Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I like my chocolate chip cookies chewy. Crunchy just isn't for me which is sadly what's usually available in the supermarkets here. The bakeries that do sell cookies also have crunchy cookies with the exception of Brumby's but they don't make it the way I like my cookies so I have taken matters in my own hands and decided to make my own.

Here's a simple recipe. You only need a baking sheet and strong arms to make it.

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 /2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup melted unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 4/5 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 egg (both the yolk and white)
• Chocolate bar

Procedure:

Chop the chocolate bar into chunks. I'll leave the size to you. The price of 200 grams of chocolate chips is K29 and the price of a 200 gram bar is K17. Using chips is boring. Getting gooey chunks in your cookie is more exciting so that's why I used a chocolate bar.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda. Make sure you sift this to avoid lumps later on. In another bowl, mix the melted butter, white and brown sugar. Mix this well until what you have is a gooey brown paste. Put in the vanilla, the egg yolk, and the egg and mix well until all the ingredients are blended thoroughly. Now pour this onto the sifted flour. Mix this thoroughly. You can use a mixer if you have one. I didn't have one so this was my morning exercise. Mind you, what you will get would be a tough, gooey paste. Now get your chocolate chunks and pour it in. Be careful that you don't put in so many chunks that the chocolate would exceed 40% of the total mixture. Prepare your baking sheet. Use baking or parchment paper and dab a little butter on the corners of the tray for the paper to lie flat. With your hands, form the cookies and put them onto the tray. The cookies will get larger so be sure to space them 6cm apart. Bake for 15 minutes and let it cool. The cookies will be very soft when they have just come out so be careful with them. In 30 minutes, they would have cooled enough to eat.

And now for some photos:

my ingredients lined up.

chop coarsely the chocolate bar. if you bought chocolate chips, you can skip this process.

sift the flour. as i didn't have a sift, i used a whisk.

mix 1/2 teaspoon baking soda into the flour.

mix 1/2 teaspoon salt into the flour. these are your "dry" ingredients.

melt 3/4 cup of butter. a regular slab of butter makes 1 cup.

get 1 egg yolk and 1 whole egg.

preparing the "wet" ingredients.

mix the white & brown sugar into the butter.

mix it well until what you have is a gooey concoction.

put in the vanilla.

put in the eggs.

mix it all together.

then pour your "wet" ingredients onto your "dry" ingredients.

mix it all thoroughly.

your cookie dough will be like brown paste similar in consistency and colour to peanut butter.

sprinkle your chocolate into the cookie dough.

dab some butter onto your baking tray before putting on your baking paper. don't use wax paper!

with your hands, grab some of the dough & flatten it.

arrange it on the baking sheet. make sure you put some space in between

cool the cookies on a wire rack or whatever you have that can cool both the top & botttom.

Mind you, these are large 10cm cookies. You can always make them smaller. Enjoy!