Recipe: Crunchy Chocolate Chip Cookies

If your children are fussy about what they get in their lunchboxes, surprise them with a healthy-ish fun side-snack. It will give them a reason to open their dabbas.

Chef Ranveer Brar's delightful Chocolate Chip Cookies, made with brown sugar, are one such irresistible treat.

Filling and super tasty, the cookies can be made days ahead, and be modified to your child's taste or baked more healthy.

Chef Brar, who made it to the 2019 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list, often plays around with the elements of fusion cuisine to produce unique dishes like kiwi chaat or Chocolate Lassi.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Serves: 10-12

• 30 gm cocoa, unsweetened
• 50 ml chocolate syrup
• 150 gm maida or all-purpose flour or refined flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 125 gm softened butter
• 25 gm castor sugar (a kind of finer sugar manufactured by top baking brands)
• 25 gm brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 eggs
• 80 gm chocolate chips
• Butter to grease the baking tray

Method

• In a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda.
  Keep aside.
• In a large bowel, using a hand mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy.
  Keep aside.
• In a third bowl, whisk the eggs, one at a time, until soft peaks form.
  Add it to the butter-sugar mixture.
  Add the vanilla essence.
  Slowly add the flour-cocoa-baking soda mixture.
  Add the chocolate syrup and the chocolate chips.
  Mix well until it's a smooth batter.
• Preheat an oven to 160°C.
• Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out portions of the dough and place on a greased and lined baking tray to get 10-12 cookies.
  Using your fingers, flatten the cookies.
  Bake for 20 minutes at 160°C.
  Take out of the oven and cool on a wire rack.
• The cookies can be stored in an air-tight container and will remain fresh for a few days.

Editor's Note: To bake healthier chocolate chip cookies, consider replacing the castor sugar and brown sugar with jaggery. And replace the maida with whole wheat flour or ragi flour.

To veganise this recipe, swap the eggs for flax seeds -- 1 egg = 1 tbsp ground flax seeds + 3 tbsp water. Use cashew butter instead of regular butter.

Chef Ranveer Brar is an author, television personality and restaurateur with over 25 years of experience in the food industry.

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