Better Than Your Granny's Cookies

I made 10 batches of these over a week. It's safe to say that I went a little cookie mad. I even dreamt about them. They were good at the halfway point but I knew that I could make them better. After I posted those vegan cookies a couple of weeks ago I had so many people wanting to add butter and eggs into them that I had to make a new revised one. Obviously, there is a whole world of great cookie recipes out there but these are pretty damn good so I urge you to give these a go. Note, please don't skip the butter and sugar beat time, fridge rest time or the wait time after cooking. These all add to the finished product. Also, using good quality butter and 85% dark chocolate is a must, trust me!

Side note, but an important one: There was much debate about whether I used brown butter in these and I was torn so I have actually given you the recipe for both. If doing a brown butter version, you will need 240g butter and without, you will need 160g butter.

Makes 14 cookies

Ingredients:

240g soft unsalted butter, diced (you can leave out the brown butter in which case only use 160g butter)

180g soft brown sugar

100g fine caster sugar

1 medium egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 level tsp sea salt, plus extra for sprinkling

200g spelt flour

4 tbsp almond flour/ground almonds

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g walnuts, finely chopped

180g dark chocolate (85% cocoa is preferable), roughly chopped

How to Make Your Cookies

Add 160g soft butter into a mixer with the beater attachment. Beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Mix the 2 sugars together and slowly spoon into whipped butter while still mixing. Beat for another 4/5 mins until creamed together. Needs to be very soft. Scrape down the sides of the mixer and beat again for 1 min.

(If adding in brown butter, add 80g butter to a saucepan on medium to high heat. Allow melting completely. It will start to bubble. Stir occasionally! Cook for roughly 3-4 mins until it starts to give off a hazelnut aroma and darken in colour. At this point quickly transfer to a bowl and leave to cool. It should be a light caramel colour.)

Slowly beat in the egg and vanilla with the creamy butter and sugar until combined. (At this point you can slowly drip in the now cooled brown butter).

Mix the salt, spelt, almond flour, baking powder and bicarb together. Turn down the beater and slowly spoon in the dry ingredients until just combined. Don't over mix. Then beat in the walnuts and chocolate by hand with a spoon. Use an ice cream scoop to create 14 equal balls on a baking tray with parchment paper. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge for 4 hrs or even better overnight.

Preheat the oven to 160 C degrees and line x2 baking trays with parchment. Lay 5 balls equally spaced out on each tray, sprinkle a little sea salt on each one and bake for 15-16 mins. They should be lightly golden in colour. Remove and leave to cool for 10 minutes to firm up. Freeze or bake the rest when you fancy. From frozen they will need to cook for an extra 2 mins or so. (Again different ovens may vary so maybe try out one before you start!)