My Perfect Choc Chip Cookie Recipe
(and a List of Reasons to have a Stash in your Freezer)
What I’m reading: More Than Cake, the new cookbook by Natasha Pickowicz. It’s beautiful (and yes, reading a cookbook counts as reading)
What I’m listening to: Florence Pugh on Off Menu. One of my fave podcasts, one of my fave actors, can’t go wrong
What I’m eating: everything and anything in New York City. Highlights so far include a lox bagel at Murray’s, ice-cream at Morgenstern’s, a perfect meal at Barbuto (have you heard of tilefish? Neither had I, but it was TASTY)
A couple of years ago, when me and my friend Mary were living in London, we set out on a mission to find our favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. We tested 9 different cookies, and drew up a spreadsheet with mixing, resting and baking methods, bakers’ percentages (flour, butter, sugar, choc etc.) and tasting notes. That day, despite our best efforts, we were left with a small mountain of cookie dough, portioned into 50-60g balls and ready to bake. We froze them, to be rationed out over the next few months.
Since then, I have almost constantly had a stash of cookie dough in my freezer, to be baked at a moment’s notice. You really never know when you’ll need a cookie, and there is something deeply comforting in the knowledge that you are never more than 20 minutes away from a freshly baked cookie.
I repeated the cookie test last year, incorporating some new recipes that I had come across in the interim. This time, I did the experiment in the kitchen at Ballymaloe House, on my day off - so the leftover cookie dough was left in the walk-in freezer at Ballymaloe. There is never any shortage of treats in the Pastry Kitchen at Ballymaloe, but sometimes, only a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie will do - so on special occasions (or when Head Chef Dervilla gave me the nod), I would throw a batch in the oven, and leave them on the pass for whoever needed one that day.
My recipe is everything I personally am looking for in a chocolate chip cookie: heavy on the chocolate (dark and milk), golden brown and crisp around the edges but still slightly soft in the middle. A lot of the cookie recipes I have tested over the last few years are chewy and spread more while baking, which I also appreciate and enjoy, but for me, the amount of sugar you have to use to achieve the chew is too much, and the resulting cookie, although the texture might be spot-on, is just too sweet. From playing around with ratios, I find that you get the best results from half and half strong and plain flour, caster and light brown sugar and milk and dark choc. You can, of course, use just one or the other, but each adds something (i.e., structure from the strong flour, tenderness from the plain, crispness from the caster sugar, moisture and flavour from the brown sugar, etc.), so I do recommend following the recipe as written.
Now, when it comes to baking an emergency cookie from the freezer, any reason is valid. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, and before I’ve even opened my eyes, I know a cookie is in my future that day. To give you an idea, however, here’s a few reasons to bake a cookie that will hopefully convince you to make a batch TODAY. I’m a big believer in being good to future you, and baking a batch of cookie dough is the ultimate expression of self-care.
It’s raining
You failed your driving test for the 4th time
Unexpected guests
Broken hearts
Bad haircuts
WFH
You just finished watching Normal People and are feeling vulnerable
You forgot your friend’s birthday
Someone stole your bike
You don’t have anything in for dinner
Cramps
Winter
Hangovers
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The Recipe
A note on chocolate: use good quality chocolate here, nothing you wouldn’t be happy to eat on its own (and certainly not the chocolate chips you buy in the baking aisle at the supermarket - not naming names, but a certain pizza brand makes chocolate chips that you should avoid like the plague). Callebaut and Valrhona are both good (especially Valrhona Jivara). I love Nearynogs if you’re in Ireland or Northern Ireland, and Original Beans and Pump St are good options if you’re in the UK. If you get your chocolate in bars or callets, chop them roughly so you have some chunks, some smaller nuggets and some dust which will disperse beautifully through the dough.
Ingredients
260g strong flour
260g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarb
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
270g butter - salted and soft
200g caster
180g dark brown sugar
2 eggs
440g choc chips or chopped choc (milk and dark)
Maldon salt
Method
Cream the butter and sugars until homogenous, but not light & fluffy - about 1 minute in a stand mixer.
With the mixer running, stream in the eggs & vanilla, mix until combined.
Measure the dry ingredients into a separate bowl, then add to the mixing bowl and mix until almost combined - still crumbly, with some dries visible.
Add most of the chocolate (reserving a small handful) and mix until just incorporated.
Shape the dough into 60g balls, then place on a lined tray and push down the top slightly so they have a solid base for baking. Press the remaining choc chips into the top. Place in the freezer until frozen, then transfer into an airtight bag or box.
To bake: preheat the oven to 180C/165C fan. Space the cookies out generously on a lined tray and sprinkle with Maldon just before they go in the oven. Check after 10 mins and turn the tray if necessary. At this stage, take the tray out of the oven and whack it off the countertop 2 or 3 times. Return to the oven and bake until golden and just about set in the middle - about 13-15 minutes total. When they come out of the oven, if they’re not perfectly round and you want them to be (same), use a cookie cutter or similar large round utensil to “scoot” them into shape.
Very excited to make my freezer stash, in the unlikely event that I don't eat them all immediately how long will they keep in the freezer for?
Hi Rebecca! Officially, they shouldn't be in the freezer longer than three months (for food safety reasons) - but I've had batches in there longer and they're totally fine!