Klem's Cooking: Choc Chip Cookies

By Klementine Burrell-Sander

Cookies. Biscuits. Delicious discs of dough. Call them what you will, choc chip cookies are an absolute mainstay of bakeries and biscuits aisles alike, and remain a popular choice for both young and old. Everyone can conjure up an image of some obnoxious American child dipping a choc chip cookie into a glass of milk, and I should hope that every one of us has, at some stage, done the same. Personally, I think the milk is entirely unnecessary if your cookie is of superior quality, but hey, you do you.  

Why, then, has the humble choc chip cookie found such enduring fame? I think there’s a few reasons: the relative ease and speed with which they can be produced in your very own oven, the mobile, take-it-anywhere nature of the biscuit class, and, of course, the perfect balance we find in a good cookie: not so sweet that you can feel the cavities forming in your teeth as you eat it, but with enough chocolatey goodness to be an instant mood-lifter.

Getting down to business

For once, the first step of these brownies isn’t turning on the oven – instead, it’s getting your butter (150 g) out of the fridge. You want it to be soft enough that you can slice through it with a spoon. If you don’t have time to wait around for that, fear not: see the notes at the bottom on how to get your butter soft and creamy quick-smart.

Alright, NOW you can turn your oven on to 150 °C. Yes, I know that seems a bit low. No, turning it on to a higher temperature will not make your cookies be ready any faster, it’ll just ruin them.

Pop your softened butter into a large bowl and add a cupful of sugar. I use ½ a cup of granulated sugar and ½ a cup of brown, but you can use a whole cup of granulated sugar, it’s not a biggie!

You’ll want electric beaters for this: technically you can make it with a wooden spoon, but you’ll get a lot more tired. Beat your sugar and butter together until you can’t see individual sugar crystals any more. Eat a little bit – just a teeny tiny bit – to make sure it tastes alright. Butter and sugar is basically just uncooked caramel, after all.  

Alright. Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence, if you have it, and crack a single egg into your mixture Beat it up a bit, then chuck your flour in (1 ¾ cups). Unless you want to get white powder all over the house – that might look suss if you have a rental inspection coming up – add half of it at a time, and beat it at a low speed. Your mixture will be pretty thick – that’s what we want!

There’s only one ingredient left, but it’s the most important: your choc chips! As with brownies, you can mix this up as much as you want – dark chocolate is a solid bet, but leftover Easter bunnies or M&M’s are definitely good options too.

I also like to chuck in some roughly chopped almonds or walnuts to be indulgent – just make sure your total volume of mix-ins isn’t more than about 1 ¼ cups, or else your cookies will become a chewy, crunchy, melted mess. If you’re OK with that, hey, go wild.

Once you’ve stirred in your choc chips, it’s time to form your cookies. Use a spoon and/or your hands to make balls of dough and place them on a baking tray that is either lined with baking paper or foil or at least very well-greased. You can make them as big or as small as you like! Shove them into the oven and wait five minutes. Once they’ve softened up a bit, you can use a fork or a spatula to flatten them down a little.

Take them out after 12 minutes total – they won’t seem done, but you have to believe in them. Let them sit for at least 10 minutes before you take them off the tray, then dive in and eat one while the chocolate is still gooey and delicious.

If you want to be really extra (and I know you do), wait till the cookies are completely cooled and make ice cream sandwiches by squishing a blob of ice cream between two cookies. Who needs to go to a dessert bar?

Ingredients

-          150 g butter (softened)

-          ½ cup brown sugar (see recipe: can use granulated)

-          ½ cup granulated sugar

-          ½ teaspoon vanilla essence (but don’t worry if you don’t have it)

-           1 egg

-          1 ¾ cups plain flour

-          ~1 cup chocolate chips

TL:DR

1.       Cream the sugars and butter and add the essence. 

2.       Add the egg and mix well. 

3.       Mix in flour gradually, then mix in the chocolate bits.

4.       Bake at 150 °C for 12 minutes and no longer.