A scoop-and-bake counter cookie engineered for production: high brown sugar for chew and colour, cold-held dough portioned ahead, baked from the fridge or freezer through the day. Yield: 48 cookies at ~50g scooped. Portioned dough holds 5 days chilled or 6 weeks frozen — bake stock, not cookies.
Yield: 48 portions · Prep 25 min · Bake 12 min
Ingredients
450 g unsalted butter
400 g brown sugar
200 g caster sugar
150 g whole egg
15 ml vanilla extract
640 g plain flour
8 g bicarbonate of soda
8 g fine sea salt
600 g dark chocolate chips (or chopped couverture)
Method
Cream Cream butter (18-20°C) with both sugars on medium for 3 minutes — lightened but not whipped white. Over-creaming gives cakey spread; this cookie wants dense chew.
Emulsify Add eggs gradually with the vanilla, scraping down, until the batter is glossy and fully emulsified — no curdled flecks against the bowl.
Dry mix in Add flour, bicarb, and salt in one addition and mix on low only until the last flour streak disappears, then fold through the chocolate by hand. Every extra turn of the mixer here toughens the crumb.
Portion Scoop 50g portions with a #40-style scoop onto lined trays, touching is fine — they separate cold. Consistent portioning is consistent bake time and consistent margin.
Cold hold Refrigerate portions a minimum of 4 hours, ideally 24-48. The cold rest hydrates the flour and concentrates flavour, controls spread, and turns the dough into an on-demand product. Freeze what the next two days will not use.
Bake to order Bake from cold at 170°C fan for 11-13 minutes: set and golden at the rim, visibly underdone in the centre — carryover finishes them to fudgy-chewy. From frozen add 2 minutes. A pinch of salt flakes on exit lifts the whole cookie.