I’ve asked a fair bit of friends over the years what do they consider as a good cookie. Those who liked it soft, most of them named the Subway cookie as their favourite. For those who liked it crunchy, Famous Amos. The others that were named included Levain Bakery’s in NYC , Crème from London, Bouchon Bakery’s, DoubleTree’s (they give you a cookie when you check in) and Jaslyn Cake’s in KL. If you are a Friends buff like me, Monica’s favourite was Phobe’s grandma’s recipe which “happened” to be on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse package.
When I was baking full time for a living in the early 2010s, I asked myself what kind of chocolate chip cookie would I like to eat? I listed attributes like crunchy, made with a really good chocolate, must have walnuts, and it must not be sweet. Sounds like a tall order. In the early 2010s, single origin chocolates were not as widely available, they were also not as well known till somewhere in the mid 2010s. Fortunately, having a corporate account with the suppliers, got me access to Valrhona single origin couverture chocolates. After experimenting in the kitchen and trying many different permutations including adding in malt, chocolate pearls, and baking with salted butter, resting for 2 hours, 24 hours and 3 days. I had finally came up with a cookie that I was proud of.
When it was launched as MilkBar’s Chocolate Chip Cookie, I used to sell jars and jars of this cookie. I have received lots of compliments about it also those that have tried to ask for the recipe too (cheeky folks). If you love your chocolate chip cookie crunchy, chocolaty and sweet salty like me, this is definitely the cookie for you. This cookie is really very special to me, but it is time to share it with a lot of other people to spread the joy.
I hope you will bake plenty of it and share it with your friends and family. Don’t forget to enjoy it with a cup of coffee or tea when you are taking a well deserved breather.
Makes around 24 cookies. (dependent on how big your cookies are)
Please start at least 2-3 days before hand.
Ingredients:
115g Salted Butter, soften
110g Dark Brown Sugar
100g Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 egg (around 60g, room temperature)
180g All Purpose Flour
1/2 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
180g Dark Couverture Chocolate (I used Cacao Barry’s Tanzanie 75)
1/3 cup of Cocoa Nibs
65g Walnuts
Maldon salt for sprinkling
Method:
Chop your chocolate until it becomes smaller (this is to preference), add in the chopped walnuts and cocoa nibs in a bowl (orange ingredients). Put aside till you are ready to use.
Mix the ingredients in green together in a bowl.
In a stand mixer, beat the salted butter for 20s on low speed till it looks like below.
Add in the dark brown sugar and caster sugar. (ingredients in purple). Beat on low speed till it comes together till it comes together (approximately 2 mins) then add in the vanilla and egg. Mix till it looks like below (creamy).
Add the dry ingredients (ingredients in green) to the butter mixture in 3 parts. The batter by then should look less wet and more like a soft dough.
Mix in the ingredients in orange (chocolate, nuts and cocoa nibs). At this point I will mix for only a short while just to incorporate the chocolate mixture.
Put it into an airtight container to rest in your fridge. This is my trick. I always rest my dough for a minimum of 48 hours if I am in a hurry, but if I’m not, for 3 days (72 hours) before i bake them. Why? I’ll put it in the footnote for those who are interested.
Preheat your oven to 180degC, fan forced with your rack in the middle of the oven.
Line a baking sheet/tray with baking paper. I use a cookie scoop which looks like little ice-cream scoop (also called a baby scoop) to proportion them. I would strongly advise you to buy one if you bake a fair bit of cookies. If you don’t have one, just form balls around the size of 1″ in diameter. Put them on your baking tray. Give them some space in between. Sprinkle them with Maldon salt.
Bake it in your oven for 15mins if you want a crispy edge and a chewy centre, and 18mins if you want a crispy cookie.
Leave them out to cool then keep in an airtight jar.
Why rest your cookie dough for so many days?
Upon doing my research, I chanced upon a 2008 New York Times article with a recipe from Jacque Torres, a French pastry chef and chocolatier. Resting your dough creates a drier, more concentrated dough also has more pronounced flavor. In the article he mandates a rest of at least 24 hours to 3 days. In that period, the starches in the flour begin to break down and the proteins start to to relax creating a cookie that caramelises better (Maillard reaction).
What I realised was that my dough was drier (moisture from the eggs and butter was absorbed by the flour), and the flavour was more delicious (think caramel and toffee flavours) and less “sugary”, also the cookie had a nice height to it, instead of spreading across the cookie sheet as quickly as one rested very little.
Dreaming in Flavours 