Forget the brittle biscuit versions that come from a packet – a great cookie should be more than just sweet. It should have contrasting textures, with a crisp exterior and chewy middle, and be punctuated with pockets of dark chocolate. You should be left wanting more.
For chewiness and flavour, we’ve used browned butter, rye flour and sea salt, and to help them cook evenly, we’ve used the trick of slamming the baking sheet on a hard surface after part-baking the cookies. Cookie recipes are often debated, but we’ve taken the best bits of all our favourites to create this ultimate version.
9 top tips for a next level chocolate chip cookies
1. Add brown butter
Adding brown butter is one of the easiest ways to take your cookies to the next level. It adds a lightly caramelised flavour and gives the middle
a fudgy texture.
2. Make at least coaster-sized
Cookies shouldn’t be dainty, and for the best contrast of textures (a crisp outer cookie with a soft centre), they should be at least coaster-sized. This recipe would also make nine large cookies.
3. Add rye flour
We’ve added rye flour, which gives the cookies a toasted maltiness and makes them a bit more robust and chewier.
4. Bang part-baked cookies against a surface
This isn’t essential, but banging the sheets of part-baked cookies against a surface will give them a rustic look and help them bake evenly.
5. Chill for a chewy texture
The dough needs to be chilled before baking to help the cookies hold their shape without spreading too much and stay chewy in the middle. Chilling for 3-4 hours will make them firm enough to roll into balls, but you can get ahead by making the dough the day before.
6. Use two types of sugar
We tried lots of different sugars during testing and found that using only dark sugar made the cookies taste too much of treacle, while white sugar made them sweet without any flavour. A combination provided the best of both.
7. Make them your own
We’ve gone with straight chocolate, but feel free to add your favourite cookie ingredients to this recipe. Nuts, toffee or dried fruit would all work well.
8. Use chunks, not chips
Forget those little chocolate chips you find in the baking aisle – we’ve gone with big, chopped chunks that create large pockets of melted chocolate during baking.
9. Sprinkle with sea salt
A sprinkling of sea salt balances the sweetness of the cookies, while accentuating the flavour of the chocolate and rye flour.
How to make it
Next level brown butter cookies
Makes: 12
Prep: 20 mins plus 3-4 hrs chilling
Cook: 20 mins
More effort
Ingredients
- 125g unsalted butter
- 100g plain flour
- 100g rye flour
- 1 tsp sea salt flakes, plus
- extra for sprinkling
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200g light brown soft sugar
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 1 large egg, plus 2 large yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 200g chocolate, chopped into
- small chunks (choose dark or milk, or a mixture of the two)
Method
1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan until sizzling. Watch it carefully – the butter will foam, and, when the foam subsides, itwill turn from yellow to a hazelnut brown. At this point, remove from the heat, tip into a bowl and leave to cool. Meanwhile, mix the flours, salt, baking powder and bicarb together in a bowl and set aside.
2. When the butter is cool, tip in the sugars and beat with a wooden spoon to combine. Add the whole egg, yolks and vanilla and beat together. Scrape the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until it all comes together into a dough. Fold in the chocolate, then chill for at least 3 hrs, or until firm. Will keep chilled for up to 24 hrs.
3. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. Line two large baking sheets with baking parchment. Separate the dough into 12 pieces, weighing for accuracy if you like. Roll each piece into a ball using your hands, then put six balls on each sheet, leaving space between them for spreading. Bake for 10 mins, then, one sheet at a time, remove from the oven, sprinkle with some sea salt and slam the sheet hard against your work surface.
4. Bake for another 3 mins, then repeat the slamming of the sheet. Bake for 3 mins more. This timing will give you soft cookies, but if you prefer them a bit firmer, cook for a few minutes longer. Leave to cool on the sheets for 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
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