For a nut-free cookie alternative that is light and lemony, try my lemon ricotta cookies, which are laced with just a hint of white chocolate.
Tasty chocolate chip cookies
I am excited to be sharing this particular cookie recipe with you as it showcases one of my favourite flavour trios: pistachio, dark chocolate and sea salt. Yes, salt! Salt naturally enhances the cocoa in chocolate giving the cookie a sophisticated flavour dimension. I’ve opted for dark chocolate rather than milk, for its higher cocoa content and subtle bitterness against the sugary dough. Finally, pistachios, besides their savoury nutty flavour, are the most gorgeous green and purple colour! There are definitely two cookie camps out there: soft and chewy versus crispy and snappable. To me, the most satisfying are the tender, slightly chewy-centred, crunchy at the edge kind. But honestly, present me with a ramshackle and rustic plate of crunchy, crumbly cookies, and I’d be just as pleased!
Ingredients
Each ingredient in a cookie recipe performs a chemical reaction that contributes to the perfect cookie result. Here’s how playing with some of ingredients can change your cookie outcome: Plain/ all-purpose flour is considered best for a chewy cookie. It also prevents out-of-control spread. Self-raising can be used if you are after a snappier-style biscuit. Cornstarch (cornflour (UK)) is a thickening agent. Using cornstarch will result in a chewy, but not cakey, cookie. The optimum texture! Baking soda and baking powder– they’re not the same thing! A combo of the two gives a soft-centred, crunchy-edged cookie. Leaving out the baking soda will give a thick, fluffy texture, more cake-like. Butter should be softened. So, get it out the fridge early! It can be tempting to melt it if you have forgotten, but yes, this will make a difference too. This produces flatter cookies that look kind of wrinkled. You can use salted or unsalted. Just don’t add any extra to the cookie mixture if you take the salt route. Sugar, I use granulated or caster and packed brown sugar. Using only granulated will result in a very pale, plate-flat cookie with chocolate chips and pistachios bobbing on top. Using only brown will do the opposite, a tanned, fluffy and soft, pillow-cookie. A combination of the two helps them meet in the middle. Eggs, although they can be substituted, I like to bake with them as they bind the dough and provide structure to the cookie. Leaving them out will result in a compact cookie that falls apart easily.
Shaping and making the cookies
Homemade cookies that are uniform in size, colour and texture can be tricky to deliver! I find following these helpful tricks and tips can keep them in check. First of all, once your cookie dough is mixed, use an ice cream scoop (with a trigger if possible) to portion out your dough balls. Each cookie will then be the same size and should bake evenly. Then squeeze all the dough balls onto a lined baking tray. Don’t worry about spacing. For now, they are going in the fridge for an overnight stay. This is key to preventing the dreaded spread- when fat that is not sufficiently bound to flour leaks out of the cooking dough making cookies wide and flat. After the rest, ideally the following day, rearrange the dough balls on the baking trays with at least 3 inches between them in every direction. You don’t want them merging into one choc chip tray bake. Then press down on each ball with the bottom of a glass to achieve a pleasingly round cookie shape. They should be at an even ½ inch thickness. Now they are oven ready!
Storage and leftovers
This mega recipe yields 3 dozen cookies, so you might want to freeze a dozen or two. Dough is perfect for freezing, it just needs to be thawed before following the original baking instructions. To keep the desirable chew to your freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, once they’ve cooled completely, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. Eat them within 3 days while they are at their freshest.
More cookies to try
Chocolate Cake Truffles Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies Slow Cooker Chocolate Butterscotch Cookie Bars White Chocolate Matcha Cookies Cowboy Cookies
