This recipe was given to me by a couchsurfing host in Delft, the Netherlands, who kindly baked me a batch for my ferry trip to the UK. The cookies were amazing, and I’m glad she gave me a photocopy of the recipe which remained on my fridge in Singapore until I moved. Recently I managed to recover the picture that I had taken of the recipe, so here I shall digitise and share it on my blog. Although I no longer have an oven in KL – I do have a toaster oven, and a healthy spirit for experimentation.
Super-Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
MAKES 20-24
- 175g (1.5 cups) plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 70g (1/3 cup) light muscovado sugar
- 50g (1/4 cup) golden castor sugar
- 125ml (generous 1/2 cup) sunflower oil
- 1 medium egg
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanila extract
- 150g choc chips or chunks
Here’s what you do, if you have a regular oven:
- Preheat oven to 180deg C or 350deg or Gas 4, and lightly butter 2 baking sheets.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.
- Beat together the sugars and oil until smooth using electric beater, a food mixer, or by hand. Then add the egg and vanila. Gradually tip the flour mixture into the oil mixture and fold in gently. Stir in the choc chips.
- Spoon heaped teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until pale golden but still slightly soft in the centre.
- Leave for 1-2mins on the sheets, then transfer carefully to a wire rack to cool.
If you only have a toaster oven and want to do a trial and error, read on. The problem with toaster ovens is that you have no control over the temperature and it tends to get from zero to very hot, burning the outer layer of the cookies very quickly. So after discarding the first round of burnt cookies, what I did was to put a piece of aluminium foil on top of the cookies, covering them. From trial and error, I put the aluminium foil on for about 7 minutes allowing the cookies to cook without burning, and took the foil off and continued baking for another 2 minutes.
I’d say that the oven-baked one definitely trumps the toaster-oven ones in terms of texture and lightness, but beggars can’t be choosers so if you have a cookie craving and a toaster oven, this recipe would still work although it would be a bit finicky.