Double chocolate chip cookies easy

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve made this chocolate chip cookie recipe, but after tweaking and refining over a lot of iterations I’m really happy with it. Simple to make, harder to wait.

Gear

Large bowl
Small pot
Wooden spoon
2 large baking sheets
Parchment paper or silicone mat (Silpat)

Ingredients

170g flour
2 single origin 70% chocolate bars, should be ~150g total
50g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
4g salt
4g baking soda
2g finely-ground coffee
170g butter
200g brown sugar
50g white sugar
2 separated egg yolks + 1 whole egg, whisked well
1tsp vanilla extract
Maldon flaky salt for finishing

Recipe part 1 – two or three days before baking

Before starting, put the chocolate bars in the freezer so they don’t melt when blended in.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, coffee, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir when melted until slightly browned. Remove from heat and let cool for a few minutes.
Stir in sugar into butter, and let cool for a few more minutes.
Slowly add in eggs while stirring, then vanilla extract.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry until incorporated.
Roughly chop the chocolate bars into 1cm / ½” chunks. It’s okay (heck, even better) if they’re irregular. When the dough is just barely above room temperature to the touch, stir in chocolate.
Seal the dough in a plastic bag or tightly-sealed container and place in the fridge for at least 2-3 days. Longer is better! Go up to 2 weeks, if you can wait.

Recipe part 2 – baking

Pull the dough out of the fridge 2hrs before baking
Preheat the oven to 190C, or 175C for convection.
Separate the dough into 16 even balls, place across 2 parchment or silicone mat-lined baking sheets
Put in the oven, spread over two racks if needed, and set a timer for 4 minutes.
At the 4 minute mark, rotate pans and flip racks. Reset timer for another 4 minutes.
Repeat rotate & flip at the 8 minute mark. Reset timer for 2 minutes for fudgey cookies, 4 minutes for firm cookies. Remove from the oven when finished.
After removing, drop the sheet flat from about 15cm/6” height a few times. This helps knock down any height to the cookies and gives them a classic crackled surface. (I like to do this in the oven when rotating the pans too)
Dust the cookies with Maldon salt flakes, and let them cool completely on the sheets.
Sneak one while they’re cooling, nothing beats a fresh out of the oven cookie.
Store in the fridge for up to a week, in the freezer for a few months.

Notes

No volume measurements, sorry. You need a precise scale for these.
Dutch-processed cocoa powder is key. If you can find an actual Netherlands-originated version even better, but domestic is fine too.
Grind the coffee fresh, and as finely as your machine will let you.
Aging the dough makes ALL the difference. I’ve done split-batch tests, cooking half immediately and half after three days. No contest.
The base cookie can be modified with extra ingredients that pair well with chocolate to great effect. I’ve done dozens of batches over the years with add-ons like tonka bean, crushed hazelnuts, candied orange peel, diced caramels, crushed candy cane, pink peppercorn, White Rabbit candy, rye flour, and plenty more.