Thin & Chewy Cookies
One master dough. Thin, rippled, bendy — and four ways to flavour it.
🌾 Ingredients
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Unsalted butter, melted and cooled to warm | 170 g |
| Neutral oil (rapeseed or sunflower) | 5 g |
| Soft brown sugar, packed Moist (e.g. muscovado), not dry crystal cane sugar. Sift it. | 175 g |
| White sugar | 85 g |
| Bourbon vanilla sugar | 8 g (≈ 1 packet) |
| Vanilla extract or paste | 10 g |
| Whole egg, room temperature | 50 g (≈ 1 egg) |
| Extra egg yolk | 18 g (≈ 1 yolk) |
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Plain flour (W 480 glatt) | 240 g |
| Baking soda | 4 g |
| Baking powder | 1 g |
| Fine sea salt | 4 g |
Flavour
Hand-chopped dark chocolate melts into thin ribbons between the layers.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Dark chocolate (60–70%), hand-chopped From a bar, not chips | 180 g |
The one this dough was built for: caramelised vanilla-butter, white chocolate, cinnamon-sugar crust.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| White chocolate, chopped | 120 g |
| Ground cinnamon | 1.5 g |
| Cream of tartar (optional) Classic snickerdoodle tang | 1.5 g |
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| White sugar | 40 g |
| Ground cinnamon | 4 g |
Browned butter, chocolate chunks and hard toffee shards.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Water or milk Replaces what evaporates while browning | 15 g |
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| Dark or milk chocolate chunks | 100 g |
| Hard butter toffee, chopped | 70 g |
Salted pistachios, white chocolate and a quiet hit of cardamom.
| Ingredient | Amount |
|---|---|
| White chocolate, chopped | 100 g |
| Roasted salted pistachios, chopped | 65 g |
| Ground cardamom | 1 g |
Method
- 1
Fats and sugars, by hand
Sift the brown sugar first — its clumps never dissolve once they hit the butter. Whisk the warm melted butter, oil, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla sugar by hand for about 1 minute until glossy and lump-free. No stand mixer on high: whipped air makes cakey cookies.
Sift the brown sugar first — its clumps never dissolve once they hit the butter. Whisk the warm melted butter, oil, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla sugar by hand for about 1 minute until glossy and lump-free. No stand mixer on high: whipped air makes cakey cookies.
Brown the butter in a saucepan until it smells nutty and shows golden specks, stir in 15 g water or milk to replace what evaporated, and let it cool to warm. Sift the brown sugar — its clumps never dissolve once they hit the butter. Then whisk the butter by hand with the oil, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla sugar for about 1 minute until glossy and lump-free.
Sift the brown sugar first — its clumps never dissolve once they hit the butter. Whisk the warm melted butter, oil, brown sugar, white sugar and vanilla sugar by hand for about 1 minute until glossy and lump-free. No stand mixer on high: whipped air makes cakey cookies.
- 2
Emulsify the eggs
Add the egg, the extra yolk and the vanilla extract. Whisk hard for 30–45 seconds until pale and thick like caramel. Dissolving the sugar a little here gives the shiny, crackled top.
- 3
Fold in the dry mix
Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl. Fold them into the wet mix with a spatula until just combined — stop while a few flour streaks remain.
- 4
Flavour
Fold in the 180 g chopped dark chocolate until just evenly distributed.
Fold in the 120 g white chocolate and 1.5 g cinnamon until just evenly distributed. If you use the optional 1.5 g cream of tartar, whisk it into the dry mix in step 3.
Fold in the 100 g chocolate chunks and 70 g chopped toffee until just evenly distributed.
Fold in the 100 g white chocolate, 65 g pistachios and 1 g cardamom. Keep a few pistachio pieces and chocolate chunks back to press onto each ball so they show after spreading.
- 5
Chill and portion
Cover and chill for 30–45 minutes until scoopable, like play dough. Roll balls of 50 g each — the plain dough makes 15, mix-ins give you a few more.
Cover and chill for 30–45 minutes until scoopable, like play dough. Roll balls of 50 g each — the plain dough makes 15, mix-ins give you a few more. Mix 40 g sugar with 4 g cinnamon and roll every ball generously in it.
Cover and chill for 30–45 minutes until scoopable, like play dough. Roll balls of 50 g each — the plain dough makes 15, mix-ins give you a few more.
Cover and chill for 30–45 minutes until scoopable, like play dough. Roll balls of 50 g each — the plain dough makes 15, mix-ins give you a few more.
- 6
Bake and bang the pan
Preheat to 180 °C top/bottom heat. At most 6 balls per parchment-lined sheet, at least 8 cm apart — they spread a lot. Bake one sheet at a time for 10–12 minutes. For ripples: at minute 9, lift the sheet about 5 cm and drop it flat, then bake the last 1–2 minutes. Pull them while the centres still look pale and soft.
- 7
Let them set on the sheet
Press a pinch of flaky salt onto each cookie straight out of the oven. Leave them on the hot sheet for 5–8 minutes — they set and flatten into fudgy discs — then move them to a rack. Make-ahead: freeze the rolled balls and bake straight from frozen at the same temperature, 1–2 minutes longer.
Leave the cookies on the hot sheet for 5–8 minutes — they set and flatten into fudgy discs — then move them to a rack. Make-ahead: freeze the rolled balls and bake straight from frozen at the same temperature, 1–2 minutes longer.
Leave the cookies on the hot sheet for 5–8 minutes — they set and flatten into fudgy discs — then move them to a rack. Make-ahead: freeze the rolled balls and bake straight from frozen at the same temperature, 1–2 minutes longer.
Leave the cookies on the hot sheet for 5–8 minutes — they set and flatten into fudgy discs — then move them to a rack. Make-ahead: freeze the rolled balls and bake straight from frozen at the same temperature, 1–2 minutes longer.
Version history (3) ▸
- v2.1 — Tested — sift the sugar 2026-10-24 · Stable
Baked and confirmed: thin, rippled and chewy, no more testing needed. One addition: sift the brown sugar before whisking — its clumps never dissolve in the butter and stay as hard sugar spots in the cookie.
No ingredient changes. - v2.0 — No honey, no special sugar 2026-10-22 · Archived
Honey out: even a teaspoon leaves a floral note under the vanilla and cinnamon, and nobody should buy invert syrup for 5 grams. Shifted 15 g from white to soft brown sugar for the same moisture and chew, and added 5 g neutral oil for day-two softness.
Neutral oil (rapeseed or sunflower): +5 g Soft brown sugar, packed: 160 g → 175 g (+15 g) White sugar: 100 g → 85 g (−15 g) Honey: 7 g - v1.0 — Honey draft 2026-10-22 · Archived
First draft: 160 g brown and 100 g white sugar plus a teaspoon of honey as an invert-sugar booster for chew.