Chocolate Chunk Cookies

 Homemade cookies are better than any you can buy in a shop.

 



These cookies are crunchy, chewy and easy to make. The great thing about this recipe is that, essentially you can make them how you want them to turn out.

To make a batch you will need

125g salted butter (softened - leave out of the fridge for at least half an hour)
100g caster sugar
75g soft light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
225g self-raising flour
A pinch of salt
200g of chocolate

Preheat the oven to 180°c (I don't tend to do this until I add the chocolate to the mixture as my oven heats up pretty quickly) and grease and line a baking tray. Cream together the butter and sugars, making sure the butter is really soft. If it is still a little hard, put it in the microwave on low for a few seconds to soften it. Gradually add the egg before adding the flour and salt and mixing until it is all combined. For the chocolate, you can use chocolate chips if preferred, but I like them best as chunks, so I bought a bar of chocolate and cut it up into small chunks.

You can use whatever chocolate you like, but cooking chocolate works best. Add the chocolate to the dough so the chocolate is distributed evenly. The dough should be fairly sticky but firm. Next, get a handful of the cookie dough and roll into a ball before putting it on the baking tray and flattening it slightly. The size of each cookie is up to you, but they tend to spread to about double of the size of the ball of dough so keep that in mind! Also, make sure you spread the cookies out on the baking tray, otherwise when cooking they will merge into each other.

Bake in the oven for between 7-9 minutes until the edges start to brown. The brown edges will be fairly crunchy and if the middle is pale they will be fairly chewy and gooey in the middle. If you want them to be crunchy all the way through then bake them until they are golden brown all over. Leave to firm up on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days (if they last that long!).

Enjoy!