I honestly have no idea why I haven't ever made cookies from scratch before.
Over the years I've baked plenty of other things, but cookies has never been one of them. I think I've made a couple of those "cookie dough in a tube" batches, but that's it. So when the Lifescouts badge for baking cookies came along during April/Childhood month, I knew it was one that I had to do.
And I was ordering some more of the physical badges a week or so ago, and figured the incentive of getting the badge would be enough to get me to actually make some cookies.
I already had a recipe I'd found... I mean how can you go past a recipe titled "best big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookie".
Honestly though, I'm not sure how great a recipe it is... they seem okay, but it's not like the boys from Burger Theory have anything to worry about... their cookies are about a thousand times better.
It may have been my own fault... looking at the recipe again just now, I think I put slightly less butter in than it called for, and I also decided to use cooking chocolate buttons snapped into pieces (I tried chopping them, but it ended up being easier to just snap them by hand), for that bigger chunkier chocolate effect.
I also had no idea exactly when to take them out of the oven, it ended up being mostly based on guesswork and while none of them were overcooked, I think some may be more successful than others. Having said that, my oven temperature isn't great at the best of times, but I ended up leaving them in the oven for much longer at a slightly higher temperature... your mileage may vary.
The original recipe also called for the cookies to be made up of "four rounded tablespoons" of mixture. That's clearly a typo, because when I made the first batch I used a single tablespoon and the cookies were GIANT. Even making them with a single teaspoon made fairly big cookies... although given the big chocolate chunks it wasn't like I could make neat little balls of dough.
But, good or bad, here it is (with the corrected portion details)... along with the photographic proof that I made me some cookies.
Best big, fat, chewy chocolate chip cookies
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter, melted
200g dark brown soft sugar
100g caster sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
325g chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line baking trays with parchment.
Sift together the flour, bicarb and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and caster sugar until well blended.
Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended.
Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon.
Drop a heaped teaspoon of cookie dough onto the prepared baking trays. Do not flatten the dough. Cookies should be about 8cm apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted.
Cool on baking trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
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