Who doesn’t love themselves a gooey, chocolate cookie? This recipe is just so great, I have made them so many times now that I think I really have perfected them. The original recipe that I adapted them from used just plain milk chocolate chips, but I like to use broken up blocks of chocolate so that you get actual chunks of chocolate, and I also like to mix it up by using dark, milk and white chocolate. When I do just use one type of chocolate though, I tend to use dark chocolate to get that richer flavour.

I think my key tip is to not over-beat the butter and sugar mixture, really you are just beating it to smooth out any clumps of butter through the sugar. Also, make sure that the butter really is room temperature – a few times now I have attempted to pull it out of the fridge moments before use and hoped that by sticking it in the microwave for a few minutes would do the trick… it doesn’t work! It is really hard to beat butter that is too hard and it usually results in clumps of butter and sugar flying everywhere and eventually over-beating of the mixture.

Collect

• 1.25 c flour
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1/4 t salt
• 125 g butter (room temperature)
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1 t vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 1 c chocolate

Create

1. 200°C bake.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Separately, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla (but not too much!).
4. Add the egg.
5. Add the flour mixture.
6. Stir in the chocolate.
7. Spoon spoon sized balls onto a greased tray (or baking paper) and flatten slightly.
8. Cook for 15 – 20 minutes, or until appropriately gooey!