The Best Choc Chip Cookies

It's been a hectic couple of weeks.  First, there was the leadup to the dreaded exams at school and the traditional mountain of assignments dumped onto me by teachers.  Then there was the stress as I realised how many assignments I had and that I hadn't studied for exams.  Then there were the actual exams.  (Cue freakouts and late nights).  And then...I got my first ever catering order.


One of the girls I know at school was having her birthday party; she's one of the followers of this blog.  She wanted a sponge cake with berries and cream, brownie with caramel, macarons and tiramisu cupcakes.  I accepted.  Then I got another catering order from one of my Mum's work colleagues.  She wanted melting moments, baked lemon slice and mini vanilla cupcakes.  I accepted.


Wow, it was a lot.  There were late nights, dozens of eggs, kilos of flour, even more kilos of sugar, more real butter than I've ever used in my life and about a tonne of frustration.  I was so stressed that I didn't even think to photograph the end products!
Thank you so much, Mum, for helping me out and keeping me on task throughout that testing week.


In the end, it all turned out perfectly fine.  I packed all the ordered deliciousness into their own cardboard cakeboxes, and they were picked up with no dramas.  Finally, it was over, and I didn't want to bake another thing that required effort.


That's why these cookies are good.  Not only are they absolutely deliciously amazing, but they're fun to make and easy too.  After my bakeathon week, I made these with two of my best friends and it was awesome.


Recipe Adapted from: The Other Side of Fifty, in turn adapted from the New York Times
Ingredients
310g butter
230g brown sugar
250g white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence/extract
310g plain flour
260g bread flour (can substitute plain flour, but I found this type of flour in the baking section of my normal supermarket)
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter/margarine)
135g dark chocolate, grated

225g dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

225g dark chocolate chips

Method
1. Cream butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.


2. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well between additions.

3. Beat in vanilla essence.  Continue beating until the batter is fluffy.


4. Add flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Combine.

5. Using a food processor, grind up the 135g lot of chocolate.

Alternatively, grate against a grater.  (Difficult if you use chocolate in pellets and not a huge block, like me).  Mix the grated chocolate into the dough.

6. Chop one of the 225g lots of chocolate into smallish chunks.  (Bigger than the choc chips)


7. Mix all the chopped chocolate and choc chips into the dough.

8. Cover the dough with clingwrap and chill in the fridge for 24 - 72 hours.  The first time I made these, I left it overnight; with my friends, I left it in the fridge for the duration of a movie and the cookies were still fantastic!


9. When you're ready to bake the biscuits, preheat your oven to 175 C/350 F.


10. Shape the dough into 1 tbsp size balls.  Don't go much smaller than that.  Lay the balls out on a baking paper/silicon sheet covered baking tray, leaving a fair amount of space in between (they spread).

Squish the cookies down a little with your palm, but don't smush them so they're totally flat.


11. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until the cookies are light gold on the top.

12. Cool on trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to cooling racks.

The end product should be slightly crunchy on the outside, but gooey and chewy on the inside.  The chocolate should be melty, and there should be chocolate consistently throughout the cookie.  Looks-wise, the cookies should be lightly golden and cracked, with speckles of grated chocolate throughout and large blobs of chocolate here and there.