Chewy Cookie Challenge

Dan set me a challenge last week to make the perfect chewy cookies - mainly because he is greedy and he knows that setting me a baking challenge will result in lots of goodies to eat (all in the name of research) and secondly, he thinks chewy cookies are perfect swirled into ice cream...and who am I to argue?

After asking some initial questions about the features of a perfect cookie (chewy, packed with choc chips, slightly syrupy in taste, palm of your hand sized) I set off with recipe research. I stumbled happily over this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and was sold by the Pinterest worthy photos of cookies and her geeky attention to detail, resulting in perfect looking cookies.

I tried two of her recipes - the tweaked choc chip cookie recipe here (with Smarties for added crunch)

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

and the cake batter flavoured cookies loaded with sprinkles and choc chips - here.

Cake Batter Choc Chip Cookies with Sprinkles

I have to say that my cookies are not as photogenic as Sally's, so I think a bit of tweaking is needed here and there, but in terms of taste, they are the ULTIMATE chewy cookies - definitely worthy of being swirled into ice cream.

Hints and Tips

• I found that the cookies do have a tendency to spread, so definitely follow Sally's tip of rolling the cookies to be taller, rather than wider (using the amount specified for each cookie, roll the amount into two balls and build one on on top of the other, to look like cookie dough snowmen).
• I found that the cake batter cookies seem to spread far more than the standard choc chip cookies, so would maybe reduce the amount of cookie dough per cookie from 1.5 tablespoons per cookie, to 1 tablespoon per cookie. 
• I also found that with both recipes, a maximum of 6 cookies per tray were best, to avoid cookie spreading casualties! 
• I didn't try baking the dough from frozen, but would definitely try this next time, to aim for the most photogenic cookie.
• My oven is quite fierce and so I found that 9 mins at 160 degrees Celsius was the right amount of time to ensure chewy centres and a pale golden hue at the edges. I found that 11 mins at this temp overcooked the cookies. Check them at 9 mins and decide from there what your perfect baked finish is.
• DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT MOVING THESE COOKIES ON TO A COOLING RACK UNTIL 10 MINS HAS PASSED - THEY ARE TOO FRAGILE TO MOVE UNTIL THIS POINT!