I’ve been playing around for a few years now, trying to find the ultimate chocolate chip cookie recipe, and this is the one my son requests the most often. While most recipes call for melted butter, mine uses oil; not only does this mean less washing up but it is invariably more economical! The mixture may seem a little greasier than you are used to, but once baked you will be hard-pressed to tell the difference. The other difference is that while you can get away with chilling the dough for just a couple of hours, it is infinitely better to leave it in the fridge overnight; this ensures that the cookies don’t spread, giving you thicker biscuits with a crisp crust and chewy melty interior. Rather than using chocolate chips, which are tiny and thus mildly disappointing, I prefer to use bars of chocolate so the chunks are larger and greatly satisfying!
I tend to knock up the dough on a Monday and then just bake a couple of cookies as and when we fancy them, either when the oven is on for something else or in the airfryer. The mixture will last 5 days in the fridge, or can be rolled into balls and popped in the freezer (if you are going to air fry them you might need to play around with the temperature but 170 degrees for about 10 minutes seems to work well in mine). Too much baking paper may flap about in the hot air, but placing the dough ball on individual scraps of paper (left over from other projects!) always seems to work well.
Variations
A few drops of almond essence and some dried cherries
Dried cranberries, orange zest, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, chopped hazelnuts
Ingredients
275g plain flour
200g grams of your favourite milk or plain chocolate (or a combination!)
175ml sunflower oil
150g white sugar
150g demerara sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
A good pinch of sea salt
- Prepare the chocolate. You can of course chop it into chunks using a sharp knife, but as ever, I take the lazy culinary option and just smash up the bars with the end of a rolling pin while they are still neatly wrapped in their packet.
- Beat together the eggs, sugar and oil for two or three minutes until creamy.
- Tip in the flour and bicarbonate of soda and mix until smooth before adding the chocolate chunks and giving everything a final stir.
- Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least a couple of hours (preferably overnight).
- Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Roll spoonfuls of the mixture into balls roughly the size of a golf ball and lay out on your prepared tray, six to a sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden brown and allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes to firm up.
