Michelle Darmody: How to bake chewy chocolate-chip cookies — and mistakes to avoid

The vinegar also helps to cut through the sweet taste of the sugar and chocolate.

There is an enduring love for a chocolate chip cookie; their popularity never seems to wane, not since their invention in 1930’s America.

Originally intended to accompany ice cream, that is still a great use for them today. These cookies make two wonderful sides of an ice cream sandwich as the chewiness allows you to bite into the sandwich without squishing the ice cream.

I tend to use a fairly dark chocolate, one that is at least 70% as the cookies can be a little sweet with a lighter chocolate. 

Certainly, if it is your preference, you can substitute this with milk chocolate.

You can also make an even chocolatier version by adding cocoa powder to the dough. There are instructions for this in the panel below!

Chocolate-Chip Cookies

By:michelle Darmody Recipe

Since Love Never Is A An Wane, To 1930’s Not Their Chip Invention America Popularity Seems Their In Chocolate Cookie; There Enduring For

Servings

30

Time Preparation

 1 hours 20 mins

Time Cooking

 12 mins

Time Total

 1 hours 32 mins

Course

 Baking

ingredients

• Cubed 200g Cold Butter,

• Light Sugar 140g Muscovado

• Granulated 120g Sugar

• 240g Plain Flour

• Soda 1 Bread Tsp

• Salt Tsp Sea Fine 1

• Egg 1

• Tsp 2 Vanilla

• Cider Vinegar Apple Tsp 1

• Chocolate Dark 340g Chips

method

1. Sugar The Butter And Both Types Creamy And Of Until Light Cream

2. Aside And It Sieve Soda The Salt And Set With Bread Flour The

3. And Egg With The Vanilla Lightly Beat Vinegar The

4. Butter Mixed Everything The Creamed Bowl Mixture Beat The Sides The Of Mixture To Mixture Gets A The To And From Gently Use Scrape Bottom Of Any Ensure Into The Well Spatula Egg

5. The And Mixture In A Wooden Add In Spoon Chocolate Then The Stir Flour Chips With

6. Dough Up Firm Put The A The Fridge Baking And It With For Parchment The Into Cover Then An And At Can Hour It Dough Bowl Into Least So Place

7. Preheat Baking Flat Oven Large 5 With Line Your Two 190ºc/gas Trays Parchment Mark To

8. Into Hot So Bake The Scoop Space Onto A Dough To You To Trays, Dough I The Water To They Balls Use It To Spread Small Of Balls 30 The Place Into Tend Scoop A Bit Ice Cookie The Dough As Can Cream Sticking Dip Scoop Can Help Leaving Of They Quite Prevent The

9. Edges Cool Cookies Are For Into Bake And 12 Soft The Golden And Centre Of Oven As Will Place Little Your They The The Minutes, Of Trays A Will Until About Firm Be The Still Up They

10. About Be They The Pletely Cookies To Cool Wire Gently Onto Until A Rack Firmed Fifteen Up Moved Have This Enough To After Tray On Time For The Baking Them Allow Place Cool Minutes

Baker's tips 

• Chilling the dough is an important step. It solidifies the ingredients and will also prevent the cookies from spreading as much as they bake.
• Using parchment rather than oiling your baking tray improves the cookies as the underside will not get as brown from the parchment.
• Chocolate chip cookies can tend to spread too much during baking. To prevent this, make sure your baking trays are cold when placing the dough onto them.
• If the balls of dough are placed into an oven that is too hot, they melt very quickly and do not hold their shape. If you are unsure of your oven temperature you can buy a thermometer, or you could bake a test cookie to make sure it turns out ok and adjust the temperature accordingly for the main batch.
• A third thing to look out for is adding too much sugar to the recipe as this can also make the cookies spread excessively.
• If you would prefer the cookies crunchy rather than chewy you can lower your oven temperature to 160ºC/gas mark 3 and bake the cookies for about 21 minutes at that temperature.
• I use a fish slice to move the cookies from the tray onto the wire rack.
• The cookies will keep in an airtight container for three days. I sometimes put a sheet of parchment between them if the weather is a little warm. It prevents them sticking together.
• It is best to freeze the dough balls before they are baked rather than freezing the cookie. You can then take the from the oven and bake as needed. They can be baked straight from frozen, but you will need to add another few minutes to the baking time.

3 delicious variations

White chocolate & hazelnut

Substitute the 340g dark chocolate chips with 200g of white chocolate chips and 140g of chopped hazelnuts. Follow the rest of the recipe as instructed.

Cranberry & pecan

Cranberry and pecan nut make a nice combination. For this variation I add the zest of an orange to the dough when the eggs are being added, then substitute the 340g dark chocolate chips with 200g of chopped pecan nuts and 140g of dried cranberries, also chopped.

Double chocolate chip

Substitute 50g of the flour for 50g of cocoa powder. Sieve it with the flour and baking powder. It is more difficult to know when these cookies are fully baked as you will not see them turn golden. Instead, you can very carefully tap the edge of one of the cookies to see if they have set slightly.