Instead of small regular sized cookies, try this XXL format, a giant cookie to share, which makes for a cake with an ultra soft and delicious chocolate chip cookie taste.
It tastes even better if you eat it straight out of the oven without having overcooked it. I will explain below why it is important not to overcook the cookie, you want this cookie cake to be ultra melting in the mouth with chunks of melted chocolate.
This dough for this cake can be prepared in advance, the recipe is super easy, and simple. The cooking time is fast, barely 20 minutes. Put it in the oven when it’s time to eat or half an hour before the children’s snack or a birthday. Perfect no hassle recipe for your kids.
Not just children, by the way, from what I have seen it was a favorite snack fro some teenagers and uni students!
How do you make this giant cookie?
Preparing the dough
Use soft butter that has been left out at room temperature. As I did mine at the last minute, I put the butter by the fire for a while so that it would soften!
The first step is to mix the softened butter and sugar well. If your butter is hard, you will need to mix it well using a mixer to help incorporate butter.
Then add all the other ingredients, in whatever order you like.
The sugar
These cookies taste the best when made with brown sugar but white sugar works just as well.
The chocolate
Use chocolate chips or better yet, roughly crush a chocolate bar. It will be cheaper and you will get larger pieces that won’t blend into the dough as much, which is even better.
Preparing the giant cookie
Spread a thick layer of dough in a pastry circle that is placed on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. The quantity of this recipe is perfect for a 20 cm circle, with a good 2 cm worth of dough thickness.
If you form your cookie into a cake without using a pastry circle, it will spread out when baking and will not be as thick as you can see in these photos.
If you don’t have a pastry circle, use a cake pan such as a springform pan (cake pan) or even a metal pie dish that has been buttered and floured.
The cooking
Make sure not to overcook your cookie. It should still be slightly soft when taken out of the oven because as you know, cookies always harden when cooling.
The same applies for giant cookies. The time may vary from one oven to another but on average the cook you cookie for about 20 minutes at 180°C.
What alternatives are possible for this cookie cake?
Change the chocolate
In this recipe the chocolate used is 100% dark chocolate, but you can use any chocolate you have at home, it could be chocolate bars or cooking chocolate. You may also want to mix types of chocolates, half white chocolate and half milk chocolate like in Cyril Lignac’s cookie recipe.
There are many other possibilities, use only milk chocolate, or only white chocolate, be careful when using white chocolate as your cookie will be much sweeter (reduce either the amount of sugar in the recipe or the amount of white chocolate.)
You may also want to use chocolate spread such as nutella, if you choose to try this out, make sure the chocolate spread you use is very cold and firm so you can form small chunks of chocolate that won’t mix into the dough.
Adding nuts
Go nuts with some nuts! For those who like a little crunch feel free to add some walnuts, pecan nuts or roasted hazelnuts as you would with your brownies.
Dried fruits such as raisins or cranberries work well.
What flavour to add?
Adding aromas: in this recipe I chose to add some vanilla but you can also add some cinnamon, cardamom or some powdered matcha…
My daughters favorite combination is milk chocolate chunks with cranberries
The next giant cookie recipe I am going to test is a white chocolate and matcha cookie recipe.
I will keep you updated and let you know how it was. You can als use your favorite cookie recipes and turn them into a cake instead of cooking small individual cookies.
And now, off we go to make a giant cookie to share, with a soft dough and crunchy crust!
Giant cookie
Ingredients
- 150 gr butter room temperature
- 120 gr brown sugar or white sugar
- 1 egg
- 200 gr flour
- 1 tblsp baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- 150 gr dark chocolate
- a little vanilla optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C. And take the butter out of the refrigerator in advance so that it is soft, but not melted.
- Mix the soft butter and the brown sugar together.
- In no particular order, add the egg, flour, baking powder (or yeast), pinch of salt and possibly a little vanilla. Mix well. The dough should stick a little but that is normal.
- Cut the chocolate into large chunks and mix them into the dough.
- Place a pastry circle on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and form a thick pancake with the cookie dough, distributing the pieces of chocolate all around. If you don't have a pastry circle, put the dough in a buttered and floured cake mould.
- Cook for 20 minutes at 180°C. The cake should have browned but should still slightly soft, like your usual cookies.
