Thursday, 21 April 2011

choc chip cookies - m&s style

The perfect cookie is very subjective - some like their cookies hard and crunchy, some like them soft and chewy, some like them thin and crispy, I'm sure there are many more variations. For me, the perfect cookie is soft and chewy and perhaps a bit sweeter than most normal people would prefer :). I think the best example would be the cookies you find at Millie's Cookies, and the best example of the perfect choc chip cookie would be the ones from the M&S bakery.

Last year, I decided I wanted to recreate the M&S choc chip cookie at home - how difficult could it be? Easier said than done. I think I tried 3 or 4 different recipes - one batch turned out thin and crispy. Another batch came out chewy but the mixture had spread out so much during baking so they were almost paper thin. After trawling through the internet I found this site which has some fascinating information about how to get the style of cookie you want. From here, I found the recipe for the perfect thick and chewy choc chip cookie.

Now, I baked the cookies following this recipe, and was very impressed with how close they came to the M&S perfection. My big mistake however was not noting down the method I used, because it seems as though I did not follow the recipe to the letter! As can be evidenced from my post here. Using soft brown sugar instead of golden caster sugar yielded me a cookie that was more cake-like, which is more of the Ben's Cookies style - not my preferred style of cookie (although I do know people who rave about Ben's).

So here is my recipe for producing choc chip cookies, that are *almost* as good as the ones you get from M&S.

Choc chip cookies
(makes about 24)


Ingredients


  • 125g butter

  • 3/4 cups golden caster sugar

  • 1 large egg (I may toy with using a medium egg next tim)

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 1 1/4 cups plain flour

  • 1/2 tsp baking soda

  • 1 cup choc chips


Method


Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

In a bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, beat butter and brown sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

In another bowl, mix flour, baking soda. Stir or beat into butter mixture until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop dough in 1-tablespoon portions, 2 inches apart, onto lined baking sheets.

Bake in the oven until cookies are lightly browned, for about 6 to 8 minutes.

With a wide spatula, transfer cookies to racks to cool.

6 comments:

  1. This recipe doesn't work, the cookies just crumbled and fell apart

    ReplyDelete
  2. This recipe is absolutely delicious and always comes out perfect, my go to cookie recipe! Thank you so much!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Worked really well, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm confused is it brown sugar or caster sugar because it says caster in the ingredients and brown in the method

    ReplyDelete
  5. I used chopped up Cadbury dairymilk chocolate and these were delicious,
    tasted just like M&S cookies!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Really good recipe, very close to the m and s ones!

    ReplyDelete