Ah – chocolate chip cookies. Who doesn’t love them? Freshly baked, with melting morsels of pure chocolate chips; better even when tasted warm, just out of the oven.

This is the very first product I baked. I remember my American friends trading it to me eagerly in exchange for a demonstration of the classic sheera – the semolina pudding we have all grown up eating. Seems fair, doesn’t it?

I have since mastered many recipes, and made versions of egg-free and egg-based cookies, with nuggets or chips of chocolate, cocoa and nuts added. The variations are astounding. I always rely on these cookies for a quick dessert option, or as a pick-me-up on a gloomy day.

This is my tested through time, recipe for chocolate chip cookies. Do try it and tell me how you like it!

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Recipe yield: 20 / 22 cookies

INGREDIENTS:

• 95 gm whole wheat flour
• 90 gm all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp oats, instant or rolled optional
• 3/4th tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt 
• 75 gm brown sugar
• 75 gm caster sugar
• 120 gm butter, unsalted
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 gm chocolate chips, dark
• 100 gm chocolate chunks, dark, cut by hand into ½ inch cubes

PROCEDURE:

1. Preheat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a baking tray.
2. Sieve whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking soda and salt. Add oats and keep aside.
3. Beat butter, brown sugar and caster sugar.
4. Add egg and mix till light and fluffy.
5. Add vanilla extract and blend well.
6. Mix in all the dry ingredients. Combine the dough.
7. Add 80 per cent of the chocolate chips, gently to the cookie dough and mix them in well.
8. Make about 20/22 small balls from the dough
9. Drop them in 2-inch intervals onto the baking tray, flatten slightly if needed.
10. Dot each cookie dough ball with (the remaining 20 per cent)  some chocolate chips and a few chocolate chunks.
11. Bake in the preheated oven for 10/12 minutes or till golden on top. The cookies will spread out and take a larger shape.
12. Loosen cookies slightly while they are still warm, using a palette knife.
13. Place on a cooling rack until completely cooled.
14. Store cookies in an airtight container.

Tip: Use couverture or pure chocolate chips for best mouth-melting results and the taste of real chocolate.