PETRO’S SERIOUS CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1¼ cups (280 g) butter, at room temperature
350 g – 450 g light brown sugar (original recipe says 240 g light brown + 225 g white sugar – way too sweet to my taste)
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla extract
1¼ teaspoons baking soda (koeksoda)
1½ teaspoons baking powder
1½ teaspoons maldon salt (or ¾ teaspoon normal table salt)
3½ cups plus 2 teaspoons (yes really) (445 g) all-purpose (cake) flour
1¼ pounds (565 g) bittersweet chocolate disks or roughly chopped dark chocolate chunks. Keep it bigger, rather than smaller, pieces (I used 500 g and it was totally enough).

With a hand or stand mixer, cream the butter and sugars together until light, fluffy and then some – about 3 – 4 minutes.
Add eggs, one at a time, and mix to combine. Add vanilla, mix, then scrape down bowl.
Sprinkle baking soda, baking powder and salt over dough and mix it until fully combined.
Add flour all at once and mix it in short bursts until it almost completely disappears, but not longer. You do not want to over mix it.
Add chocolate pieces in and try to incorporate them without breaking them. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours and up to 72 hours, although I have totally had it in there up to five days.
Heat oven to 175 °C and line a couple large baking sheets with parchment paper or non-stick baking mats.

I made 33 x 25 g balls, plus 18 x 50 g balls out of the mix. I prefer the 25 g ones.
If any chocolate pieces are right across the tops or sides of the balls of dough, try to bury them back in it. I find pockets of chocolate superior to exposed puddles of them. Arrange balls of dough very far apart on sheets (these cookies will be up to five inches (13 cm) wide once baked – and sprinkle the tops of each with a few flecks of sea salt (maldon) (optional).
Bake cookies for 10 – 17 minutes, until golden all over. This is a large range because I find that they range in how much they spread; thus checking in at the early on stage on your first batch is safest.
Cool cookies on trays for 10 minutes, then transfer them to racks.

Note:
Please keep in mind that this is a cookie for chocolate friends ☺. Great pools of melted chocolate fill every bite; the dough is little more than glue holding these puddles together.

Recipe adapted and posted by Petro Borchard
Photo: Petro Borchard