Rocky Road Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies

Pepperidge Farm is my peg for the best chewy, not commercialised tasting chocolate chip cookies. Even if it costs me more than twice as much as the other "blah" cookies out there, I'll definitely pick up a bag of Pepperidge Farm. Believe me, it's way much better than any bag of Chips Ahoy or Keebler that you see in the grocery stores here in Manila. Not all of their cookie selections are made available in our groceries, and that is a very sad fact for someone who had been to their bakery outlet store in Norwalk, CT with thousands of bags of irresistible cookies one could ever find in one place, all within reach, ready to be purchased and eaten heartily.

I've been searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe for the longest time and have tried each and every interesting recipe that came across saying they are chewy. Some had been too sweet, while some had been a tad bit dry and not chewy at all. After trying a number of recipes, I came across the one from Eat Yourself Skinny which I can guarantee as a no-fail and definitely sinfully satisfying. It's really easy that I don't even need the help of our trusty KitchenAid, and it uses egg whites (points for guilt-free here!). This is my go-to basic chocolate chip recipe, and from this, I've been tweaking it and coming up with different variations such as this Rocky Road Toffee version.

Rocky Road Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies  

(Adapted from Eat Yourself Skinny) 

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons salted butter, softened

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

1 large egg white

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1/4 cup mini marshmallows

1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1/4 cup cubed chewy toffee candies

1/4 cup chopped walnuts

This recipe yields about 2 dozens of cookies more or less.

1. Preheat oven at 150C. Prepare all your ingredients so that everything is within reach. The butter should be softened at room temperature (melted butter is entirely different). The brown sugar should be packed enough to form the shape of your measuring cup once you put it in the mixing bowl. The all-purpose flour should be measured using the fluff-scoop-sweep method (in short, don't pack your flour in the cup similar to your brown sugar - just fluff your flour in its container, scoop flour to your measuring cup, then with the clean handle of your spatula, sweep of the excess which will level your flour to the desired measure from your cup).

2. In your mixing bowl, cream together the softened butter, oil and sugar. You can do this by hand (yes, no need for an electric mixer for this recipe!).

3. Once combined, add in the vanilla, salt and egg white, then mix thoroughly. You will start getting a gooey mixture here.

4. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, pinch of salt, cocoa powder and instant coffee powder. Using a sieve, sift them altogether into your mixing bowl with the gooey batter.

5.  Stir until the dry ingredients are combined. Be careful not to over mix it.

6. Add the mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, toffee candies and chopped walnuts. Stir evenly to distribute throughout.

7. On a baking sheet with a nonstick mat (commonly used is the Silpat brand which is a bit expensive, but I got my nonstick mat from Gourdo's at a very much affordable price which also does the work), drop teaspoonfuls of the batter, leaving about 2 inches of space in between each cookie.

8. Bake the cookies until the edges are set and the middles are still soft, which is about 10 minutes. It's okay for the middle to be soft as if they are a bit raw because the cookie will continue to bake while it's still hot even outside the oven. Don't over bake as otherwise, your cookies will turn out crunchy and not chewy the way we wanted it to be.

9. Remove from the oven and leave them on the sheet for 5 minutes before taking them out and letting them cool completely on a wire rack.

These cookies are best served when freshly baked. I like it with a glass of cold milk.