Chocolate Cookies
These chocolate cookies remind me so much of brownies: they’ve got crispy edges, but are oh so ooey gooey on the inside. The best of both worlds, not to get all Hannah Montana on you. But do yourself a favor and give them a try! There’s espresso powder in the batter to compliment the chocolate flavor, and I always sprinkle a bit of flaky sea salt on top of my cookies to balance out the sweetness. I didn’t want these cookies to spread too much in the oven, so I chose to go with softened butter versus melted.
A few other changes I made: I only used one egg (versus one egg plus one egg yolk - my typical go-to for cookies), and I reduced the flour a bit as well since I knew I was adding cocoa powder. I am always trying to achieve the perfect balance with my cookies - not too dry, but with enough gluten developed so that they - in particular, these chocolate cookies - don’t spread into cocoa pancakes. Great. Now I’m craving chocolate pancakes! Okay, tangent over. Recipe below!
Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg, room temp.
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. table salt
Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling on top of the cookies after baking
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add softened butter to a mixing bowl or a stand mixer, then beat with the paddle attachment on medium for a couple minutes.
Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar to the mixing bowl, and beat with the butter on medium speed until combined - around 1-3 minutes.
Add the vanilla and egg to the mixing bowl and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients (minus the flaky sea salt) and blend together with a sifter, a whisk, or a fork.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and beat on low to medium low until you no longer see any streaks of the flour mixture.
Pop the bowl of dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight. If left overnight, cover the bowl so that the dough doesn’t dry out.
With a cookie scoop, ice cream scoop, or a spoon, scoop out golf ball-sized dough balls and place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Each dough ball should be about a couple inches apart so that they have room to spread in the oven. If you have a kitchen scale, I weighed my cookies to be about 50 grams each so they would all cook evenly.
Once your oven has preheated, pop your cookies in and bake for 8 to 10 minutes. I would start checking your cookies around minute 7, since oven temps. always vary. They will be done when the edges show signs of cracking. If your cookies need more time in the oven after 7 minutes, pop them back in for 30 second increments until the appearance is to your liking.
After taking the cookies out of the oven, top with flaky sea salt and let them rest on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to firm up for an additional five minutes.
Enjoy!
