Ultra Thin Chocolate Chunk Cookies
What kind of a chocolate chip cookie person are you? Thin and crispy or thick and chewy? Unfortunately for me, I am both! There are times I crave a dense sink-your-teeth-in-cookie and other times I long for the buttery/chocolatey crunch of a thin version, and let's face it, I'm probably going to be happy with whatever's on hand at the moment. I've made so many different versions of this classic cookie over the years and I have my favorites already, so I tend to shy away from new recipes, but when I came across these ultra-thin cookies, I lost all restraint. These are fabulous and perfect for when the cold-weather-urge-to-bake sets in!
The cookies are large, flat and filled with bittersweet chocolate chunks and brown sugar. They fall apart (in a good way) when you bite into them, almost like a lace cookie, but they're more substantial. And unlike in standard recipes for chocolate chip cookies, you don't even need a mixer. Everything gets whisked together by hand and then has to chill for several hours (or overnight) until the dough firms enough that you can bake them.
Once you're ready to bake, you make 15 balls of dough and then arrange them on sheets of aluminum foil. The cookies spread dramatically while baking so you can only safely fit about 5 to a cookie sheet without having them run into one another.
Then you flatten each ball with your hand to a 3 1/2 inch disk, slide the foil onto cookie sheets and bake.
When done, the cookies emerge thin as can be!
You can almost see through them!
These are golden brown, buttery and in the chocolate to cookie ratio, the chocolate is clearly the winner. Plus, because these are so large, one will probably more than satisfy that cookie monster urge, keeping things a little bit sensible! Try a batch and let me know what you think.
Ultra Thin Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Makes 15 large cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes, plus at least 3 hours of chilling time; Bake Time: 20-25 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 1/2 cup quick rolled oats
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
- 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon light corn syrup
- 2 tablespoons whole milk
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 7 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (or about 1 cup chocolate chips)
The Recipe
1. Mix together the flour and the baking soda in a small bowl with a whisk and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, place the melted butter, the oats, both sugars, the corn syrup, the milk, the flour and the salt and whisk together. If the batter is too warm, to add the chocolate, wait a few minutes, otherwise, stir in the chocolate, cover the batter and refrigerate it for several hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Line up three sheets of aluminum foil (sized to fit cookie sheets) on countertop, dull side facing up.
4. Divide the dough into 15 balls and place on cookie sheet far apart from one another. I did 4 in a square and 1 in the middle. Then, using the palm of your hand, flatten the cookies till they are about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Now slide two of the aluminum sheets onto cookie sheets .
5. Bake in thirds of oven, rotating the pans front to back and top to bottom once during the process.. The original recipe says 20-25 minutes, but mine were done at about 18 minutes. Check early and often since all ovens differ. Remove from oven and slide foil off onto cooling racks to cool completely. Meanwhile, slide third sheet onto one of the hot cookie trays and place in oven immediately, rotating once through as well.
6. When cool, peel cookies off of foil and store airtight. Cookies last at least 3 days at room temperature.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe barely adapted from Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy by Alice Medrich. I followed all the directions but cooked these for less time.
