Double chocolate chip cookies are pure chocolate indulgence. For me, the darker and more rich the chocolate, the better. Personally I love them to have a little crisp bite followed by a soft and chewy interior, and a ton of dark chocolate chunks. But honestly there’s nothing quite like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Either on their own or dunked in cold milk – it’s one of those sweet comforts.
I’ll answer a few of the main questions below.
Why is there baking powder and baking soda? Can I just use one or the other? Are they different?
They are 2 separate ingredients and work completely differently during the baking process. Baking powder is a mix of acid and alkali which react during the bake, whilst baking soda is just the alkali. Baking soda requires the addition of acidic ingredients to cause the necessary reaction for leavening. Without this, you end up with a bitter/soapy taste of unreacted baking soda – it’s unpleasant to say the least.
Both are essential and in the amounts stated in my recipe, you won’t get the same result by using all baking powder or baking soda. They will react at different points in the bake, baking powder normally has 2 reactive stages and baking soda has 1. This is what will provide that thick chewy cookie texture.
My double chocolate chip cookies spread too much/didn’t spread at all, what happened?
Ok, so this is down to one thing, the butter consistency. If your butter is over-softened or melted, these will spread out way too much and you will end up with a thin, crispy, and greasy cookie which is no fun.
However if your butter is too cold, you’ll struggle to cream the sugar into it, and likely end up with clumps of sugar or butter. When this happens, the cookies will barely spread out and will likely be underbaked.
This happens because in over-softened butter, the fat melts too quickly before the flour in the cookie has had time to ‘set’. Whilst in the opposite scenario, the flour ‘sets’ before the butter has melted, and so it can’t spread out. In this case you end up with a very chunky and underbaked double chocolate chip cookies.
To speed up your butter softening process, cut the butter into small cubes and leave at room temp for 20-30mins, you will know when it’s perfectly softened when you can press your finger into it and leave an indent, with the cube still holding shape.
Can I refrigerate/freeze the dough?
Yes, you can, but before baking you want to allow them to come back to room temperature. This is due to same reason aforementioned, cold butter = no spreading out = not a happy baker.
To freeze these, place each doughball on a lined tray or plate in a single layer, freeze until completely frozen and then transfer to a freezer-safe bag.
Just make sure to bring them to room temperature before baking.
How to make these vegan
Super simple, use a vegan block butter (e.g. Naturli) and substitute the milk for any plant milk of choice. Enjoy!
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 145 g plain flour
- 45 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 120 g chocolate of choice
- 150 g unsalted butter softened. Or vegan block alternative
- 50 g dark brown sugar
- 50 g white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
- 1 tbsp milk of choice
Instructions
Method:
- Preheat oven to 160’C fan or 180’C conventional
- Cream your butter, vanilla, and sugars together until combined, then add in your milk and mix.
- In a separate bowl, mix your flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarb, and salt
- Sieve your dry mix into the butter, sugar, milk mixture
- Mix until incorporated
- Fold in your chopped chocolate/chunks
- Spoon even amounts of dough and form into a ball. Place 2 inches apart to allow them to spread whilst baking. I weigh my cookie ball out at 40g each to ensure even baking, this makes 14 cookies. Bake for 18 mins for this size – the edges should be slightly firm to the touch. (Smaller cookies will need less time and larger will need more)
- Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack, then allow to cool completely
If you enjoyed these, try out my chocolate chip cookie recipe! Tap the image below!
4 Comments
KP Halai
June 27, 2021 at 8:42 pm100% dark chocolate all the way! Incredible, I used 80% dark chocolate in these and it was lovely. Not sweet, just right. Served it with milk because milk and cookies are a must.
dishbyrish
December 5, 2021 at 3:07 pmSo glad you enjoyed these! The 80% is an excellent choice – that would be my choice too!
Sona
January 28, 2022 at 10:46 amLove making these cookies!!! Always a fave for the nephews!
dishbyrish
January 30, 2022 at 11:59 pmThank you for your lovely review, I’m chuffed to hear you all enjoy them!