“I know your loneliness, which I desired to fill with my own.” - Soundwalk Collective / Patti Smith, from Mummer Love.
Promise, after promise, here they are - new, classic, chocolate chunk cookies. They’re a compilation of all my other recipes, best parts worked into this rendition, and made a little faster. I find them more nuanced than the others; scanter with chocolate, but crispier and chewier. It’s all about the dough. For me, a good cookie is never about the first hit, but rather a subtle, complex, build of flavour. Texture, too. These are that.
unsalted butter, cubed - 150 g (2/3 cup)
light brown sugar - 200 g (3/4 cup + 2 1/2 tablespoons)
granulated sugar - 70 g (1/3 cup)
a large egg, cold
vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons
all-purpose flour - 280 g (2 1/4 cups)
a teaspoon of baking powder
half a teaspoon of baking soda
half a teaspoon of salt
a teaspoon of espresso powder, optional
dark chocolate (70%), roughly chopped - 170 g (1 cup)
flaked salt, for finishing
Position racks in the lower and upper thirds of an oven. Pre-heat it to 350 F / 180 C. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put the butter in a medium saucepan set over low heat. Heat, stirring often, until melted. Pour it into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugars, and whisk until combined. Whisk in the egg, followed by the vanilla extract, until smooth and glossy.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and espresso, if using.
Tip the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Beat, with a wooden spoon, until a soft dough has begun to form. Beat in the chocolate until just distributed. Do not overwork the dough.
Using a medium cookie scoop or tablespoon as a measure, portion out even-sized amounts of the dough. If you’re using a spoon, shape them into balls with your hands. Divide between the sheets, leaving a few inches space apart for spreading. You should fit 8 to 10 per sheet. You can set left-over dough balls aside to be baked off later, or, store them in an airtight container and freeze for up to two months. Allow to stand at room temperature for fifteen minutes, before baking. Sprinkle with salt.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Halfway through, open the oven door and lift the sheet by a few inches. With a little force, tap it against the oven rack, so that the cookies de-flate slightly. The chocolate should run, too. Close the oven door and continue to bake for another minute. Again, repeat this lifting and tapping process, for a total of 3 more times. The cookies will be golden brown and crisp around the edges, but the middles still soft, when they’re done.
Remove and let stand on the sheet for a few minutes, before transferring the cookies off and onto a wire rack to cool further, before serving.