Chocolate Chip Cookies

The World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER!!

Every baker will tell you that they have their own top secret recipe for producing perfect cookies every time. This is mine. The hardest thing when baking cookies of any kind, is knowing to STOP MIXING! Many people over mix their cookie dough, resulting in their cookies flattening too much. You should also remember, that this was not the first chocolate chip cookie recipe I tried. For years I have used several other recipes, however in September I discovered this one, and I love it! 

One really great thing about this recipe is that it doesn't require chilling, so it's great for impromptu guests, and can also be frozen as dough then cooked from frozen. If you do choose to freeze it, bake pre-rolled cookie dough balls at 160 degrees Celcius (fan assisted oven), putting the cookies in the oven as it heats up, allowing them to thaw.

As far as possible in these blogs I will stick to metric measures, for some recipes even provide both metric and US customary measures, and it is also safe to assume (if I have not specified) that any oven temperature is on a fan oven. This leads me to the final point before I share my recipe with you - you know your own oven. My oven for example, cooks more on the right hand side, so I know I have to turn my cookies halfway through baking, but I have a friend whose oven is crazily hot, and she tends to halve normal cooking time. If in doubt, either follow the recipe and see how it turns out, or leave it for a few minutes less, and have a quick peek - things generally go from fine to burnt in a few minutes!

If you want to halve this recipe to make fewer cookies, just halve each measurement, and cook for 8 minutes only. Equally, this recipe works very well doubled, if you're making it in larger quantities.

If you do not have enough caster sugar, it can be replaced with any other type of sugar, but I don't recommend replacing brown sugar with caster sugar. Of course, the ideal ratio is the one in the ingredients list! Additionally, for the best cookies you should use chocolate chunks rather than chocolate chips. Ideally this should be bars of chocolate that you chop yourself into rough 1cm squares for the best taste. Typically in this recipe I used dark chocolate, but it works really well with milk chocolate too.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 8-10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: Depending on size, makes up to 36 medium sized cookies

Ingredients: 

• 230g unsalted butter, softened (1 cup)
• 200g caster sugar
• 220g soft, light, brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 360g plain flour
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (aka baking soda)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 350g chocolate chunks or more!

Method

Preheat the oven to 375F/190C/170C fan. Don't forget to do this, and take your baking trays out!

Cream the butter and the sugar. This step is crucial, so make sure not to leave any chunks of butter. To cheat, you can melt the butter and mix it into the sugar, but they taste noticeably less good if you do this. 

Add the eggs and vanilla. Add one egg, then mix, the vanilla, then mix, then the second egg, to avoid curdling. Beat until fluffy. If your mixture curdles slightly, add a tablespoon of flour (and later use less), but if it is only curdled a bit, just beat it really hard for a couple of minutes and it should right itself. 

Add the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients, then add them to the mix, mixing only until combined, no more.

Add the chocolate! Stir in the chocolate chunks, making sure they're evenly distributed.

Roll the dough. I recommend using a tablespoon measure to create even sized cookies - taking a scoop of dough and then placing it on the tray, however a small cookie scoop works well if you have one, or simply roll into balls of the size you want!

Bake! Bake in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes. Take them out when they are BARELY starting to turn brown - this is important. Let them sit on the baking tray for 2-3 minutes, until firm enough to move to a cooling rack.

ENJOY!! - These cookies will last up to a week in an airtight container, but I guarantee they won't last that long!

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