Nice and chewy, not too doughy: the perfect golden Goldilocks cookies

Posted by jennyropes on February 27, 2011 · 3 Comments 

Birthdays call for sugar, and lots of it. But it’s no good taking the risk of relying on others to come up with the goods. Oh no, that’s just too far too risky.

Don’t worry, my birthday weekend didn’t see me making my own birthday cake (while weeping into the mixture). That would be far too sad. Instead I found myself baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies to ease the hangovers of the friends who had come to London to celebrate my 25th year with me.

This cookie recipe’s a real favourite among my friends. Mainly, I believe, because it takes less then half an hour from mixing bowl to mouth. And because I have the bad habit of panicking that they’ll not be chewy enough, and  ending up presenting my friends with a plate of warm dough.

While this usually goes down rather well, it’s not very professional and probably not very good for the tum. Also, dough in tupperware does not travel well so you can forget serving them at a picnic or dinner party if you’ve taken them out of the oven too soon.

On this occasion I was making two batches, so I left the second one in a  tad longer. But alas they went too crispy. Sigh

Don’t panic though; I recently read a good blog on cookies by fellow food fanatic Melissa, of Shoots and Roots: Giant Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

She reassures me that she also has the occasional doughy disaster. Her advice is to make sure the cookies are set when you take them out and light brown right to the centre. This is, I think, where I’ve been going wrong. I’d been told that the cookies continue to set in the air. I think they do but only to a certain extent. So if they still look a bit pale and wibbly, probably best to stand your ground and leave them in for a couple more mins.

Anyway, here’ the recipe I use. You can use all caster sugar but this makes them a bit more crunchy and not quite as melt in the mouth.

350g of flour

225g butter

175g caster sugar

175g brown sugar

1tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

Bar of chocolate

1. Melt the butter in a  saucepan over a low heat. Then stir in the brown sugar and caster sugar. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5.

2. Whisk an egg in a separate bowl and then add to the mixture.

3. Add vanilla extract

4. Add flour and bicarbonate of soda and stir well

5. Leave to cool before adding chocolate chips as otherwise they’ll melt into the mixture. This might sound ideal but you actually want chunks of oozy chocolate to bight into when cooked.

6. Create the chocolate chips by using a knife to break them into quarter square sized pieces. Don’t worry if they’re quite big, you want ’em nice and chunky.

7. Add to the mixture

8. Dollop teaspoon sized amounts onto greased baking or greased foil, leaving plenty of space between them. I never do this and end up with one giant cookie monster.

9. Bake for 12 minutes and, as Melissa has advised me, leave them in for 13 or 14 minutes if they look like they need it. PATIENCE.

I’ve watched friends bake cookies before and they take them out for a minute when they are nearly ready, waft them in the air for a bit, and put them back in for a minute longer. Does anyone have any idea what this does?!

10. Take them out, leave to cool and harden for as long as you can bear.

11. Devour.

Filed under Baking, Biscuits, Chocolatey puds, Cookies, Recipes · Tagged with baking, chocolate chip, cookie, sugar