Last weekend, while DH went shopping for a car cover and the kids were off to Lola’s house, I whipped up a double batch of the Stephford Diaries’ “The Best Chocolate Chips…EVAR!“.
This recipe is unique because it uses high protein flour, the type of flour used for making bread, and the butter is melted beforehand, thereby saving you the hassle of waiting for the butter to soften at room temperature. No more waiting, no more procrastinating. Believe it or not, I’ve put off making chocolate chip cookies in the past for the simple reason of feeling too lazy to wait for the butter to soften.
In Malaysia, you can buy bread flour from specialty baking shops such as Kedai Bagus (they have outlets in Shah Alam, Kajang, Taman Melawati and Taman Permata), where I usually buy all my baking needs from. Some supermarkets and hypermarkets also sell ‘Cap Sauh’ bread flour — it’s the one with the anchor illustration on the bag, but the anchor will be blue in colour, if I remember correctly.
Here’s the (modified) recipe for one batch:
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever!
Ingredients:
2 sticks (or 250 grams) butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour (a.k.a. high protein flour)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean pod)
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Method:
1. Heat oven to 180 degrees C (356 degrees F).
2. Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl inside your microwave on Medium Power. (Or in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat.)
3. Meanwhile, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
4. Combine egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and whisk together. If using a vanilla bean, slit the bean and spread it open, then scrape off the fragrant black flesh — seeds and all — and mix it with the liquid ingredients. You can keep the empty bean pod inside your sugar container to keep the sugar wonderfully vanilla-scented.
5. Add the sugar and brown sugar to a mixing bowl and pour the melted butter in. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed.
6. Add the egg mixture and mix until well combined.
7. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined.
8. Stir in the chocolate chips.
9. Chill the dough for roughly 5 minutes and then scoop onto non-stick cookie sheets (or parchment-lined baking sheets).
10. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown or until a delicious aroma starts to waft from the oven. The nose usually knows when the cookies are ready, even if the cookies still look a bit soft.
11. Cool the cookies on a wire rack or on a tray lined with paper towels to absorb excess oils. The cookies will harden once they’ve cooled.
12. Store in an airtight container. Make sure the cookies have cooled before closing the container because if they’re still warm, the cookies will ‘sweat’ and end up soggy.
I only changed three things in the recipe:
(1) The Stephford Diaries baked the cookies at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) but since I was using non-stick cookie sheets, I lowered the temperature a bit to 180 degrees C (356 degrees F);
(2) I added 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to give the cookies a nice colour, a little trick I learned from Dr B; and
(3) I made the cookies bite-sized, about a teaspoonful of dough per cookie.
Enjoy the cookies warm but be sure to keep some for the following day. Somehow, the flavour intensifies overnight, making the cookies taste like Famous Amos’ cookies IMHO.
If you’ve got five kids like me, save yourself the trouble by doubling the recipe because one batch just won’t be enough for the five of them.
Next time, I’ll try making them with pecans. Yum!
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