Choco Cookies
INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (150 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup (120 grams) packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp fleur del sel or 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
5 oz (150 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small chips, or a 3/4 cup store-bought mini chocolate chips
PREPARATION
Chop the bittersweet chocolate into small pieces, by chopping them by hand you randomize the sizes. This will help with texture and make the chocolate spread in the baking more uneven. Scrape the cutting board so you don't lose all those small bits.
Use a sifter for this step. Flour, Cacao Powder, Baking soda and salt. This ensures the ingredients are not clumpy. Especially the Cacao.
Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter with both sugars on medium speed until soft and creamy.
Add the Vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.
Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients. Here is a very important tip. Listen first. Turn on and off the stand mixer to slowly, start mixing, so the flour doesn’t go flying everywhere. Mix just until the flour disappears into the dough. For the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added. We are not trying to develop too much gluten.
Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.
Use the back of a wooden spoon or spatula and work it to compact it together. Turn the dough out onto a work surface with parchment paper, gather it together and divide it in half.
Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs with the parchment paper and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you've frozen the dough, you needn't defrost it before baking — let it warm just enough so that you can slice the log into rounds and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)
Cut cookies into 1 cm and add into a tray with silicon mat or parchment paper. The rounds are likely to crack as you're cutting them — don't be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about 2 cm between them.
With a center a rack in the oven and preheated at 325 °F.
Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won't look done, nor will they be firm, but that's just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.