Thick Choc Chunk & Cornflour Cookies 👀- Baking Diary Learnings

 I am going back to basics to absolutely nail this classic: the chunky, buttery, chewy, delectable chocolate chunk cookie. 

As I start researching the ‘science of the cookie,’ here are 5 interesting things I’ve found that are informed from my own experiences too…

1. Using cold butter makes the cookie less chewy and more cakey. But when you melt the butter, the cookies are more chewy and crispy since the water has already melted and forms gluten with the flour before the dough goes into the oven.
2. Creaming the butter and sugar beats air into the butter that leads to a cake-like rise. By creaming, I mean for a loooong time…about 7 - 8 mins so that the texture is light, fluffy and silky smooth.
3. Brown sugar adds a toffee, chewy texture whilst granulated sugar makes cookies crispier and spread more. Lots of recipes go half-and-half, although I tend to add a lot more soft brown sugar to make it more ‘caramel-like.'
4. Vanilla adds a warm and balanced complexity into the cookie.
5. Letting the dough rest for 24 hour gives you a deeper flavour and even, browning texture. Although you can let this dough rest for 2 or 3 days if you want, which allows even more time for the dough to caramelize.

Anyhow, on this particular occasion I tried using cornflour for the first time, using a mixture of chocolate chips, chocolate chunks and chopped up walnuts. 

I’ve been stalking the best bakeries in the home of chocolate chip cookies for quite a while, i.e. New York, and have definitely found inspiration from Levain’s chunky edition and Maman’s nutty combination. 

Key learnings using this starting-point of a recipe are… 

1. Walnuts soften massively when baked so don’t chop them (so much)!
2. The chocolate spread is a little uneven but there be some beauty in this. Discs might make the spread a lot more even, since I’m not a huge fan of chocolate chips. They’re too small and I’m more about big flavour!
3. Need to re-check the classic chocolate/walnut combo. Walnut and chocolate is the classic for a reason. But let's experiment with macadamias, salted nuts and others.
4. Have patience lol! Fridge the cookie dough before putting into the oven to enable a slower spread. 
5. It would look nicer with some salt on top - look up low-sodium salt that is more mineral-ly and less ‘salty’…

Check out these pictures to highlight particularly scrummy moments from my cookie-making journey - TAKE 1/100! 😂😂😂(JK - I think it's nearly there.)