Giant Flat Chocolate Chunk Cookies

These giant flat chocolate chunk cookies are what dreams are made of. A crisp vanilla cookie on the outside with a chewy centre, full of chocolate inside. Warm, gooey, and oh-so-satisfying, there’s nothing quite like a freshly-baked cookie.

These bad boys measure around 12cm (4.5″) once baked, so don’t squeeze more than 4 to a baking tray. preferably I go with 3 so they can spread out nicely without touching.

Plus, in this post I give you not one but two recipes for giant flat chocolate cookies. That’s right not only can you enjoy these vanilla dough cookies filled with chocolate, but you can also make chocolate dough cookies. Fill them with numerous additions, such as chocolate, nuts, dried fruits or your favourite candy such as M&Ms or Maltesers. Check out my variations section for ideas.

If you love these then you’re going to love my egg free Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

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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INGREDIENTS

For this recipe all you need are these ingredients:

• Butter – adds structure and flavour. I use salted butter for most of my baking as it intensifies the flavours, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure it’s at room temperature before using.

• Caster sugar – adds structure, sweetness and creates the chewy centre.

• Soft brown sugar – creates that extra crispiness in the cookies.

• Egg – helps to bind the ingredients together and add flavour.

• Pure vanilla extract or paste – adds flavour and enhances the other ingredient flavours in the recipe.

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

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

• Plain (all-purpose) flour – builds structure.

• 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.

• 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

Replacing the sugar with these alternatives will certainly result in a different cookie both in taste and texture. I would recommend a powered sugar over honey, due to the volume of sugar used and the amount of sweetness required.

• 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?

This is where the fun begins. Cookies are great for flavour additions too.

• Chocolates: Try swapping dark chocolate for milk or white chocolate and you can use chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate. Adding your favourite sweets such as M&Ms, Maltesers or pieces of a Chrunchie bar are also great options.

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

• Fruits: If you like dried fruits, try adding 50g raisins, apricots or cranberries to the recipe. Pretty much any dried fruit works well.

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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. They will last up to 3 months in the freezer. Bake from frozen, adding an additional 1-2 minutes to the instructions above.

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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TOOLS YOU’LL NEED

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

• Earthenware Mixing Bowl Mason Cash, Cream 29 cm Chip Resistant.

I like the sturdiness of this bowl and its 4 litre capacity means I can use it for mixing just about everything in the kitchen. It is also microwave, freezer and dishwasher safe.

• Mixing Bowls Set of 5, Stainless Steel Nesting Bowls with Airtight Lids, 3 Grater Attachments, Size 5, 3, 2, 1.5, 0.63 QT

These different size mixing bowls are really useful depending on the amount of food you are preparing. They also have airtight lids that fit snugly to seal and keep food fresh, so this set can be used as dry storage bowls with lids on. The plastic lid of the largest bowl has a removable centre. Where one of 3 graters can be used.

• 3 Plastic Mixing Bowls, Non-Slip Base, Soft Grip Handle, Microwave and Dishwasher Safe, Compact, Stackable, Ideal for baking and cooking, off-white, 1.5 Litre, 2 Litre, 2.5 Litre.

I do own a plastic mixing bowl but I am personally not a big fan of them. These 3 bowls are on the smaller size but good for the odd cake making.

• Breville Classic Combo Stand and Hand Mixer | 3.7 Litre Stainless Steel Bowl | Swivel Control, Whisk, Dough Hooks and Beaters

I like this model of electric hand mixer because it comes with a large stand, meaning you don’t have to always hold it.

• Silicone Baking Mat, Standard, 2 Count, 42 x 29.5 cm

I love using these baking mats. They stop everything sticking to the baking tray and are really easy to clean.

• Ice Cream Scoops with Easy Trigger Set of 3, large (3 Tbsp/45ml/6cm/1.5 oz), medium (2 Tbsp/30ml/5cm/1 oz), small (1 Tbsp/15ml/4cm/0.5 oz)

These three different size scoops are perfect for ice cream, melons and cookies.

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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 – this is completely optional for these cookies. Resting the dough does give slightly better results as it 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. This means the edges wont be ultra thin but more rounded after baking.