Chocolate Chunk Cookies

  

Let’s put aside the carrot and celery sticks, brussel sprouts and the cranberry juice for a moment. Human misery has never been cheered up with a plate of raw vegetables. No - true misery can only be cured by generous servings of sugar, chocolate, butter and a satisfaction that will never be found in anything really healthy.  

A handful of cookies and a glass of cold milk have got to be the most timeless treats ever. Comforting, fulfilling and just plain good, there is nothing better than dunking a good cookie into a tall glass of milk to achieve that perfect degree of sogginess. Of course, there is nothing more tragic than that cookie drifting to the bottom of the glass if held in the milk for just a second too long.

After a hard day at school or a tough day at work, both Soeren and I usually look forward to coming home and getting rid of the days discomfort with a generous serving of chocolate chip cookies, fresh and warm from the oven. We weigh flour, cube butter and chop chocolate, while we discuss “what was good and bad” in the day.

The oven emits a cosy warmth with a sugary scent and soon the distress begins to dissolve. We hungrily grab the first of the warm cookies straight out of the oven, blowing impatiently to cool them enough to take the first big bite. Soft, chewy, chunky and the chocolate makes little streamers after that first bite. Wash it down a gulp of cold milk!

Sugar, chocolate and milk. Add to it a sympathetic hug, a few giggles over something silly, a few more cookies and soon the beastly day is a thing of the past. Gone and forgotten. Expelled to its proper place under the "not so important category" of human history.

We like our cookies chunky, as coarse chunks of deep, dark chocolate delivers a more superior cookie compared to the inferior manufactured chip. We also like playing around adding peanut butter, macadamia nuts, or a handful dried cherries - but in the end we always come back to the pure and simple chocolate chunk cookies.

A while back I happened to stumble over Signe’s (Scandilicious) Twitter quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Always curious to hear what tips and tricks people suggest, I eavesdropped a little. Soon afterwards, Signe posted the results of her chocolate chip cookie quest. The journey took her through several books and tweets, allowing her to incorporate her research into the cookie experiments.

I love experiments and often spend hours in the kitchen working on recipes and ideas. Sometimes, however it’s nice to have someone else do the legwork! Thanks Sig!

The recipe below is adapted from Signe’s blog, the minor changes I made were using organic whole wheat flour, dark muscovado sugar and instead of vanilla extract, I scraped out a vanilla bean.

Recipe: Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Printable version of recipe here

Prep Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 300g whole-wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2- 3/4 tsp sea salt
• 180g unsalted butter, melted
• 200g dark brown muscovado sugar
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 vanilla bean, insides scraped
• 150g dark chocolate, coarsely chopped into chunks

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C. Line two baking sheets with baking parchment and set aside.
   


2. In a medium bowl sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt together. Stir a few times to distribute the raising agent.
   


3. Whisk together the melted butter with the sugars until creamy, then add the large egg, extra yolk and vanilla innards to the mixture. Whisk again and then add the flour. Continue whisking the mixture for a few minutes to stretch the gluten strands.
   


4. Add the chocolate chips and fold in. The cookie dough should feel almost dry now and look like a solid lump. Make sure the chocolate chunks do not all cluster in one part of the dough.
   


5. Using a ice cream scoop, scoop small chunks of dough on the baking sheets, spacing them about 5 cm apart. To be on the safe side, space them further than 5cm as the cookies have a tendency to merge together while baking.
   


6. Bake on the upper-middle shelf of the oven for 15-18 minutes until the cookies are golden, the sides feel firm to the touch but the centre is still quite soft.
   


7. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets (helps keep their chewy consistency) and then remove with a pallet knife or very flat spatula. Store in a cookie tin.

Notes: Opinion varies on whether to chill the dough first before baking or just spooning it on the baking sheets and baking. I do not usually chill my cookies as there is never the time to do so. If you do decide to cool them, place them in the refrigerator once you have scooped the cookies for about 30 minutes.

Verdict

 

I am not preaching giving up crunchy vegetables for sugary cookies, but let’s face the truth - sometimes only a really good chocolate chunk cookie can be so truly gratifying.

The whole-wheat flour makes this slightly nuttier and provides a wonderful crispy exterior and a perfectly chewy center. The chocolate chunks are scattered liberally and are pure pleasure to bite into. This experiment passed the toughest of judges - the 8 year old gave it an all thumbs up.

Milk and cookies anyone? Which cookie makes you crumble?

Have a fantastic week and weekend folks - make sure it’s sweet, crumbly, chocolaty and always with a glass of cold milk!

Cookie craze on WFLH:

Sugar and Spice Cookies with Cardamom, Lavender, Pistachio and Sprinkles	Almond and Pink Praline Spekulatius	Milan Cookies

 

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