Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Hazelnuts

Just chewy enough, tastes equally good slightly warm or straight out of the cookie jar

Happy Hump Day! It’s Wednesday, so why not sit back and enjoy a cookie or three? I know it is the start of a new year and a lot of people are embarking on weight loss or healthy journeys so I was thinking twice about sharing this recipe. Then again, it is too good not to share. Don’t take this the wrong way, I assure you I am there to support you on your quest to be a better you. However, there are times in life when you just need a cookie break. It is not a contradiction. All things in moderation and you will not eat the whole pack or whole jar of cookies. That’s my philosophy any way. As such, when you are in need of a cookie break or if you are baking for kids or friends, I hope you will have this recipe by your side to try. At the end of the day, if you want a cookie, it is much better to have a homemade one then a packaged one from the supermarket.

Now, these chewy chocolate chunk cookies with hazelnuts are so easy to make simply because you use melted butter. So no need to cream butter!

I hope that caught your attention. The end product is a very chewy cookie with loads of chocolate and roasted hazelnuts. When eaten warm, and I mean, straight off the baking sheet, the chocolate is still all melted and just oozing over the cookie dough. Let me tell you, it is a little piece of heaven.

For the dark chocolate and hazelnuts, I bought a few bars of dark chocolate and hazelnuts and chopped them up to add into the cookie dough. It does the trick. When you make these cookies, do make a big batch of cookie dough and freeze up any dough that you are not using. It is so handy to have this on standby especially since they disappear the minute they are baked! It also works if you need some last minute cookies for a gift or to serve unexpected visitors. All you need to do to bake the dough from frozen, is to thaw out the dough until it is pliable enough for you to roll into balls for baking.

Recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Prep Time: 2 ¼ hours (including 2 hours to chill the cookie dough)/

Baking Time: 13-14 minutes/ Makes 28 cookies (about 2” diameter each)

You will need – baking sheets, parchment paper

Ingredients

170gm Unsalted Butter (melted)

280gm Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1½ tsp Cornflour

½ tsp Salt

130gm Soft Brown Sugar

80gm Castor Sugar

1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk

2 tsp Vanilla Essence

180gm Dark Chocolate Chunks and Hazelnuts

Method

1. Put the butter in a pan to melt. Once melted, remove and set aside. Sift the plain flour, cornflour and baking soda into a bowl. Then, add in the salt and whisk together evenly.

2. In another bowl, combine the melted butter, soft brown sugar and castor sugar. Whisk together breaking up any lumps with a spoon. Add in the egg and egg yolk and whisk evenly, then add in the vanilla essence.

3. Pour the melted butter mixture into the dry flour mixture. Combine both mixtures evenly, be sure to combine any flour that may have settled at the bottom of the bowl. Lastly, mix in the chocolate chunks and hazelnuts

4. Cover the cookie dough with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Meanwhile, line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

5. Once the cookie dough has been chilled and rested enough, pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Pinch about 2 tsp of dough off, roll into balls and place on the baking sheets. Make sure to leave plenty of space between the cookies as they will spread.

6. Bake the cookies for 13-14 minutes until just slightly brown. The cookies may seem a bit under baked and soft once removed from the oven but they will continue baking on the baking sheet. Once removed from the oven, leave the cookies on the baking sheet for 10 minutes. Thereafter, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely before storing in an air tight jar.

This recipe is adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction