As part of my cooking-with-the-kiddo project this summer, Ina Garten’s Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies were baked and devoured by my enthusiastic 11-year-old. We watched Ina rock these out on her TV show, and Evan declared, “Mommy, we need to make these.”
So, do not expect a big whopping batch of cookies from this recipe. It makes only 12. But…..they are GINORMOUS. Which, thrilled the boy. Natch. They are also thin and crispy. So if you groove on that style of cookie, MAKE THESE.
The thinness is achieved by adding water to the batter and by also banging the cookie trays every few minutes and returning them to the oven. So be sure to be diligent in your timer capablities. I feel like these could go wrong really quickly with a miscalculation.
Another timing element involves the freezer. Form the dough into balls and freeze for 15 minutes. The recipe says do not freeze any longer than 15! I put the dough balls in small pans that I knew would fit in the freezer:
The recipe uses all of your standard chocolate chip cookie ingredients, except the chips are replaced by designer chocolate that you must chop. We used Ghiradelli. Ina recommends Lindt. The fleur de sel aka sea salt topping hot out the oven is a total chefy move, and we really loved it.
The bottom line is: These cookies rock!
Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies
Course: DessertDifficulty: Medium12
servings30
minutes30
minutesIngredients
1/2 lb. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 extra large egg, at room temperature
2 Tbsp. warm water
1 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
8 ounches bittersweet chocolate, chopped, such as Lindt
Fleur de sel or sea salt, for sprinkling
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange three racks evenly spaced in the oven. (If your oven has only two racks or you have only two sheet pans, bake these in two batches but don’t freeze any batch of dough for more than 15 minutes.)
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 3 minutes until creamy. Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the egg, vanilla and 2 Tbsp. of warm water and mix on low speed just to combine.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and kosher salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture, then the chocolate (including the fine chocolate dust) to the batter until combined. Mix well with a rubber spatula.
- With a 2 1/4-inch standard ice cream scoop (or 1/3 cup measure), make 12 rounded scoops of dough and place them on a sheet pan. Freeze the dough for exactly 15 minutes, then arrange 4 balls of dough – spaced wide apart- on each of three sheet pans lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 10 minutes, until the cookies are slightly puffed in the center. Remove the pans from the oven and bang them on the stove top, until the center of the cookies deflate. Bake for 3 minutes, then bang the pans again, repeating baking and banging every 3 minutes, for 18 to 20 minutes total, until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. (The centers will be lighter and not fully cooked.) Rotate the sheet pans in the oven so the cookies bake evenly. Sprinkle the cookies with fleur de sel and cool completely on the pans.
