Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 170 g unsalted butter
• 150 g light brown sugar (or soft brown sugar)
• 70 g caster sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tsp vanilla essence
• 280 g plain flour (maida)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp fine salt
• 200 g dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
• 1 pinch flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)

Instructions

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Keep cooking, swirling often, until it foams, smells nutty and small golden-brown specks appear at the bottom, about 5 minutes.
2. Pour the browned butter into a large heatproof bowl, scraping in all the brown specks. Let it cool for 10 minutes so it is warm, not hot.
3. Whisk both sugars into the butter for 1 minute until the mixture looks glossy and thick. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and whisk until smooth and slightly lighter in colour.
4. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt over the bowl. Fold with a spatula until just a few streaks of flour remain, then fold in the chocolate. Do not overmix.
5. Cover the dough and chill for at least 15 minutes (up to 24 hours for deeper flavour). Meanwhile, heat the oven to 180°C and line two trays with baking paper.
6. Scoop the dough into 16 balls of about 45 g each. Place them 6 cm apart on the trays, as the cookies will spread. Press a few extra chocolate pieces on top if you like.
7. Bake one tray at a time for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are golden and set but the centres still look slightly soft and underdone.
8. Sprinkle with flaky salt if using. Leave the cookies on the tray for 5 minutes to firm up, then move them to a wire rack to cool.

Tips

• Browning the butter adds toffee flavour, but let it cool before adding eggs or they may scramble.
• Pull the cookies out while the centres look slightly soft; they finish setting on the hot tray and stay chewy.
• Chilling the dough stops excess spreading and gives thicker cookies.
• Weigh the flour rather than scooping it, as too much flour makes dry, cakey cookies.