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Nothing conveys holiday cheer like a warm tantalizing homemade meal crafted from scratch!
Whether it is savoury or sweet, the aroma of food filling the air, the anticipation of stuffing your face, and how gorgeous everything looks all combine to provide a festive atmosphere.
And that is why I have the perfect guidelines for attaining crunchy yet soft in the middle Easter chocolate chip cookies.
It may seem practically impossible to achieve those crispy edges, a fudgy centre, and a rich caramel flavour, but fear not I've got you covered.
Below are key guidelines to follow when prepping to bake your pastries.
1) Choose chocolate that you love
This may sound obvious, but choose a chocolate that you love, if you don’t love the chocolate before it goes into the cookie it’s not going to magically transform into something else in the oven!
Or you could go old school and use a bag of chocolate chips.
2) Be gentle
Over-mixing your dough will strengthen gluten networks, potentially tipping it over into tough territory.
When making cookies we want a little chew but we don’t really want to make something overly chewy. We are looking for that perfect balance between crisp, and tender.
Because the cookie is made with a high proportion of butter we don’t need to worry too much about developing gluten but it is still good practice to mix in the flour just enough until a dough is formed. If you’re using an electric mixer, go easy.
3) Eggs
Eggs are critical for that fudginess we’re aiming for. Without eggs, the cookie will be more like a shortbread.
The eggs are binding the dough together – providing fat from the yolks that keep the cookie tender and they also give moisture which activates the baking powder helping them to rise.
4) Rest the dough overnight
Rest your dough for 24 hours if you can.
I can’t stress enough what a huge difference this will make to the consistency and flavour of your cookie.
It will allow the flour to hydrate and soak up the liquid from the eggs, creating a dough that will caramelise more as it bakes, giving you a beautiful depth of caramel-y flavour. As the flour in the dough hydrates you’ll also find the cookies spread less.
5) Butter
Butter is the way to go, it's a big contributor to the flavour of classic chocolate chip cookies. Other fats like coconut oil or vegan butters may be used but the flavour will be noticeably different.
Melting it then creaming the butter together with sugar creates lots of tiny air pockets which contributes to the depth of the cookie
Hope these tips do help you out and this is the year you finally get those perfect cookies that will have everyone singing your name.
Enjoy the long holiday ahead!
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