#cookie quest

When I was coming up with this recipe, I had to look back through all of my CQ posts and pin point which ones were my favourites and what characteristic ingredient or method did they have that attributed to their great taste/texture.

But, of course, I also needed to narrow down just exactly what my favourite cookie was. Oh my, this was a tough one. 

I managed to narrow it down to chewy, soft, gooey and when it comes to thickness, not too thick. Before this series, I was certain I preferred dense and thick cookies, but now? I think the thinner ones have won my heart over. 

You'd also be surprised to know that these cookies (my favourite cookies) are also packed with chocolate despite me previously only liking cookies with morsels of chocolate scattered throughout.

And I have to say, these cookies were definitely worth all of that recipe testing. They are absolutely divine. I'm not even exaggerating when I say these are probably - no, definitely - the best cookies I have ever made in my whole baking life. I can't tell you enough how good they are.

The cookies are not too thin so you still have enough cookie to sink your teeth into, but they're light enough that you probably won't be able to stop at just one.

They're soft but definitely not cakey and they're incredibly chewy. Honestly, I was shocked myself at how chewy they were. 

Absolutely spot-on. My friends and family also raved about how good these were.

I like my cookies relatively gooey so I under-baked some by a couple of minutes. To show you a comparison, here are cookies I baked for different lengths of time. 

The more over-baked ones were only baked for a couple of minutes extra but the under-baked ones were taken out early and shoved into the fridge to cool faster. 

All the cookies were delicious; even the darker cookies that had baked for longer still retained the same level of chewiness, only now they had a crisper top and less "goo" factor. They went well with a cup of coffee.

The delightful chew of these cookies is due to the addition of the bread flour, corn starch and glucose syrup. If you don't have glucose syrup on hand, corn syrup or honey may be substituted. 

The extra egg yolk helps keep the softness and melting the butter with the sugars amps up the natural caramel notes of a classic chocolate chip cookie. 

You may also have noticed that I didn't use the standard plain chocolate chips used in the other CQ recipes. 

Honestly, quality chocolate does make a huge difference to chocolate chip cookies and I had a bag of chocolate disks given as a birthday present from a friend from Hotel Chocolat so it was a perfect time to use them!

Because the chocolate is so high-quality, it does melt in your mouth and while that's not on my part or on this recipe, I definitely suggest investing some extra cash into some really good chocolate if you want to make my ultimate CCCs as a one time thing. 

If you like cookies on the regular though, that probably isn't a good idea and the cookie itself would still taste amazing with normal chocolate chips.

You could also just sub in store-bought baking chocolate but chop it up as the difference in size of the chunks of chocolate dispersed throughout the cookie also make the experience of eating it more enjoyable too.

These cookies are just pure bliss. My heart aches at the fact that I don't have one to stuff into my mouth at this very moment in time.

And, if these CCCs weren't already perfect enough, I decided to pair them with a silky smooth salted caramel drizzle. Or a dip. No judgement here.

To drizzle or to dip, that is the question. Of course, dip does mean more caramel in your mouth and that's always a bonus.

Anyways, whether you dunk it or not, these cookies are for sure to keep all of your family and friends coming back for more. That is, if you choose to share, of course.

Yield: This made so many cookies I lost count but probably 30 

Ingredients:

200g butter/margarine

4 tbsp glucose syrup

250g fine brown sugar

150g caster sugar

1 egg

1 egg yolk

200g plain/all-purpose flour

200g bread flour

1 tbsp corn starch

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

400g dark chocolate disks, chopped

Optional: Salted caramel to drizzle or dip (find the recipe here, I changed the recipe slightly to use all cream rather than half cream and half milk, both are delicious but all cream is more indulgent)

Method:

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter with both sugars and the syrup and stir until melted and combined. There will be a lot of butter on top but don't worry too much about it. Leave the mix to cool until it is lukewarm. Note: this whole method can be done by hand (which is what I did) but you may wish to use a stand-mixer.

Transfer the mixture into a large bowl and stir briefly to combine if it has separated too much. Beat in the egg, extra yolk and vanilla until thoroughly incorporated and the mix has thickened and is glossy.

Next, fold in both flours, raising agents, salt  and mix until almost combined. Make sure to scrape down the side of the bowl.

Finally, making sure your dough is COMPLETELY (!) cool, fold in the chopped chocolate (reserving two or three tablespoons) and leave the cookie dough to chill for 1 hour.