chocolate chip walnut cookies

INGREDIENTS (8 COOKIES)

• ½ cup (112g) butter, slightly softened

• 1 cup (200g) light brown sugar

• ¼ (50g) cup granulated sugar

• 2 eggs, cold

• 1 tsp vanilla extract (imitation works just fine)

• 2½ (300g) cups flour, sifted

• 1½ tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp fine sea salt (or 1 tsp kosher salt)

• 2 cups (250g) walnuts, roughly chopped
  (if omitting walnuts, you can add roughly 50g extra AP flour)

• 2 cups (325g) dark chocolate chips (I enjoy Guittard’s Extra Dark or anything 65% and higher)

RECIPE

Preheat your oven to 375ºF. If you’re going to bake all 8 cookies now, line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. If you’re going to only bake 4, line one. If you only have one pan but want to bake all 8, line-bake-and-reuse-it.

Beat the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until creamy smooth (about 3 minutes).

Add the first egg and beat on low-medium speed until fully incorporated. Repeat with the second egg. Then the vanilla extract.

Mix together the sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Carefully pour it all into the mixing bowl. Pulse the mixer/beater a few times to prevent flour from exploding in your face.

Mix in the walnuts and chocolate chips.

Now this next step should not be neat. Form and place eight (or four if you want to refrigerate half the dough for later) 6-ounce rough/messy balls of cookie dough into your lined baking sheet. I weighed them so that I would actually yield 8 cookies. Depending on the chocolate chips and walnuts, yours might not come out to 6 ounces each, but that’s the general goal/guideline. 

Also, if the edges of the cookie dough ball are rough/not smooth, that’s better. In my video, I formed them kind of neatly. In my experience, if you like craggly crispy tops, it’s best if you barely mush it together and smack it onto the pan.

At this point, if your dough seems like it has softened due to your kitchen's temperature or too much handling with hands, refrigerate the dough-balls for about half an hour before baking. When baking in winter, the dough tends to be pretty stiff and solid and doesn’t require chilling.

Pop the pan(s) into the oven for 12-16 minutes. This time variation depends on your oven (I’m using conventional top and bottom heat, not convection) as well as whether or not you chilled your dough (and for how long). I recommend checking (look, don’t touch) the cookies every minute after hitting the 11 minute mark. Ideally, you want patches of deep golden brown and lighter golden brown.

No matter what, you need to let these cookies set! Similar to steak, you’ve gotta take the cookies out while they’re 

technically a bit undercooked, and let them finish cooking in the still-hot pan in order to achieve the cooked-but-gooey center. The amount of walnuts/chocolate chips will make it hard to really check the inside without just breaking a cookie in half.

If you need to reuse your baking sheet for the second batch of 4-cookies, you can do so. Just make sure the pan is clean of grease and has cooled down before you place the dough-balls on it.

NOTES 

FREEZING DOUGH: If you’d like to freeze the dough for later use, go right ahead! To be completely honest, I don’t know how long the dough stays good in the freezer (at least a month for sure from my own experience). Wrap the dough balls individually in plastic wrap and freeze them. You can thaw them for about 20-30 minutes prior to placing on a parchment lined sheet and baking them.

SMALLER COOKIES: The only alternative size I’ve tried for these cookies is 3oz (half of my original). I would bake them at 375ºF for 10-12 minutes. Again, the time will depend on the oven. When baking a single chilled dough ball in my toaster oven, 375ºF for 11 minutes is perfect. Any more time and the center is overbaked.