American-Style Chocolate Chunk Cookies


Everyone and their proverbial uncle appear to have made chocolate chip (chunk) cookies, in one form or another, this summer. I guess I’m rather late to the “party”, however, my offering may be last, but it certainly isn’t least. These cookies are prefixed as American in style as they have a soft and sugary texture to them, as opposed to the brittle nature of the British style cookie. Indeed, although it pains this British traditionalist to admit it, the American style of cookie is far superior to the style adopted this side of “the pond”, as it were.

These also happen to be the first properly successful cookies I’ve ever produced, although very few have been attempted. These are the polar opposite to the last I attempted, which turned out to be a catastrophic failure, in as much as they didn’t end up being cookies – rather, they were flat cakes.

My top tip when making these is to use large chunks of chocolate; by doing this the chocolate taste comes through far more clearly. As such, one should buy a bar of plain chocolate, as opposed to chocolate chips – this will also save the purchaser a not insignificant amount of money. Actually, I’m not quite sure why chocolate chips are so overpriced, or even why they exist… no offence to all of you chocolate chip fetishists.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 16-20

Ingredients:

• 200g unsalted butter, I used stork

• 85g light muscovado sugar

• 85g golden caster sugar

• 1 egg

• 225g self-raising flour

• 100g plain chocolate, chunked using a knife

• A few drops of vanilla extract/essence

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180C. Whisk together, using a hand whisk, the butter and both types of sugar until smooth – do not cream them. Gently beat in the egg until the mixture is uniform. Mix in the flour and then the chocolate chunks. Finish by stirring in a few drops of vanilla essence/extract.

2. Dollop 20 little balls of the cookie dough onto non-stick baking trays, being careful to leave plenty of room around each. Bake for 10-13 minutes, or until golden brown on top – be careful not to let them burn. Allow to cool before eating.

Cost: All of these cookies will cost around £1.35 to make which is an absolute bargain at 6.8 pence per cookie! Just how overpriced are cake shops et al. these days?

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By Admin | September 13, 2011 | Baking, Recipes, Vegetarian | 59 Comments |

59 thoughts on “American-Style Chocolate Chunk Cookies”

  2. mamafritz

    these look amazing! it never would have occurred to me that there are “american style” cookies, but now that you’ve pointed it out i can see the difference. however, i love to indulge in chocolate digestive biscuits, so i supposed the grass is always greener on the other side (of the pond). :)

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  3. ChgoJohn

    Had to come back and tell you that I just finished baking a batch of these chocolate CHUNK cookies and they are very, very good. This is one recipe I’ll make again and again. Thanks!

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  4. threeblondesandatomas

    as an american born and bread, and a cookie monster to boot, i’m excited to see how an “american style” choc chunk cookie recipe made by a brit turns out! i’ll admit i didn’t even realize there was such a thing as an “american style” cookie ;)

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  9. Katherine | Homemade Card Factory

    My second batch are currently in the oven. I made one change to the recipe: MORE CHOCOLATE! In the form of mini mini eggs and chocolate buttons – I stuck them into the little mounds of cookie dough before baking them. The ones that are cooling look divinely naughty/naughtily divine!

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  10. Somer

    This is great! You totally captured the essence of perfect American chocolate chip cookies! I agree with you on the chocolate chunks, though on this side of the pond chocolate chips are much cheaper than a good bar of dark chocolate….

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