These Double Chocolate Chip Cookies, we’ll call them D Triple C for short, are probably the best treat you can make yourself this week.
If you’re looking for balance in your life, look no further: this is the most well-balanced thing in my life right now. The cookie is perfectly sweet with a hint of salt, and chocolatey but not overwhelming like an explosion of a Lindt truffle in your mouth. The texture is chewy with a little snap at the first bite. It’s a yogi cookie; so well balanced.
So what did I use to make these delicious numbers?
- Salted butter. Don’t @ me quite yet. I’ll explain using data (#scientistforever)
- This Ghirardelli 100% unsweetened cocoa powder
- Trader Joe’s Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chunks (I also use Ghirardelli Bittersweet or Scharffen Berger Semi-Sweet/Bittersweet)
- More dark brown sugar, less granulated. 2:1 ratio is what I used here. Also, less is more for sugar. You don’t want your cookies to taste like you’re eating bites of pure sugar (gross!).
The Salted Butter Explanation
Ok so now you’re probably screaming after thousands of bloggers have said DON’T USE SALTED BUTTER. YOU WON’T HAVE CONTROL OVER THE SALT.
But let me give you some #facts. I use salted butter from Kate’s Creamery for pretty much any baking I do. Let’s say I’m using the 2 sticks, aka 16 tablespoons that I am for this recipe. In each tablespoon, there is 120 milligrams of sodium (i.e. a mineral in NaCl aka sodium chloride aka table salt).
Now, let’s multiply 120×16, and we get 1,920mg of sodium in 2 sticks of butter. Seem like a lot? Well, no. Let’s divide 1,920mg by 390, to convert sodium to grams of salt. Now we have 4.92g of salt in the 2 sticks of butter I’m using to make my cookies. Still seem like a lot?
Here’s a fun conversion, 1 teaspoon of salt = 5.69 grams. So, when you divide 4.92g by 5.69g to get the teaspoon value, you get 0.86521563 teaspoons of salt. Let’s round that off and say roughly 7/8 teaspoon of salt for this entire recipe.
Considering most recipes call for 1+ teaspoons of salt for cookie dough, I think it’s safe to assume you’re not going to over-salt your cookies. Omit the extra salt if you wish, but it certainly is not going to ruin your cookies or make you lose control of the salt. In fact, it’s going to make them taste infinitely better, because the sodium in your butter is well incorporated already AND saltiness is essential to highlight sweetness.
I’ve read people say that salt “clouds” the buttery taste, but don’t you use salted butter on your toast? On your pancakes? Popcorn? On, well, everything?
Here’s a case I don’t think you can deny: movie theater popcorn would not be so addicting if it weren’t for the salty butter they add. In fact, it enhances the sweet cream of the butter, which is what makes you reach in and grab handful after handful, until you reach the bottom full of hard kernels.
To conclude: You need salt to balance and enhance the sweetness in desserts (think about how viral salted caramel went 10 years ago). That’s why I always use salted butter (plus, it doesn’t hurt that I am guaranteed to always have it on hand…unsalted, not so much).
Did I change your mind on using salted butter? I sure hope so. Welcome to the dark side. Now try it out in these double chocolate chip cookies!
Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks salted butter, softened 2 sticks = ½ pound
- 1 cup dark brown sugar packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt more as needed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce OR 1 egg
- 1 tbsp milk non-dairy is fine too
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa baking powder
- 2 cups all purpose flour I use unbleached for better grain
- ½ cup semi or bittersweet chocolate chunks half-chopped
Directions
- In a large bowl, add in your softened butter. Using a mixer, beat for until whipped and pale. Be sure to scrape the sides.
- Now, add in your sugars and salt. Beat until light, fluffy and well combined.
- Add in your egg or unsweetened applesauce, vanilla extract and splash of milk. Beat until you get a homogenous mixture.
- If you wish, you can sift together the baking soda, cocoa powder and flour. If not, add them all in and mix on low until well combined. Taste the dough for balance (should be perfectly sweet, with a dull smokey flavor from the dark brown sugar.
- Chop your chocolate chunks/chips, leaving some larger pieces. This will ensure that you get a dose of chocolate in every bite, not just when you reach a large chip. Mix this in using a spatula. You should now have a rich chocolate dough.
- Scoop out into 1-2 inch balls (depending on how big you want your cookies), and place them on a parchment lined pan (or silicone baking mat). Pop the pan in the freezer to chill for 1 hour.
- Once nearing the end of the chill time (yours and the cookies'), preheat the oven to 350°F, and make sure your baking rack is in the center of the oven.
- Space out your chilled cookie dough ball evenly on your baking sheet (keeping the extra dough balls in the freezer), and bake for 10 minutes.
- At 10 minutes, you'll see the dough puffed, and the edges lightly cooked. Take the tray out, and bang it on the counter until you see the puff drop. This will create little wrinkles in the edge of your cookie, and make for a better bite. Pop back into your oven, and bake for the rest of the time.Feel free to take it out every couple of minutes to bang and create more wrinkles!
- Once done, let the cookies cool on the sheet for 10 minutes at least to set, before transferring to a wire rack for further cooling or dunking into a tall glass of milk. Enjoy!