Big, soft and chewy Chocolate Cookies made from scratch.
Ingredients
- 115 grams (1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter, COLD (straight from the fridge), roughly chopped
- 190 grams (1 cup) brown sugar
- 1 large egg, cold
- 210 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 40 grams (1/2 cup) cocoa powder, sifted
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
- 150 grams (1 cup) dark chocolate block (50-70% cocoa), chopped by hand
- 150 grams (1 cup) milk chocolate chips
- Sea salt flakes, for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Line two baking trays with baking or parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add cold butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until combined and smooth.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Then add egg and beat again on low speed just until combined.
- Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and beat on a low speed until soft cookie dough forms. It might look dry at first (see notes below) but keep mixing and it should come together to form a chocolate cookie dough within 30 seconds.
- Add chocolate chunks and chocolate chips and beat briefly. Scoop out cookie dough, roughly 2 tablespoons per cookie, and piece together into rustic balls. I like to pinch and squeeze the dough together to form a ball rather than roll it smooth – this will give you a more lumpy, bumpy cookie with a textured finish.
- Place cookie dough balls on prepared oven trays, leaving room for the cookies to spread.
- Bake cookies for 12-13 minutes. Leave cookies to cool completely. They will firm up as they cool. Sprinkle cookies with sea salt.
Notes
Cold butter: Cold butter is magic for making thick cookies. I recommend using a stand mixer if you have one as it can take a bit of muscle to mix together the butter and sugar. If you only have a hand mixer, it’ll just take a bit longer. But if you’d rather use softened butter, you can. I just recommend chilling the dough for 1-2 hours before baking to achieve the same thickness.
Cookie dough: If you want to make textured cookies like mine, you want to scoop the dough and then sort-of just piece it together. I call this the ‘pinch and squeeze’ method. There’s no need to be perfect – and there’s no need to roll them smooth. Misshapen and messy is best!
Chocolate: You can use any chocolate you like. I like to use a block of dark chocolate and milk chocolate chips, but you can use all milk chocolate, all dark chocolate or even white chocolate for a tuxedo cookie.
Cookie spreading: This recipe should create a thicker cookie, however, if you’re worried about your cookies spreading too much in the oven, bake one tester cookie first and see how it goes. If it spreads too much, pop your cookie dough in the fridge for one hour and try again.
Leftovers: These cookies are soft and fudgy when fresh. They will firm up over time. I recommend heating leftover cookies in the microwave for 5-10 seconds to make them melty and gooey again.
Storage: Keep cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. You can freeze the cookie dough and simply bring it back to room temperature to bake on demand.
Reader feedback: Some readers have mentioned to me that their cookie dough looked dry. It will look dry at first (see my cookie dough below) but keep mixing and it should come together within 30 seconds. If it is actually too dry, you have added too much flour and/or too much cocoa powder. Make sure you measure your ingredients using a kitchen scale for best results.
