Recipe: The best chocolate chunk cookies. Ever.

I don’t know for how long I had been looking for a decent recipe of real American cookies.

Not just some supermarket-style biscuits. I wanted the sweet, buttery and crunchy (yet soft) chocolate-chunk cookies that America is famous for!

Unfortunately all the recipes online measure ingredients in cups (which is something a good pastry chef should despise!) 🙂 and I generally hate to do the conversion (because one cup of flour doesn’t weight as much as one cup of chocolate, for example; and we don’t have “sticks” of butter here).

“But ok”, I said, “after years and years of research, I can make an effort for cookies!“: and so I found an interesting recipe, converted it in grams and adjusted it to my taste.

“Adjusting a recipe to my taste” in this case meant: overloading it with dark, milk and white chocolate chunks, adding vanilla seeds and orange, plus some dry fruits (I made my own mix of hazelnuts, walnuts and Brazilian nuts).

The result was just A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! These are definitely the best cookies I’ve ever eaten, even better than the Pepperidge Farm ones! 😛

The recipe is pretty simple but the baking process is delicate: cookies must not be dry so it is better to slightly under-bake them. I baked at 170°C until golden brown (keep an eye on the oven) and made experiments at 160°C up to 190°C.

The bottom of a perfectly-baked cookie

Higher temperatures require less baking time and give softer products, while lower temperature of course need longer baking times and give crispier cookies. I achieved the best result at 170°C: the cookies were golden brown, crunchy outside but slightly soft on the inside… delicious!!!

If you love cookies, look no more: this is the ultimate recipe! Oh, and feel free to add whatever you like! Hint hint: shredded coconut, cinnamon, raisins…

Chocolate chunk cookies

Print recipe

Ingredients

125g	Unsalted butter (room temperature)
190g	Brown sugar
1/2	Vanilla bean
1/4	Orange zest (optional)
1	Egg
220g	Pastry flour
5g	Baking powder
3g	Salt
200g	Coarsely chopped chocolate (try a mix of dark, milk and white chocolate!)
50-100g	Hazelnuts (or any other dry fruits - optional)

Directions

Cream the butter with the sugar, orange zest and vanilla seeds at medium speed for 10-15 minutes with the paddle attachment. Scrape the bowl frequently.

Incorporate the egg, then add the flour, baking soda, salt, the chopped dry fruits and the chopped chocolate with a spatula...

... until you obtain a thick dough

Flatten the dough, wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours

Scoop a ball of dough onto a parchment-lined pan (using a spoon or your hands will do as well)

Remember to leave enough space for the cookies to "expand" during baking

Bake at 170° for around 10 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown

Let the cookies cool down to room temperature on a wire rack, then store in an air-tight container

Note

The butter must be at room temperature to be properly creamed. It should be removed from the fridge at least a couple of hours before using it
The secret of great cookies is mostly in the baking process: bake at 180 or higher for very soft cookies or at 160-170 for crispier cookies. Keep constantly an eye on the oven, since higher temperature requires shorter baking times and vice versa.

6 Comments

vvvfi

September 2, 2015 7:43 am

Can I reduce the sugar to 150/160g? and replace some of the coarsely chopped chocolate (mixture of dark, milk and whole macadamia nut)?

Cheers

Rob
September 2, 2015 10:04 am
Hi!
Of course you can but the consistency of the cookie will be slightly different in the end (not much though)… I guess it will be a bit less crunchy and less-cookie like but definitely still good.
On the other side, for the chocolate there is no problem! You can put the mixture of chocolates of your dreams (but I would probably coarsely chop the macadamia otherwise it will look huge on the cookie) 🙂
Reply

Ivie

May 28, 2016 5:46 am

Don’t have vanilla bean in my pantry, can I just add 1tsp vanilla essence instead?

190g sugar… are these cookies sweet or just nice with the mixture of dark, white and milk chocolates? Thanks for the reccette! Will bake this soon with chopped macadamia nuts

Rob
May 31, 2016 11:05 pm
Hello Ivie, for sure you can replace the bean with 1tsp of vanilla extract.
The cookies might be a bit sweet, but all the sugar is needed to give them structure; moreover, I find they taste a lot better in the following days, not when just baked. If you are afraid they might be too sweet, you can start testing them with dark chocolate only. 🙂
Reply

Majed

October 26, 2018 6:02 pm

Hi… just discovered your site by accident on you tube and l love it… Thank you for making everything so easy to follow , especially for a beginner. I’d like to make these cookies but could you clarify what you mean by pastry flour… as in the UK it’s a choice of plain, self raising, sponge cake flour, 00 flour – so which one please? Thanks & keep up the good work

Rob
December 1, 2018 1:20 pm
Hi Majed, on my website I mainly use weak “pastry flour” for cakes, spongecakes, etc.. and strong/bread flour for yeast products (e.g. brioches). A weak flour ensures the final result is soft and spongy, a strong one helps you to develop a lot of gluten in products that are rich of fats (fat loosens the gluten strands).
For cakes, I would therefore buy the most generic flour there is (i.e. “plain”, not self-raising and without any additives nor yeast nor baking powder).
The strenght of a flour is indicated by a parameter called W which is not printed on supermarket packages unfortunately. A good approximation is to look at the quantity of proteins of the flour: 9-12% = weak flour; 13 and above = strong flour.
Reply

vvvfi
September 2, 2015 7:43 am
Can I reduce the sugar to 150/160g? and replace some of the coarsely chopped chocolate (mixture of dark, milk and whole macadamia nut)?
Cheers
- Rob
  September 2, 2015 10:04 am
  Hi!
  Of course you can but the consistency of the cookie will be slightly different in the end (not much though)… I guess it will be a bit less crunchy and less-cookie like but definitely still good.
  On the other side, for the chocolate there is no problem! You can put the mixture of chocolates of your dreams (but I would probably coarsely chop the macadamia otherwise it will look huge on the cookie) 🙂
Ivie
May 28, 2016 5:46 am
Don’t have vanilla bean in my pantry, can I just add 1tsp vanilla essence instead?
190g sugar… are these cookies sweet or just nice with the mixture of dark, white and milk chocolates? Thanks for the reccette! Will bake this soon with chopped macadamia nuts
- Rob
  May 31, 2016 11:05 pm
  Hello Ivie, for sure you can replace the bean with 1tsp of vanilla extract.
  The cookies might be a bit sweet, but all the sugar is needed to give them structure; moreover, I find they taste a lot better in the following days, not when just baked. If you are afraid they might be too sweet, you can start testing them with dark chocolate only. 🙂
Majed
October 26, 2018 6:02 pm
Hi… just discovered your site by accident on you tube and l love it… Thank you for making everything so easy to follow , especially for a beginner. I’d like to make these cookies but could you clarify what you mean by pastry flour… as in the UK it’s a choice of plain, self raising, sponge cake flour, 00 flour – so which one please? Thanks & keep up the good work
- Rob
  December 1, 2018 1:20 pm
  Hi Majed, on my website I mainly use weak “pastry flour” for cakes, spongecakes, etc.. and strong/bread flour for yeast products (e.g. brioches). A weak flour ensures the final result is soft and spongy, a strong one helps you to develop a lot of gluten in products that are rich of fats (fat loosens the gluten strands).
  For cakes, I would therefore buy the most generic flour there is (i.e. “plain”, not self-raising and without any additives nor yeast nor baking powder).
  The strenght of a flour is indicated by a parameter called W which is not printed on supermarket packages unfortunately. A good approximation is to look at the quantity of proteins of the flour: 9-12% = weak flour; 13 and above = strong flour.

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