Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies. After years of baking cookie recipes, I tweaked my recipe until finally, they’re everything you could want out of a cookie.

Nearly every chocolate cookie recipe on the internet is tagged as the best and rated in popularity by people all over the world. At the end of the day, it comes down to personal taste.

You’ll love these, there is something magical about the buttery, rich crisp dough on the outside and their soft centres. Full of chocolate and beyond delicious, these cookies are quick ‘n’ easy and perfect for all occasions.

Plus if you love eating raw cookie dough this is the recipe for you. With no egg all you need to do is leave out the baking powder. Perfect for raw cookie dough lovers!

Wonderful nostalgic memories of my childhood and always comforting at any moment. They make life better, happier…and much more satisfying.

If you love these then you’re going to love my double chocolate cookie or giant flat chocolate chunk cookies recipe. It’s choosing which one to bake next time, that’s going to be difficult. I guess another round of taste testing is required 🙂

If you decide to give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment below and rate it – it’s really helpful to me and the other readers. And don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #thegourmetlarder on Instagram. I love seeing what you come up with! 🙂

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RECIPE HIGHLIGHTS

• EASE: easy.
• FREE FROM: check out my substitutions section for vegan, gluten and sugar-free options.
• GREAT FOR: a treat, picnics, friends and family visiting, they also make nice homemade gifts!
• TASTE & TEXTURE: crisp on the outside, soft and full of chocolate on the inside.
• SERVING: great on their own or with a glass of milk.
• QUANTITIY: 10 cookies.
• TIME: 22 minutes, (optional) 30 minutes chilling.

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INGREDIENTS

For this chocolate chip cookies recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Butter – gives us a crisp texture and a rich buttery flavour. Make sure it is a t room temperature when you start.

• Caster or granulated white sugar – adds structure, sweetness and creates the soft centre.

• Brown sugar – creates that extra crispiness in the cookies.

• Pure vanilla extract or paste – for that extra taste.

– Vanilla recommendations: pure vanilla extract or vanilla paste or vanilla pods.

• Plain or all-purpose flour – builds structure and crumb.

• Baking powder – is a chemical leavening which increases the volume of the ingredients, creating a nice light texture.

• Golden syrup or corn syrup – is an invert sugar which, creates a texture that’s flexible and chewy, as opposed to crisp.

• Whole milk – helps to loosen the cookie dough so that it spreads in the oven.

• Dark chocolate chips or chunks – the more the merrier.

Chocolate recommendations: bars – Lindt Excellence dark 70% bar 100g, Montezuma’s darkside 51% bar 90g, Menier dark cooking chocolate 100g, Green and Black’s Organic dark Chocolate 100g, 1kg bags – Callebaut dark chocolate, Callebaut milk chocolate, Callebaut white chocolate.

TIP: I highly recommend adding a good pinch of fine salt to your biscuit doughs. In a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory way, salt intensifies the mouths’ ability to taste sweetness. It is the sodium that sends signals to move glucose into the sweet taste receptor cells, thus triggering the cells to register sweetness. The result is that salt not only alerts our ‘salt sensitivity’, but also triggers our ‘sweet sensitive’ taste buds.

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SUBSTITUTIONS

While I am making recommendations for alternative ingredients, I haven’t necessarily tried them. If you try making any adaptions, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

VEGAN OPTIONS

• Butter: I recommend Naturli vegan block or Flora plant-based block butter alternative.

• Dairy-free milk: replace the milk with non-dairy milks such as almond, oat, rice or soy milk.

• Chocolate: There are now quite a few brands making vegan chocolate to choose from, such as these bars – Lindt classic milk chocolate, Ombar 55% coco mylk, Ombar 72% dark chocolate, Happi plain oat milk, Happi white chocolate, Montezuma’s Fitzroy 74% dark cocoa.

GLUTEN-FREE OPTION

• Flour: replace the gluten flour with a 1:1 alternative gluten free flour, such as Doves Farm Free plain gluten free flour. If possible, choose a flour which contains xanthan gum or alternatively, add 1 tsp to your batter for stability. You can also try Doves Farm gluten free self-raising flour.

SUGAR-FREE AND LOW-CALORIE OPTIONS

• Sugar-free or calorie reduced options: try alternatives such as coconut sugar, honey, natural erythritol, xylitol, stevia or fructooligosaccharide powder instead. There are also sweetener mixes available, that are 70% calorie reduced and low in carb.

• Brown sugar suggestions: Pure Via Baker’s soft brown sugar or Sukrin Gold’s natural brown sugar alternative.

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WHAT VARIATIONS CAN I MAKE?

• Chocolates: Try swapping dark chocolate for milk or white chocolate and you don’t have to use chocolate chips, chopped chocolate works just as well.

• Golden syrup: This is an inverted sugar that helps to create crunch. If you can’t find golden syrup you can use corn syrup or maple syrup. If you don’t want to use either, you can leave it out of this recipe and just add an additional tablespoon of milk.

• Oats: Replace 85g of flour for rolled oats and add ½ tsp cinnamon, which makes a really tasty oat cookie.

• Nuts: Replace the chocolate or add 100g coarsely chopped pecans, pistachios, almonds, walnuts or even pumpkin seeds.

• Fruits: If you like dried fruits, try adding 50g raisins, apricots or cranberries to the recipe.

If you experiment, I would love to know how you get on and share it with the other readers.

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NUTRITION

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STORAGE AND FREEZING

Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container for 5-7 days at room temperature.

Freezing the cookie dough – freeze the scoped dough on the baking tray or a plate that fits in your freezer (lined with baking paper). Once they have frozen solid, approx. 30 minutes, transfer them to a freezer-safe, airtight container. If you shaped the dough into a log, place the clingfilm wrapped log into the freezer. They will last up to 3 months in the freezer. For the scooped dough, bake from frozen, adding an additional 1-2 minutes to the instructions above. For the second method allow the dough to thaw a little before slicing into discs and baking.

Freezing the baked cookies – cool the biscuits completely after baking and place them in a freezer bag or airtight container. They will last up to 1 month. When you are ready to serve, allow the cookies to reach room temperature.

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EQUIPMENT RECOMMENDATIONS

Here is some kitchen equipment that I use and recommend for this recipe.

TIP: I highly recommend using metric measurements and a digital kitchen scale, rather than cup measurements. If you have ever ended up with dry, dense or crumbly baked goods, it might be because of inaccurate volume measurements, not all measuring cups are made equally. All my recipes on this blog are carefully developed so that you can easily recreate them in your own kitchen with success, using metric measurements. It is also a lot easier, less messy and you will get far better, consistent results. 🙂
If you are interested in understanding conversions, here you will find the best conversion chart.

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RECIPE TIPS

Use room temperature butter – cold butter will not cream together properly with the sugars.

The dough should be a little sticky – don’t try to add more flour to eliminate the stickiness.

Resting and chilling the cookie dough – if you want to get the best results, placing the dough in the fridge prior to baking, allows the dry ingredients to absorb the moisture from the wet ingredients. This creates more flavour in the dough and because the fats are also chilled it prevents the cookies from spreading out too quickly during baking.

How long should I chill the dough? Patience isn’t really my strong suit, so I totally understand if you can’t wait! If like me this is the case, I usually bake off a few cookies immediately and then place the rest to chill in the fridge. If you’re not in a hurry, try to leave the dough to rest overnight or at least try to chill your dough for 30 minutes. It’ll be worth it!

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