Tara O'Brady's Chocolate Chip Cookies (AKA Heaven)

First of all, there are no chips in these cookies. Just huge hearty chunks of bittersweet chocolate.Second, if you’ve have been following along with me on instagram (@sweetish.co), you know I've been talking a lot about cookies lately because this is the topic of my next "Make and Bake" workshop hosted with Anthropologie.The workshop is sold out already (thank you!) and I'm so honored and flattered and stoked (I'm all the things) that you guys want to chill with me and talk cookies. If you missed this workshop or my last pie-making workshop, don't fret, I have something great in the works that we'll talk about in just a sec.Fun fact: This entire blog post was taken with my iphone. I wasn't planning on sharing these cookies so quickly, but whatever, so many of you wanted the recipe, NOW. Ask and I will deliver! I make this recipe lately just about as much as I make my other favorite.This is the best "make in a cabin or little tiny condo in Hawaii” recipe because it requires no electric mixer. We melt the butter first and then add the sugars to it, allowing them to marry and blend this way instead of the traditional beating and creaming method. (aka beating the sugar in with softened butter).This cookie is brought to you by the beautifully talented Tara O'Brady from one of the original food blogs ever (like she's original gangster status), Seven Spoons.I change very little about her recipe except for the use of dark brown sugar and the amount of chocolate. I hardly measure the chocolate (just eye ball a little less than a pound) of bittersweet chopped chocolate... yes, it's a tiny bit more than Tara calls for, but have we met yet? #darkchocolateissuesforlifeOh, and back to my first comment here at the start of this post: The bigger your chunks, the bigger the pools of chocolate. You're welcome. Don't say I never gave you anything. ;)Oh! One more thing!We are putting together a really beautiful, fun and instructional online pie making workshop where you'll learn how to make 3 of my favorite holiday pies: Salted Caramel Apple, Butterscotch Pumpkin, and Deep Dark Chocolate Cream pie. We’re gonna learn how to nail the perfect pie crust and fillings - as in one fool-proof amaze balls crust and three different fillings to go with it. (cue the confetti emojis)The workshop will be in a step-by-step video format and include me (hi!) teaching you how to make everything. We breakdown the process and the recipes. It’s not gonna be dinky either guys, it’s going to be beautifully shot and styled - but fun, quick and accessible. We’ve made it so you can watch the videos as many times as you need to and I’m fully available to answer any questions, but I swear, you're gonna walk away from this online workshop feeling like a pie-boss. :D That's a thing.We're going to start rolling out the pre-sign ups soon. Spots will be limited, and the workshop will start mid-November, just in time for your holiday pies. If you have any questions about it, let me know.Hey! I love you. Thank you for being here. Really. xo

Tara O’Brady’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from Seven Spoons My Favorite Recipes for Any and Every Day by Tara O'Brady.

Tara has an eloquence to her writing that I lack. She paints the most beautiful imagery with her words, so much so you feel you’re there, savoring it all with her and practically smelling her kitchen through the pages. Her cookbook is one that I would grab and keep with me forever if I was only allowed to keep a few. I think this cookie recipe explains "why" pretty nicely. 

(bakers notes: This is my adaption of the recipe - I add sea salt on top, and chop the chocolate into large chunks, making sure a few chunks are perfectly placed on top to create that gorgeous pooling effect.) 

• 1 cup / 225g unsalted butter (chopped)
• 3 ¼ cup / 415g all-purpose unbleached flour
• 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder (aluminum free)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons medium-grain kosher salt
• 1 ½ cups / 320g packed light or dark brown sugar (I use a mixture light and dark)
• ½ cup / 100g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 12 ounces / 340g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into large chunks (honestly I don't measure the chocolate, and add way more than the original recipe calls for)
• Flaky sea salt for sprinkling (tara doesn't say to do this, but I'm addicted to sea salt on top of my chocolate chip cookies)

1. Preheat an oven to 360˚F / 180˚C. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.

2. In a medium saucepan over a very low heat, melt the butter. We’re just trying to melt the butter here and not brown it AT ALL. The butter should be cloudy, and barely barely melted so we retain most of it’s moisture. If we “cook” the butter for too long the cookie dough won’t be right - it will be dry.

3. Chop your chocolate and set aside.

4. In large bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Set aside.

5. Pour the melted butter into a different large bowl and whisk in your sugars. At first it may look like a greasy clumpy mess, but keep mixing, it will smooth out after you’ve stirred it for a bit. Add your eggs, one at a time to your butter mixture, whisking briskly after each addition until just combined. Add and stir in vanilla.

6. Add your dry ingredients to your beautiful wet mixture and combine all together using a spatula - this takes just a few minutes. Once blended, add your chopped chocolate to the dough.

7. Wrap the dough in parchment paper or plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 10-15 minutes in the fridge - preferably overnight. I think this helps the flavors marry. You certainly don’t need the dough to sit in the fridge to have it work.
   

8. Make the dough into golf-ball sized balls (about 3 tablespoons per cookie) and bake for 10-14 minutes, rotating the pan about half way through baking. Take note that colder dough takes longer to bake. Cookies should have a nice golden outside but seem a tiny tiny bit glossy and cracked on the inside. 

9. Leave cookies on cookie sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

10. Cookies can be kept in an air tight container for up to a week - but I prefer to keep them in an air tight container in the fridge. The extra dough keeps nicely, tightly wrapped in the fridge for up to a week as well.

bakers note: Kosher salt is saltier than sea salt. So I highly recommend using medium grain kosher salt for these cookies because the saltiness is just perfect. If you use table salt or sea salt, it won’t quite be the same and probably require a little more salt. FYI, I use kosher salt in every single one of my recipes. A box of it is a few bucks at the store and it’s usually not hard to find (in the US) and it makes all the difference.

Resources:I used Valrhona Chocolate for this batch.One of the questions I get ALL THE TIME for this recipe is how I got my cookies to crack. Weigh your ingredients, use the highest quality flour you can find, and cut your chocolate into chunks (and also use high quality chocolate).