Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am currently a little bit obsessed with the Chocolate Chip Cookies from M&S Bakery section. They put something addictive in them I swear! As a result I’m currently spending a lot of time trying to recreate that cookie. I don’t hold out much hope of actually doing that but in the meantime I’m baking a lot of decicious chocolate chip cookies!

This one is my current favourite because of the melted butter. It’s ridiculously quick and easy to throw together and makes a delicious, chewy cookie with nice crispy edges just the way I like them! In order to get the full M&S experience you should eat the cookies warm… I challenge you not to scoff half the batch fresh out the oven, no one has that much will power!

Makes 24 large cookies

170g melted unsalted butter
220g light muscovado sugar
100g caster sugar (If you like the grainyness of the M&S cookies feel free to use granulated, I don’t like it so I use caster)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g chocolate chips (I use one bag of dark and one bag of milk for variety)

– Heat the oven to Gas mark 3/170C and prepare three baking trays.
– Melt the butter, I put it in the microwave for 1 minute but microwaves vary so be careful!
– In a large mixing bowl mix the melted butter with both sugars until smooth.
– Beat in the vanilla, egg and egg yolk until smooth.
– Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until it forms a dough.
– Mix through the chocolate chips. *
– Each cookie should be about a 1/4 cup size of dough. I use a dessert spoon to scoop and drop onto the baking trays. Make sure they cookies are well spaced apart as they spread.
– Bake one sheet at a time in the top of the oven for about 15-17 minutes. The cookies will still be soft but the edges should be a little brown.
– Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely/eat.
– Repeat with the remaining trays of cookies.

*I frequently put the bowl of cookie mixture in the fridge at this point and leave it for a few hours/overnight. Sometimes, life gets in the way! I think this can result in a chewier cookie and a taller cookie with a bit less spread as the butter takes longer to melt and spread out. (There is actual science behind this to do with the flour absorbing the liquid, apparently 36 hours chilling is the optimum but who is that organised?)