Hey, I’m back again, with one of my personal favorites from my vault, these brown sugar dark chocolate chunk cookies. Of the thousands of cookies that I’ve baked in my career, and at home, this is far and away one of my absolute favorites.
For anyone who adores dark chocolate, like I do, these chocolate chunk cookies are like medicine for what ails you, like actual sustenance for the soul. The textural contrast of the chewy cookie dough and the gooey melted pockets of dark chocolate creates a sublime bite.
The true star of this cookie recipe is the dark chocolate chunks. Look for a bar that is truly a dark chocolate, meaning that it's not labeled as milk chocolate, and also has a cacao content of at least 50%. This is not a chocolate chip cookie recipe designed for the taste buds of children, (though there is nothing wrong with that either!), this is a more sophisticated kind of flavor profile.
Break that dark chocolate into large, rustic, and irregular shapes. Your mouth will never get bored, since it can’t be sure when that chocolate hit is coming!
Ingredients
Wet:
- Softened/room temperature unsalted butter
- Eggs
- Brown sugar
- Vanilla paste/extract
Dry:
- All purpose flour
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Dark chocolate
Instructions For Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Combining the sugar and butter. Make sure that it all comes together, scraping down the sides as needed. Just mix until combined, as shown here.
Adding The eggs, one at a time, allowing each to mix in, before adding another.
Combine all of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add dry ingredients in increments of thirds, therefore allowing each measurement to combine fully before adding the next.
Folding in the chocolate chunks. This is the part that Grandma would let you lick the spoon, (yummy!).
Turn it out onto parchment paper to shape.
Shaping it into the "log". This is when it must be chilled in the fridge in order to avoid making the proverbial "tough cookie".
After a well deserved rest and chill, the finished dough is shown here in appropriate sized chunks, cut and ready to bake to gooey perfection.
Variations For Chocolate Chunk Cookies
You can make a number of different flavors of cookies using this method by substituting the dark chocolate for other ingredients, including:
- Dried fruit
- Milk chocolate
- White chocolate
- Nuts
Brown Sugar Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Equipment
- 1 Mixer and bowl Stand or hand type
- 1 Measuring cup set
- 1 Measuring Spoon Set
- 1 Mixing Bowl 2 quart capacity or larger
- 1 Rubber Spatula
- 1 Cookie sheet pan
- 1 Cooling rack
- 4 Parchment paper pan liner sheets 12/16"
- 1 Kitchen knife utility, chef, or even a metal dough cutter will work
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 offset spatula/turner
Ingredients
Wet
- 2 each Eggs
- 8 ounces Butter, softened, unsalted 2 sticks
- 1 tspn Vanilla paste or extract
- 1½ cup Brown sugar Dry measure, packed
Dry
- 2¼ cup All purpose flour Dry measure, leveled
- 2 tspn baking soda Dry measure, leveled
- ¾ tspn Salt
- 10-12 ounce Dark chocolate at least 72% cacao
Other
- 1 can Non stick pan spray as needed
Instructions
Wet
- In the bowl of the mixer, add the butter and sugar, combine on medium speed until creamy, light and fluffy.
- Crack eggs into a small bowl or ramekin to ensure there are no shells visually.
- While the mixer is still running, add the eggs one at a time, ensuring that each is fully incorporated before adding the next, turning mixer off and scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary to facilitate this.
- Add vanilla, mix until incorporated.
- Turn off mixer.
Dry
- In separate bowl, combine salt, flour and baking soda.
Mix
- Add one third of the dry mixture to the wet ingredients already in mixer
- Turn mixer on, at medium/low speed
- Combine well.
- Repeat the last three steps until all ingredients are incorporated well, continuing to stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl with rubber spatula as necessary.
- Break chocolate up into roughly ¼ inch chunks using your hands.
- Fold chocolate chunks evenly into the dough, using rubber spatula.
Resting and Storage
- Lay out 2 overlapping pieces of parchment paper on counter
- Place dough in center of paper.
- Using your hands, create a log, 3 to 4 inches in diameter.
- Roll the log into the parchment paper.
- Place in refrigerator at least two hours, or up to two days.
Baking
- Pre-heat oven to 350℉
- Line baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Spray surface of paper with non stick pan spray.
- Remove log of dough from refrigerator, remove paper from the log, and cut into 1 inch rounds.
- Cut each round into 4 pieces.
- Place pieces onto prepared baking sheet, spacing 3" apart, and 3" from edges.
- Place sheet into oven, bake for 8 minutes.
- Turn pan 180° around in oven so that cookies bake evenly.
- Continue to cook for 4 minutes.
- Remove from the oven.
- Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 3 minutes.
- using offset spatula, carefully remove cookies from cookie sheet and place onto cooling rack.
- Cool until room temperature.
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