Lily’s Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies
Once you make these cookies, you will never go back to classic chocolate chip. This recipe makes a large batch because I believe in freezing at least half the cookie dough for a later date.
SERVES
30
PEOPLE
Ingredients
#40 size cookie scoop (1½ tbsp in size)
227g salted butter
215g dark brown sugar
75g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
326g dark chocolate (70%) (in bar or oval form) - you want proper dark chocolate here, not in chip form, that you can chop
flaky sea salt, for sprinkling
Method
Put the brown sugar and granulated sugar in a large, heat-proof mixing bowl.
Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it begins to foam, about 5-7 minutes. When the solids turn golden brown, remove the pan from the heat, and pour the hot butter over the sugar. Whisk to incorporate.
Next, whisk the eggs and vanilla into the sugar mixture until it becomes viscous and glossy.
Add the flour to the bowl, sift the baking soda on top of the flour. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet, using a rubber spatula, removing any lumps. No streaks of flour should remain.
Chop the chocolate into chunks and shards. You are looking for diverse chunks, some larger than bite-size, others smaller. This is key to the textural integrity of the cookie.
Fold the chocolate chunks into the dough, including the small shards and chocolate dust that accumulated on your cutting board.
Allow the dough to rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature until firmed up. You want the dough to hold its shape for scooping. It will be too warm to scoop right away. If your kitchen is very hot, consider moving the dough to a cooler location.
Once the dough has firmed up, use a cookie scoop to portion the dough onto a silicone or parchment-lined sheet tray. (The cookies may seem hard to scoop with so many chocolate chunks, but have no fear, they will bake beautifully.) Line the balls close together, as you are not baking them right away. Sprinkle each ball with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt.
Transfer the tray to the freezer for 30 minutes to let the dough firm up. (At this point, if you are not cooking immediately, you can transfer the balls into a plastic bag and store them in the freezer for future use.)
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Line a baking tray with parchment paper or a silicone mat and place your desired number of cookies on the sheet, spreading them at least 6cm apart. Bake for 9-10 minutes, removing the cookies from the oven when the outside is crisping but the inside is still slightly gooey. Tap/gently bang the tray against a heat-proof counter right when they come out of the oven, to remove some of the air in the cookies. This will help flatten/crinkle them.
Allow the cookies cool on the tray for at least 10 minutes before removing them with a metal spatula. This time is key to their setting.
They get firmer the longer they sit and actually taste great at room temperature, when the pools of chocolate have hardened, but the cookie remains chewy.
