Chocolate chip cookies, crisp edge and chewy middle
Cookies are one of the few things you bake on steel at a lower heat. The plate delivers so much heat from below that at the usual 200°C the bottoms brown before the middle is done. At 180°C the steel sets the base and edges quickly and evenly, the middle stays soft, and every batch comes out the same because the plate barely cools between them.
The dough
About sixteen cookies.
- 170g butter, browned and cooled
- 150g brown sugar
- 75g white sugar
- 1 egg and 1 extra yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 260g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 250g chopped dark chocolate
Mixing
Brown the butter in a pan until it smells nutty and the solids turn golden, then let it cool until just warm. Whisk in both sugars, then the egg, yolk and vanilla until glossy.
Fold in the flour, soda and salt until just combined, then the chocolate. Chill the dough for at least an hour, or up to two days. Cold dough spreads less and the flavour deepens.
Bake
Plate in the middle of the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes; it does not need the full 45 at this temperature. Lay a sheet of baking paper on a board, place balls of dough about 50g each on it with room to spread, and slide the paper onto the plate.
Nine to eleven minutes, until the edges are golden and the middles still look slightly underdone. They finish setting as they cool. Pull the paper off the plate to stop the bottoms cooking, and leave them five minutes before moving them.
If the bottoms get too dark
Every oven runs a little differently. If the first batch is darker underneath than you like, drop the oven to 170°C or take a minute off. A sprinkle of flaky salt on top as they come out is worth it.
Chill the dough, bake at 180°C rather than 200°C, and take them out while the middles still look soft.