What’s better than a warm freshly baked cookie? How about the best cookie you’ve ever tasted? Salty, sweet, chocolatey, Chewy, crunchy yes, this cookie has it all! And the best bit? You can freeze the dough and bake-off individual cookies whenever you feel the need! There is nothing better than a freshly baked cookie at 11pm on a weekday when all those zoom calls have taken it out of you! 

I’ve taken inspiration from a few other recipes circulating out there for similar style cookies but have taken the best bits of each and thoroughly tested my hybrid, this recipe makes approx. 16 cookies, so is the perfect single batch, but easily doubled for a bumper batch, I highly recommend making more then you need and freezing the remaining dough, having ready to bake cookie dough in the freezer is a modern luxury everyone deserves! 

I do recommend sticking with the dark chocolate and flaky salt, cookie dough is very sweet, and it needs that deeper chocolate flavour, and milk chocolate just does not stand up, also the extra salt mixes with the brown butter and brown sugar to make a more salted caramel flavour, which is incredible! Please trust me on this one! 

Ingredients

 200 g Plain flour 

1 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp.  baking soda

170 g unsalted butter

250 g light brown soft sugar

1 large whole egg

2 large egg yolks

2 tsp. vanilla extract

200g Good quality Dark Chocolate chopped roughly

1 tsp Flakey sea salt (Maldon salt) for sprinkling

Method 

1 – 

Add your butter to a deep sided saucepan and gently melt stirring continuously with a heatproof spatula, until the butter begins to foam, stir until the butter solids begin to brown, continue to brown until a dark caramel colour is achieved, be mindful that the butter will continue to brown from the residual heat. Transfer butter to a large heatproof bowl and allow to cool for about 10 mins or until just above room temperature. 

2 - 

Meanwhile whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl, and prepare / separate your eggs into a separate bowl / container, set aside.

3 – 

Once the butter has cooled, add the sugar and whisk to combine, ensuring to break up any clumps. Add egg and egg yolks and vanilla. whisk until the mixture is smooth. 

4 – 

Using a spatula, fold in the prepared dry ingredients into the butter and eggs until no dry spots remain, then fold in chocolate. Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 1 hour. 

The uncooked dough can be kept in an air tight container for up to 3 days before baking, or can be portioned out and frozen separately on a sheet then stored in an air tight container for up to a month in the freezer. You can bake from frozen.

When ready to bake preheat your oven to 180 degrees C and line a cookie sheet with baking paper or a silicone sheet.

5 – 

Using an ice cream scoop or tablespoon, scoop out approx 16 evenly sized balls of dough and place 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet, using two sheets if baking the entire batch. Bake in the centre of the oven for 8-10 minutes, rotating sheets to ensure even browning, halfway through the baking remove from the oven and drop/bang the sheet on the counter to flatten out the cookies, then return to the oven until deep golden brown and firm around the edges, remove and let cool on baking sheets. Store in an airtight container for up to a week.