Bakery-Style Double Chocolate Cookies

These Double Chocolate Cookies are intensely chocolatey, thick and chewy with crisp edges and fudgy middles. This is the sister recipe to my best EVER Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies. Both recipes make cookies that spread perfectly large with a bakery-worthy appearance. These double chocolate chip cookies are big and thick with a crackled surface to hold pools of melted dark chocolate. They have rich chocolate taste and are for true chocolate lovers so get ready to be swooned! The recipe is simple with one secret ingredient and it does benefit from a little resting time in the fridge to really bring out the chocolate flavor and improve the chewy texture. If you love chocolate cookies but don't always need a full batch, check out my popular Small Batch Double Chocolate Cookies recipe.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS

• Rich chocolate flavor - these cookies have a deep rich chocolatey taste backed by buttery caramel undertones from brown sugar and underlying notes of natural vanilla.
• Crisp edges and soft gooey middles - just like my original Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies, this chocolate version makes cookies with crisp caramelized edges, but they are soft and gooey in the middle.
• Super chewy chocolate chip cookies - if you like chewy cookies, these are certainly for you! And, they stay chewy for days thanks to my secret ingredient that you can read about below.
• Big cookies - each cookie is a nice large size to give you that contrast of textures.
• Not too sweet - there's just the right amount of sugar to give the chewy texture, but they are not overly sweet.
• Dark chocolate chunks - puddles of melted dark chocolate chunks instead of chips takes your "chocolate chip cookies" to a whole other level!

COOKIE SCIENCE: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES

• Ratio of Butter: Getting the right amount of butter to egg ratio is very important. Too much egg will dominate the taste and also make the cookies puff rather than spread so the texture more cakey rather than chewy.
• Egg ratio: The liquid in egg serves to help dissolve sugar in the dough but too much will prevent the edges from becoming crisp. That means you will need to bake the cookies longer to crisp the edges, and they will often become dried out before that point.
• Amount of Flour: It is so important to either weigh your ingredients using a scale, or measure your flour correctly without packing it into your measuring cup. Too much flour will lead to thick cookies, but they will be more doughy and less gooey. Too little flour will make a very soft dough that will spread too much and lead to greasy cookies.
• Baking soda: Not only is baking soda important to help the cookies spread, but it also gives them color! Baking soda is an alkaline ingredient (the opposite of an acid), and the Maillard Browning reaction is encouraged in an alkaline environment. Baking soda will make chocolate cookies look even chocolatier. However, too much baking soda means the cookies will spread too much and maybe burn too quickly, while not enough means the cookies will not spread much at all and will be pale in color.

INGREDIENTS

• Butter - there is no substitute for butter in chocolate chip cookies in my opinion! It is the foundation of the rich butterscotch flavor after all. In this recipe, you can use salted or unsalted butter, but if you choose unsalted then I recommend doubling the added salt to ½ teaspoon. I like to use salted butter because it adds another level of richness.
• Granulated sugar - this recipe uses a combination of simple white granulated sugar and brown sugar. White sugar helps create the crunchy caramelized edges. I wouldn't recommend reducing the sugar because it will compromise the chewy texture.
• Brown sugar - I highly recommend dark brown sugar for this recipe as it has twice as much molasses as light brown sugar and will make a big difference to the flavor. It will also make the dough more acidic which means it will react more thoroughly with the baking soda so that you won't be left with a soapy taste (a defect I find common in many chocolate chip cookie recipes)
• Egg - you'll need one whole egg for this recipe. It's the perfect amount of moisture to make these cookies chewy and not cakey.
• Pure vanilla extract - vanilla is essential to making delicious chocolate cookies. I like this Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract.

• Honey - it's the secret ingredient, just like in my Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies! Honey is a moisture trap so it will keep the cookies soft and chewy for days.
• Salt - don't leave out the salt! It really elevates the rich buttery, caramel flavors! It also enhances the chocolate taste and balances the sweetness.
• All purpose flour - regular unbleached all-purpose flour makes the best chewy chocolate chip cookies in my opinion.
• Cocoa powder - I recommend getting your hands on some good quality cocoa powder! It's the main flavor and you want it to shine so use the best you can find. I love to use this Dutch Process cocoa powder for this recipe, but natural cocoa also adds a nice fruity flavor - it just means your cookies will be a bit lighter in color. Make sure you use unsweetened cocoa powder and not cocoa mix.
• Dark chocolate chunks - this is important! I highly recommend using bar chocolate, that is, chunks that you chop up from a block of chocolate instead of chocolate chips. Why? That is because chocolate that is made into bars, also known as "tablets" has a higher cocoa butter content and typically melts smoother than chocolate chips to give you puddles of chocolate in the cookies. I love this effect! Chocolate chips will hold their shape and spread less.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS

• STEP 1). Beat together butter and sugar. You can use an electric stand mixer, a hand mixer or do this by hand with a spatula. You want to beat until slightly pale and a bit fluffy, but not overly creamed. It will still look like a thick paste or damp sand and this will leave us with chewy cookies. Over-mixing at this point would make more crisp cookies.
• STEP 2). Beat in egg. Add the egg, honey and vanilla and beat until well incorporated and smooth.
• STEP 3). Combine dry ingredients. Blend flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and whisk it to blend evenly. Then, add it to the butter mixture and mix it in until evenly combined.
• STEP 4). Fold in chocolate chunks. Dark chocolate with a higher cocoa content will melt better to give these luxurious pools of chocolate. Chips will hold their shape and won't melt into the cookie. I find milk chocolate too sweet for these cookies and they also don't melt as well due to the high sugar content.
• STEP 5). Refrigerate the cookie dough. This is crucial to developing the chewy texture and rich chocolate flavor.
• STEP 6). Bake. Roll mounds of cookie dough into smooth balls or scoop them directly onto the baking sheet for a more rustic look and bake until darker around the edges, cracked at the surface and still soft in the middle. Do not over-bake as they will continue cooking on the hot baking tray.

EXPERT BAKING TIPS FOR BAKERY STYLE DOUBLE CHOCOLATE COOKIES:

• Secret ingredient: honey! Just like my popular Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, a teaspoon of honey is the key to making them stay chewy for days. Honey is a humectant which means it is an ingredient that binds water tightly and prevents them from drying out. It is also acidic so it will react with the baking soda to help the cookies spread just the right amount. You can use corn syrup, but do not use maple syrup as it wouldn't have the same effect.
• Don't skip the salt. The right amount of salt is so important in chocolate recipes. You can even use salted butter if that is all you have on hand and they will be even more delicious!
• Use regular large size eggs. Large eggs weigh 57g. Using an extra large egg will add up to 2 teaspoons more liquid to the cookie dough which can throw off the moisture balance and make the cookies spread too much.
• Refrigerate the cookie dough. Refrigerating cookie dough serves several purposes: 1.) Flour hydration - time in the fridge allows the flour to fully hydrate from the moisture of the egg and the water in the butter. If the flour is evenly hydrated, the cookies will be thicker and they will bake more evenly; 2.) Flavor development -as the baking soda becomes more evenly incorporated with the flour hydration, the cookies will brown more evenly which will help them develop flavor more quickly; and, 3.) Chill the butter - butter in the cookie dough will also firm up in the fridge so that the cookies wont be so greasy after they've baked. Chilled fat will also spread less readily during the initial stages of baking so the cookies won't spread uncontrollably.
• Use a kitchen scale to weigh the ingredients for best results. This is especially important for the flour and cocoa measurements where too much of either can make dry dense cookies that will not spread correctly.
• Use bar chocolate and chop it up into chunks so you get nice puddles that melt into the cracks and crevices of the cookies.

RECIPE FAQ

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