Mamma Mia...

...Here I go again! Here I go again with Chocolate Chip Cookies...

I've been a bit busy lately and away from the Blogland, I've been helping a friend who asked for a favour. He's a really good friend so I'm not complaining, but can favours be a bit too big sometimes?

What about cookies? Can cookies be too big?

After I made the Levain Bakery "look-a-like" and the NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies I was cookied out for a while, but of course it didn't last long. I wanted cinnamon chocolate chip cookies and wanted them big! I wanted them really big!

I decided to repeat the big fat Levain cookie (adding cinnamon & pecans) but applying the NY Times method (the fridge waiting period).

HUGE CINNAMON & PECANS CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES (Makes 4)

• 110 gr (4 oz) butter room temperature but not very soft
• 6 tbs sugar
• 6 tbs dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 180 gr (6 1/2 oz) stong/bread flour
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast*
• 1/4+1/8 tspn salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks chopped from a bar (or chips)
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
• Sea salt to sprinkle

Beat butter and both sugars just until they come together. Don’t over-beat. Add the egg and salt and beat just until incorporated. Mix together the flour, cinnamon and yeast* . When thoroughly mixed, add to batter and stir just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Store the dough in the fridge for 24h-48h hours.

Divide dough into 4 large mounds, but keep the mounds kind of raggedy. Sprinkle with sea salt. Bake on pre-heated oven at 190ºC (375º F) for 10m and then reduce the oven to 180ºC (350ºF) and bake 6-10 m more. Cool on sheet for about 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

* About the Instant Yeast: The first time I made the "original" recipe, that I had seen at Cookie Madness I tried with 4 different types of leavenings, one of them being instant yeat, that turned out to be my favourite. This time I divided the dough in 2 and experimented with instant yeast and with a combo of baking powder & baking soda. In the picture above you can see the diference between the 2 (the smaller is the yeast one).

I still prefer the cookie with yeast and that's the version I wrote in the recipe. It makes a really heavy chewy cookie, in a good way! But if you think that might be too much for you, use 1/4 tsp baking soda + 1/4 tsp baking powder instead of the yeast, fot that same recipe.

Next time I'll skip the fridge waiting period, I don't think it made a big diffrence. What I liked about these cookies was the warmth the cinnamon and pecans gave them. And of course, the fact they were huge!

So what do you think? Can a cookie be too big?