Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

I grew up eating a crisp oatmeal chocolate chip cookie that I still turn to when I’m having a cookie craving, but I do love a soft, bakery-style cookie once in a while and have been meaning to try a recipe at home with my little assistant, who (at almost 2 years old!) is now old enough to “help” me. On a rainy Wednesday, Levi and I made a batch of these together – him perched on a kitchen stool; me on my own two feet.

He got really excited when I retrieved the hand-mixer from the baking drawer, and imitated the sound while doing his own little mixer charade. He also does a perfect imitation of the sound of an egg cracking on the counter. When I spooned the flour into a measuring cup, he helped me level it off with a knife then dump it into the bowl. What a good helper. After much measuring, mixing and scooping, the cookies were in the oven and there was flour everywhere, even on the tip of Levi’s little nose. We both peered through the little oven window and exchanged looks of anticipation and delight.

My little assistant, wearing my apron (which he insisted upon). He was so excited, he couldn’t keep his face still, hence the blur!

These cookies were just what I was craving – sweet with a hint of salt for balance, slightly crisp on the exterior with a chewy inside, and a gooey dark chocolate chunk in every bite. I found the recipe on Kelsey’s blog Apple a Day – thanks for a recipe that I’ll surely return to again and again. My only adaptations were using 3 tablespoons of olive oil because I was short 3 tablespoons of butter (which I wasn’t sure about but you couldn’t even tell in the end!), using salted butter and reducing the amount of salt in the recipe to just over a 1/4 tsp., and using chopped semisweet dark chocolate in place of chocolate chips.

(Just slightly adapted from Apple a Day; originally from Food Network Canada)

3/4 cup salted butter, softened 

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1/4 cup granulated sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp. vanilla extract 

2 cups all-purpose flour 

2 tsp. cornstarch 

1 tsp. baking soda 

1/4 tsp. salt 

1 cup chopped good-quality semisweet dark chocolate, such as Scharffenberger

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

• In a large bowl, using a hand-mixer, cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and mix until blended. Add flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt and mix until flour is incorporated. Stir in chocolate chunks.

• Drop tablespoons of dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (It actually took my cookies/oven about 11 minutes to achieve that ‘barely golden brown’ – also note, the tops will not brown so don’t overcook them!)

• Let cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove cookies from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen, which may sound like a lot, but trust me – they’ll go fast!