Best ever big fat chewy choc-chip cookies

christeb

I'll be trying these on Saturday - they sound like the perfect hangover cure!

JohnK

Is the unsalted butter important? By that I mean could you use normal salted butter and leave out the added salt in the recipe?

Dwn Wth Vwls

I don't think it's important, but I was under the impression that most "real" butter is unsalted anyway. What brand were you going to use? I wouldn't leave out all of the extra salt, I doubt salted butter is that salty.

JohnK

Well I was in Dunnes earlier and the only butters I could see all had added salt. The only brands I can remember were the dunnes own-brand and I think dairygold. There was something else too but agian it was an added-salt one. One of them had writen on the label that it was a max of 2% salt - I presume they'd all be about the same.

Dwn Wth Vwls

Dairygold and other stuff in a plastic tub is generally not real butter. Ideally you'd want something like Kerrygold or similar that's just a block wrapped in foil.

Mort5000

A quick question, where do you get your baking supplies?

I've been looking for edible glitter, foil pie trays, ready made icing decorations, gel colouring, etc and I don't seem to be able to source them from the local Tesco/whatever.

Any suggestions?

JohnK

Dwn Wth Vwls wrote: »

Dairygold and other stuff in a plastic tub is generally not real butter. Ideally you'd want something like Kerrygold or similar that's just a block wrapped in foil.

well all the stuff I looked at was in foil wrapped blocks all right - I might have gotten the name mixed up between dairygold & kerrygold

I'll try a few more shops today though.

Magic Monkey

JohnK wrote: »

Is the unsalted butter important? By that I mean could you use normal salted butter and leave out the added salt in the recipe?

Using unsalted butter is important only in those recipes where you're using a lot of butter (e.g. puff pastry).

In a 454g/1lb block of kerrygold butter for example, there is 1.7g salt per 100g (iirc), so around 8g per 454g/1lb in total (~2%, like you mentioned). In the first recipe for chocolate cookies given by the OP, it calls for 170g unsalted butter plus 3g additional salt. But 1.7*1.7 = 2.9g salt, so in a long-winded reply to your question yes, you can use normal salted butter and leave out the added salt.

Mort5000, for those cake decorating supplies you mention, try downstairs in Kitchen Compliments on Chatham St.

Dwn Wth Vwls

I just had a look at kerrygold myself and noticed the salt Nothing I've made has ever come out tasting salty though, including puff pastry.

Glowing

I'm going to make them tonight!! YUM

Gazza22

I made these last night, they turned out great! - thanks a lot for the recipe!

In future though, i think i will be reducing the sugars by about a third - little bit too sweet for me!

Glowing

Mine are going in the oven now!! Haha!

Glowing

... just couldn't wait for them to cool. Tasty gooy goodness straight from the oven ... Mmmmm

Eviledna

Isn't it amazing how one small recipe can make so many people happy!

As for the unsalted butter lark, hell no, I use normal butter, unsalted butter is only for very delicate recipes, this is not one of them. I imagine that in America unsalted butter may be the norm/easy to get. However, if you ever really need it, it comes in a silver foil package, either avonmore, or lurpack brand.

(BTW Aldi is great for good quality cheap butter, parchment, chocolate, and nuts. Avoid their flour at all costs though.)

JohnK

I gave them a go last night too. Tasty but christ my teeth are at me ever since the first bite (which was followed by lots and lots more bites) . Think I'll drop the sugar down a notch next time

And in the end I got an unsalted (avonmore) butter in Tesco so I used that. Might try a normal one next time just for the hell of it. Think I'll put in slightly less chocolate chips too unless I can find chunkier ones.

But all in all, a big thumbs up

neuro-praxis

I hope it's ok to do this, I am giving this thread a bump to show to anyone who has been looking for an excellent cookie recipe.

I searched for it myself again recently to re-make them. They are just wow, although the quality of the chocolate you use is really important. Thanks OP!

BeansMeansHynes

Ok so I tried these a few weeks ago and they went flat.....:o

Im normally ok at baking but I dont know what I did wrong. I had to bin the lot. I would love to try again.

Anyone got any hints or tips or even what I might have done wrong??

Eviledna

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that maybe you didn't do anything wrong, they are flat and chewy, not spongy or thick.

If they didn't solidify after cooling, perhaps you used too much fat/sugar? This is one of those recipes that demand an accurate measurement. But they are big flat cookies, they really spread out, american style!:)

olaola

FAB! Just cooked them But I do have to agree - they are waayy too sugary. I did take note of what others said and put in about 280g total (instead of the 320g) but I'd say you could easily take that down to 220 - 250g. I used chopped up Galaxy bars which worked really well. And I threw in a few hazelnuts too.

Magic Monkey

BeansMeansHynes wrote: »

Ok so I tried these a few weeks ago and they went flat.....:o

Im normally ok at baking but I dont know what I did wrong. I had to bin the lot. I would love to try again.

Anyone got any hints or tips or even what I might have done wrong??

Your butter may have been too warm. Use it straight from the fridge next time, diced, then creamed until just smooth. Check your oven temp and times are right: bottom third of oven, 180°c 10-12mins for chewy, 160°c for 15-20mins for crisp. Oh, and even though the cookies may sometimes look deceptively soft and undercooked when taken out, they'll firm up once left to cool down.

BeansMeansHynes

The cookies that I made were more like crepes than anything!

Hmmmm I think it could be something to do with the butter all right!

Thanks a mill for all the help. Im def gonna give these a go again and will let you know how they turn out this time.

olaola

My butter was totally melted - and it worked fine. Was your oven too hot or how doughey was your mixture? It should have been fairly solid - easily shaped.

The Black Oil

Just tried these now and they're cooling on the wire tray.:)

Twee.

Oh my I'm looking forward to making these.

JohnK wrote: »

Think I'll put in slightly less chocolate chips too unless I can find chunkier ones.

I always chop my own chocolate. You can use better quality chocolate and get chunks as big as you like.

PlayGirl

i really want to make these, but i can't find any weighing scales in the house :eek::(:(

Magic Monkey

On allrecipes, there's a button under "servings" to switch between metric and US. Here's the US equivalent for 18 servings:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Measuring the ingredients in a half pint glass, filled to 0.5" inch from the top, is a rough equivalent for 1 cup.

jebuz

Holy crap these are amazing! made a batch last night and even though the preparation time wasn't quite on par, the end result was!... back of the net!!

Thanks for the recipe, will be making these again everyday for the rest of my life or until I'm seriously ill, surely there's no long term health implications.

and finally some culinary notes: I reduced the sugar amount to about 280g (200 brown) since a lot of people said they were too sweet, and I thought the sweetness was jussssst fine, I also didn't use salt since there is salt in the butter and oh yes I used the galaxy nut chocolate as recommended by somebody here and it was spot on, I'd like to take a moment to thank them. thanks.

weemcd

Made these today and while they tasted v. good the result wasnt perfect. First thing is im gonna reduce the sugar by a third, too sweet imo. Also I found that the cookies stuck to the greaseproof paper i put down, any ideas why that was? Kinda hard to get them off the sheet without breaking up.

Toto Wolfcastle

weemcd wrote: »

Made these today and while they tasted v. good the result wasnt perfect. First thing is im gonna reduce the sugar by a third, too sweet imo. Also I found that the cookies stuck to the greaseproof paper i put down, any ideas why that was? Kinda hard to get them off the sheet without breaking up.

Greaseproof paper or parchment? They wont stick to parchment.

lubie76

Made theses last night and they are yummy! Will prob reduce the sugar next time as they are a bit too sweet. Only had two baking trays so tried to do a lazy load by making 12 big cookies instead of 16/17 normal ones. The result? They all joined together to make one big huge square cookie. Doh!
They were easy to seperate again though thankfully! Thanks for the recipe.