour blend, and they may have been baked and sold during Passover. At the Central Markets grocery stores in Texas, cookies like these are known as “forgotten” cookies, because after baking, they were left in a turned-off oven to crisp (thus forgotten). Gottlieb’s closed in 1994, but now you can bake the cookies at home.
Note: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for one week. Freeze for up to three months.
Taken from “Baking in the American South: 200 Recipes and Their Untold Stories” by Anne Byrn. Copyright © 2024 by Anne Byrn. Photographs © 2024 by Rinne Allen. Used by permission of Harper Celebrate.
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Love this recipe? Check out this blackberry jam cake with caramel icing from “Baking in the American South.”
Chocolate Chewies
Chewy, chocolatey meringue cookies packed with toasty pecans.
- Total Time: 1 hour 35 minutes
- Yield: 2-3 dozen (2-inch) cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¾ cups (294 g) confectioners’ sugar
- generous ½ cup (60 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch or 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour or a gluten-free flour blend
- pinch of salt
- 3 large egg whites
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups (8 oz/228 g) finely chopped pecans
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F, with a rack in the middle. Line two 12-by-17-inch baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the confectioners’ sugar, cocoa, cornstarch (or flour or gluten-free mix) and salt in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined. Add the egg whites and beat to incorporate the whites, then increase the speed to high and beat for 1 minute, or until very well combined. Stir in the vanilla and pecans.
- Scoop or drop heaping tablespoonfuls of dough 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake, one pan at a time, until the cookies are shiny and firm on the outside, but inside they are still a little soft, 12-15 minutes. (Gauge the baking time by the size of the cookie. Smaller cookies bake in about 12 minutes and larger ones need more baking time.) Remove the pan from the oven and let the cookies rest for 2 minutes on the pan.
- With a metal spatula, remove the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining dough, cooling the pans between batches.
- If desired, place the cooled cookies in a zipper-top bag in the freezer for 1 hour, which makes them even more fudgy.
Notes
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 week. Freeze for up to 3 months.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes + 1 hour freeze time
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Family pecan allergies. Could you recommend a substitute nut? Thanks!
Any finely chopped nuts of your choice.
can I substitute potato starch to make these pesach-dik?
Great question! We haven’t tested them with potato starch but it should work. Please let us know how they turn out if you do.
When I moved to Jacksonville, FL in 1990, one of our famous Temple bakers was from Savannah and made these cookies. She graciously shared the recipe and I have made them on occasion for many years. I was delighted to see the recipe in The Nosher and highly recommend it. What a wonderful remembrance of a favorite Temple member and her favorite bakery! BTW, the almond florentines from Gottlieb’s is another favorite.