My daughter was home from Law School for our Thanksgiving long weekend and she requested a Soft Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookie. Now that is a recipe that was not in my repertoire so some google searching was in order. The first one that caught my attention was on Pinch Of Yum and I used her recipe for soft cookies as my base. I made mine without using any appliances as I thought that the softer touch would be key to keeping the texture chewy. A soft chewy cookie is a difficult beast to master without having to add bad things like corn syrup or shortening to your recipe, but I think this one nails it just right. I think it is the mixing by hand and just slightly underbaking the cookies that are the important points.
Making a batch of cookie dough by hand is a very satisfying accomplishment. Feeling the butter and sugar cream together and watching it become light and fluffy, then stirring in the flour feeling it become a smooth dough is just satisfying. Kneading the last bit of flour and the chocolate in by hand lets you know when the texture is just right.
Now for this batch I used a Lindt dark chocolate bar and the cookies were divine. For the next batch I used Belgian milk chocolate chunks and they were just as yummy so use whatever type of chocolate is your favourite. The sprinkle of sea salt on the top of the cookie just adds that sweet/salty thing that makes your tastebuds go hmmmmm. These Soft Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies will be making a regular appearance in our cookie jar for sure.
- ½ cup salted butter- very soft room temp
- ½ cup white sugar
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg-cold
- 1½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
- ¾ cup chopped dark chocolate
- Preheat oven to 350 ℉.
- In large glass bowl mix together both sugars and butter with a wooden spoon. Use the back of the spoon to cream together the ingredients.
- Add in egg and vanilla and now using a whisk blend together just until the egg is incorporated- about 20 seconds.
- In separate small bowl whisk together the flour and baking soda.
- Add all at once to the butter mixture. With the wooden spoon stir until the flour is all mixed in, then sprinkle with an additional tablespoon of flour and knead with your hands until smooth.
- Add the chocolate and mix in with your hands.
- Form into balls about 1½ tbsp each. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Sprinkle with the sea salt. Place balls no more than 10 on a sheet so they can spread.
- Bake 8 minutes, then rotate sheet and bake another 2 minutes, just until the bottoms are starting to brown and the tops appear dry but not browned.
- Let cool on cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.
- Store in an air-tight container.
- Adapted fromPinch of Yum