Old dog, new trick

I make chocolate chip cookies often. My go-to recipe is simple, though I’ve played with it in many ways (surprise, surprise). I’ve added coffee, corn syrup, corn starch, varied the chocolate, changed the flour, patted it into bars…

This one is different. The liquid component is a can of sweetened condensed milk. The original recipe called for half a tin, and was in British measures. When I converted it, I also doubled it because honestly, I didn’t know what I’d do with half a can of the stuff (we already have dulce de leche). After playing around a bit, this is what I came up with. The kids have pronounced them ‘amazing’ (especially dipped in cold milk). They are dense and have a texture similar to a rich shortbread cookie. The semi-sweet chocolate makes it, and I think a little orange zest should go into my next batch.

Quality chocolate makes a difference

Speaking of chocolate, I have discovered Camino baking chocolate and chocolate chips. They are Canadian, organic, fair trade and nut-safe (their candy bars are not, however). There are no fillers, emulsifiers or other things in them. And you can tell. They taste amazing. Not at all waxy or unpleasantly bitter.

I used a combination of chopped chocolate and chocolate chips, not to be fancy, but because I got confused and thought the chips were milk chocolate and the bar was bittersweet. I really need to read the labels better. Both are semi-sweet. Both are wonderful in this cookie, but I think using half bittersweet would be amazing. If I find some, I’ll try that the next time.

Condensed Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 Cups  butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 tsp pure vanilla
5 cups flour
2 Tbsp baking powder
1tsp salt
2 Cups dark chocolate chips (or chopped dark chocolate)

Pre-heat the oven to 350F and line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla together in the bowl of an electric mixer until pale and smooth.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, and chocolate and mix thoroughly until combined. Make sure to get to the bottom, where it may be a bit crumbly.

Using a tablespoon as a measure, pat the dough into balls in your hand, flattening them slightly, and place them on the sheets, leaving  a bit of space between them to spread (they don’t spread much, and the dough behaves rather a bit like some shortbread doughs I’ve worked with).

Bake for 12 minutes or until slightly golden.

Leave the cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Any unbaked dough can be frozen for future baking.

Makes 60-75 cookies, depending on how well you’re able to keep them all about the same size.

*Disclosure – Camino Chocolates probably doesn’t even know about my blog, and have not paid me or given me free chocolate (though I would not turn down an offer of their product). I just really love their chocolate. Especially the fact that their high quality baking products are safe for our peanut allergic son.