spelt chocolate chunk cookies

Recipe directly from butter and brioche blog

SPELT DARK CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES

200 g unsalted butter, cubed

285 g light brown sugar

80 g granulated sugar

175 g all-purpose flour

175 g spelt flour

1 ¼ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 large egg

1 tbsp. vanilla bean extract

225 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Flaked salt or fleur de sel, for sprinkling

Place the butter into a medium sized saucepan, set over medium-low heat. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and pour the butter into a large mixing bowl. Add in the light brown sugar and granulated sugar. Whisk until smooth and combined. Set the bowl aside.

In a separate medium sized mixing bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, spelt flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set the bowl with the dry ingredients aside.

Add the egg into the bowl with the butter and sugar mixture. Whisk until smooth and glossy, then, add in the vanilla bean extract. Whisk until combined. Incorporate half of the dry ingredients into the bowl, using a wooden spoon to mix until just combined (some dry flour pockets should remain). Add in the remaining dry ingredients, again, mix until just combined. Fold in the dark chocolate chunks until evenly incorporated throughout the dough. Cover the bowl with a layer of plastic wrap and set the dough in the refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. (Any time longer and the dough will be hard to roll. If this happens, let the dough sit out at room temperature until it's soft enough to roll but firm enough to hold it's shape.)

Pre-heat the oven to 180 c (350 f). Line three large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using a small cookie scoop, or a generous tablespoon as a measure, roll out as many cookie balls out of the dough as possible. Arrange the dough balls evenly amongst the baking trays, then, sprinkle over a little of the flaked salt.

Bake, for 9 to 11 minutes. Three quarters of the way into baking (about 8 minutes in), open the oven door and raise the cookie sheet by a few inches (The cookies should just be beginning to puff in the middle). Use a little force to tap it against the oven rack, so that the cookies de-flate slightly. You should see the chocolate begin to spread. Close the oven door and let the cookies bake and inflate again, for a further 30 seconds. Again, repeat the raising and tapping process above for a total of 3 times. The cookies should be golden, crisp around the edges and the middles should be just set with chocolate puddles throughout. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on their baking trays for 10 minutes, before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to further cool slightly, before serving. 

My notes:
1. I used sea salt, as the recipe did not specify. Seemed fine, table salt probably would've worked too.

2. I followed the recipe exactly --- melted butter on stove, wooden spoon, add dry ingredients in 2 batches

3. I used a mix of 61% and 85% chocolate, also used an extra large egg (not just large). I felt that the cookie dough was quite sweet so the extra dark chocolate worked great.

4. These came out delicious, after about 9.5 minutes. They deflated, whereas the pictures from the blog show a puffier cookie. I may need to check my baking powder and baking soda as they are older-- and maybe I went too far with the banging? I also made the cookies slightly larger, which I probably wouldn't do again because of the spread.

5. I will make these again for sure. I love the spelt in these cookies.