After the best chocolate chip cookies recipe of all time? Trained pastry chef Ella Tarn tested various versions, honing, tweaking and perfecting the blend of ingredients to find the best possible version. Our easy recipe makes chewy-yet-crisp cookies with generous chunks of milk chocolate, topped with a sprinkling of sea salt flakes.
- The trick to soft, chewy cookies: American-style cookies like these should have just enough crunchy crust around the edges to hold the chewy centre together. However, the cookies shouldn’t be too hard or they risk crossing over to being a biscuit. The trick is not to overbake them – they should still feel soft, almost underbaked, when you take them out of the oven (they’ll firm up as they cool).
- How to prevent cakey cookies: The cookies will spread as they cook, so space out well on the baking sheets. If they don’t have room to spread they’ll end up too thick with a sponge-like texture. Chilling the dough before baking helps to develop the flavour and to control the spread as the cookies bake: the outside melts first, helping the cookies to spread out at an even rate.
- Customisable recipe: Try adding your own inclusions to the cookie dough. Mix up the type of chocolate (we love caramelised white chocolate) or try candy-coated chocolate beans, chewy toffees or chopped nuts. See more ideas in the Know-how section, below. Avoid treats very high in sugar, such as marshmallows, which can burn.
Ready for a cookie challenge? Try these distinctively wrinkly pan-bang cookies, a cult US recipe.
Ingredients
- 120g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 100g soft light brown sugar
- 75g white granulated sugar
- 1 medium free-range egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g plain flour
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 150g milk chocolate, chopped
- Sea salt flakes to sprinkle (optional)
You’ll also need…
- 2 baking sheets lined with non-stick baking paper
Method
- Put the butter and sugars in a mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer for 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined.
- In a small mixing bowl mix together the flour, fine salt and bicarbonate of soda. Beat this into the butter, sugar and egg mixture to form a dough. Stir in the chocolate using a wooden spoon until evenly distributed.
- Roll the dough into 12 equal balls using your hands, then put on a plate and chill for 1 hour 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Space out the cookie balls on the baking sheets and bake for 15 minutes; they should still feel slightly soft to the touch once baked, but they’ll firm up once cooled. Cool completely on the baking sheet, then scatter with sea salt flakes to serve, if you like.
Nutrition
- 266kcals Calories
- 12.8g (7.7g saturated) Fat
- 3.3g Protein
- 33.9g (21.1g sugars) Carbs
- 1g Fibre
- 0.4g Salt
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