The Best Chocolate Chunk Cookies

December 29, 2016

I’ve always loved to bake. So naturally, I’ve baked a lot of cookies over the years. I’ve tried so many different chocolate chip cookie recipes and while some are very tasty and chewy (just the way I like it), I wanted them to be a little thicker and resemble a specialty cookie like from a bakery or cafe. So I tried this new recipe and holy cow I’m in love. Beautiful thickness, perfect chewiness yet still soft, just the right amount of sweetness, and, oh yea, over 1 pound of Belgium chocolate. When microwaved for 10 seconds to reheat right before eating….*drool* — it’s like a freshly baked cookie with gooey chocolate and melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness. For me, it has that addictiveness to it where right after I eat one, my brain keeps saying “mooooooooore”.

Another thing I love about this recipe is that you need to freeze the dough balls. After I let it freeze for an hour or so, I put them into a freezer ziplock bag and save them for whenever I want a cookie fix and bake 8 of them or so and save the rest for later. This way I don’t have 25 baked cookies that I need to eat within a week! The recipe is straight from a recipe that I stumbled upon from The Better Crumb. After trying it out the first time, it was so delicious, but I wanted it a tad more chewy. So I halved the white granulated sugar and moved that amount to the brown sugars. I also added another 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. Other than that, the recipe is perfect as is from The Better Crumb.

Chocolate Chunk Cookie

Adapted from recipe by Pauline Rhoads of The Better CrumbFrom The Better Crumb: How to avoid a flat chocolate chip cookie? Here’s a professional baking secret…the key to baking a puffy cookie that keeps its shape is to freeze your cookie dough (at least four hours, and preferably overnight) and the cookie trays before popping them into fully a hot oven (preheat for at least 30 minutes). Also, make sure your baking soda is fresh to avoid a flat cookie. Give yourself at least five hours before serving to allow for freezing time. I find that the best chocolate to use is Trader Joe’s Belgian milk chocolate pound plus bar, which comes in a convenient 17.6 ounce jumbo bar. It’s extra creamy and delicious!

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 20

Total Time 40

Servings 2 dozen

Ingredients

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted European butter (like Plugra brand)**, cold and cut into cubes
½ cup + 2 TBLS firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup + 2 TBLS firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
18 oz milk chocolate, coarsely chopped into ½ inch chunks (or 17.6 oz. if using Trader Joe’s Pound Plus Belgium chocolate bar

Instructions

Place a large cookie tray, lined with parchment paper, in the freezer.
In a medium sized bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In the bowl of a mixer, mix sugars together. Then add the cold butter. Mix for two minutes or so on medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed to low and add one egg at a time, using a spatula in between to scrape sides. Mix egg in thoroughly and add vanilla. Add dry flour mixture and mix until combined. Add chocolate chunks and mix.
Form into balls 1 ½” to 2″ (Tip: use an ice cream scoop to get even portions), depending on how large you want your cookies. Place the dough balls onto the frozen cookie tray and freeze dough balls for at least four hours, preferably overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees for at least 30 minutes. Place 6-8 cookie dough balls on a frozen tray lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat and bake for about 18-20 minutes (check after 16 mins in case your oven runs hot), or until cookies are medium brown around the edges and puffy and lightly browned and caramel colored on top.
Let cookies rest for 5 mins on cookie pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once fully cooled, store in an airtight container.

Recipe Notes

**European Butter: I have not tested this recipe with regular American butter, so I’m not sure how it will turn out. Most grocery stores will carry some sort of European butter. If they don’t have Plugra brand, they might have Land O’Lakes European Style unsalted butter (its in a black package) or Kerrygold or some other brand.
Chopping up the chocolate bar: TJ’s Pound Plus bar is thick and huge. Use a large knife for more leverage (serrated is easier, like a bread knife), then gently rock the knife between the handle and the tip of the knife (using heel of your free hand) while pressing firmly down.
For a less sweet version: Use Trader Joe’s Dark chocolate Pound Plus bar (the one that’s 54% cocoa in the ingredients list, not 72%, so it’s more like semi-sweet)
Bake as needed: In step 4, after frozen for a few hours, you can place these frozen dough balls into a freezer ziplock gallon bag and bake as many as you want whenever you want in the future, just make sure to freeze your cookie tray for about 15 minutes prior to baking. So you don’t have to bake the entire 24-25 cookies all at once if you don’t want to!
Slightly overbaked and crunchy or cakey? Add a slice of bread or bread heel with the cookies in the airtight container. After a few hours or overnight, they will become soft and chewy.
If cookies have browned edges and fall flat after they cooled, they probably could have been cooked an extra min or so (but they are still deliciously chewy now!). Oven temperatures are not always accurate and may have dropped without you knowing, also, just remember for your next batch to cook an extra min or two.
Reheat for a special treat: Place cookie on paper towel and microwave it for 10 seconds to get the freshly-made-warm-and-melty-chocolate-deliciousness!