Not sure how it’s possible, but in the three years
I’ve been doing this blog, I’ve only made chocolate chip cookies twice. Once I
made Chocolate Marble Chunk Cookies, one of my favorite recipes, and another
time I featured Monster
Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut
Cookies. But never have I made regular old chocolate
chippers (or, in this case, chunkers). It’s interesting to me how different
these cookies will turn out by employing only slight variations in technique or
in the original Toll House recipe. In this version, for
example, I chilled the
dough overnight and then scooped it out using a 1 ½-ounce scoop. This made for
thick, soft cookies as opposed to thin, crisp ones. Not chilling the dough and cutting
down the flour by 1 to 2 tablespoons will make for a thinner,
crisper cookie,
if that’s your preference (I am not firmly in either camp; I love both, depending
chiefly on what’s within easy reach). For a super-soft cookie, you can use
melted instead of softened butter. I like these cookies because they have some
bulk, but I also
appreciate the merits of a thinner, crisper cookie. I like to use
Guittard chocolate pistoles in the dough, because they are the ideal sized
chunks, and they produce a nice clean cookie because you don’t have those tiny
shards of chocolate you get from chopping the chocolate. And, because I love
pecans, I added some of those, too. To have freshly baked cookies at the ready,
shape the dough into a log, wrap it well and freeze. Then simply slice off
pieces of dough and bake cookies whenever you get that urge we all know so
well…
Classic
Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes about 16 large cookies
2 cups (256 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
12 tablespoons (170 g) unsalted butter
¾ cup (162 g) firmly packed dark brown sugar
½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
10 ounces (283 g) bittersweet chocolate pistoles or
chunks
1 cup (100 g) pecan halves, toasted
1. Sift
together flour, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl. Add the kosher salt
and whisk to combine. Set aside.
2. In an
electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars
together until very light, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla, mixing at
medium speed until well blended. Reduce the speed to low, add dry ingredients
and mix until just combined. Add chocolate and pecans and mix at low speed just
until combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least
12 hours (or up to 3 days).
3. When ready
to bake, preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone
baking mat. Using a 1 ½-ounce ice cream scoop, scoop mounds of dough onto the
baking sheet, spacing them 2 ½ inches apart. Press the mounds down slightly and
bake until golden brown but still soft, 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer sheet to a
wire rack and cool for 10 minutes, then transfer cookies to another rack and
cool completely, if you can wait that long.
