chocolate chip cookies (version 2.3)

I think this is a close as I've ever come to my perfect choc chip cookie

What I’m reading: this New York Times piece about trends in menus - really interesting, and beautifully presented

What I’m listening to: Last Night by Morgan Wallen. In my country music era?

What I’m eating: Ferg Burger and Ferg Bakery bits - an institution in Queenstown, and for good reason (below) - and crepes, for Pancake Tuesday (also below)

Ferg Burger/Ferg Bakery

Crepes for Pancakes Tuesday

I’ve just spent a week on the South Island of NZ, travelling with some Irish friends. Highlights included bungee jumping in Queenstown, a sunrise hike up to Roy’s Peak in Wanaka, sunsets in Hokitika and visiting Cardrona Hotel (the oldest in NZ). It was a beautifully chaotic week, and I highly recommend a South Island roadtrip to anybody visiting New Zealand.

The choc chip cookie update

Right, so as you may be aware, I always have a stash of chocolate chip cookie dough in the freezer, ready to go in case of emergencies (see this newsletter from last year).

Each time I make a batch, I fine tune it a bit: Series 2 introduced brown butter into the mix, and the most recent batch I made (2.3) was a winner: they’re chewier, with more depth of flavour, and bake better from frozen, with shards of chocolate that melt and crinkle in the oven.

When it came to playing around with ratios, I started with butter (always a good place to start). I decided to increase the sugar to butter ratio, in order to achieve a chewier centre and crispier edge - and increased the ratio of dark brown sugar to caster, which introduces more moisture into the dough (and makes the cookies a nice dark golden brown colour). I kept the egg the same (15%), and decreased the flour to 60%, to make a moister (sorry) dough that wouldn’t dry out so much when baked. I decreased the chocolate to 28% for a more cohesive dough, decided to keep it to all milk choc, and chopped it more finely, reserving some for shards to attach to the outside of the cookie dough balls. Let me know if you’re interested in seeing the actual spreadsheet I used to calculate the ratios - if I haven’t lost you already at this point :)

One of the key techniques is melting some of the chocolate, cooling it, then breaking this into shards, which you’ll attach to each cookie dough ball. The picture below shows how the cookie dough looks once frozen.

This is my new favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and it’s actually slightly easier than the original version: you don’t need a mixer, or to wait for the butter to soften. When shaping the cookie dough balls, you flatten them slightly so that they bake better from frozen, and PLEASE don’t forget to sprinkle with Maldon before they go in the oven.

recipe: brown butter choc chip cookies