When I first posted this I had only one oven. I now have three, and one of them is still a trusty Breville. I have no partnerships with the company, but I love their toaster ovens and have had so much fun using the different settings on their new Smart Oven. That's why I call these Breville Toaster Oven Chocolate Chip Cookies. You can make them in any oven, but these big fat cookies work well in a toaster. My guess is the heat hits more like bakery oven, so you get really nicely browned cookies.
Since it's a toaster oven recipe, it makes sense to keep the yield pretty small, so this recipe makes 6 giant cookies. Each cookie weighs in at a little under 4 oz, so they're not as big as Levain cookies, but they're still big fat cookies.
Bread Flour and All-Purpose, Pastry or Cake
Over the years I've experimented with different types of flour. Bread flour gives you a tall, stiff cookie with a thicker crust, while all-purpose flour gives you a tall, less stiff cookie with less of a crust than bread flour. Pastry flour gives you a softer cookie, but the cookies tend to spread more. You can also mix bread flour with cake flour which gives you even more contrast between crust and crumb. All of these little texture differences are super subtle. The most important thing is to just use 190 grams of flour. That being said, I've landed on my ultimate favorite flour combo!
High Protein Bread Flour Plus Cake Flour!
The newest and favorite flour combo is a mix of high protein bread flour (Bob's Red Mill artisan) and Swan's Down cake flour. The two flours are complete opposites of each other. One is low protein and one is high, but the end result is a good contrast between crust and crumb. And you'll still get cookies if you bake right away. No chilling required!
Plugra Salted Butter
Also, for the butter I'm (still) using Plugra. It seems easier to find at more stores these days, which is great because it's such a great butter to bake with. As delicious as they are, some of the other higher fat or European style butters don't work as well in baking as Plugra. And I should add that I dialed the butter back to 8 tablespoons. I was using 9, but I accidentally left out a tablespoon and liked the cookies better.
Giant Toaster Oven Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here's the toaster oven I recommend. This is a newer model with a light! They also have one with an air fryer built in. In 2023 I upgraded to the Breville with the air fryer and love it! If it breaks I'll go buy a new one right away. This one is big enough to fit a 9x13 inch pan, has multiple types of baking settings, and even a light.
Recipe
Toaster Oven Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ cups bread flour or use a mixture of bread flour and all-purpose or bread flour and cake (see note for ratios) (190 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into chunks (114 grams)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup packed brown sugar (65 grams)
- ⅓ cup granulated, scant (60 grams)
- 1 large cold egg lightly beaten with a fork
- ½ cup assorted chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat a convection toaster oven to 400 or a regular oven to 410 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, thoroughly mix together the flour (or flours), baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, using a hand held electric mixer or the paddle of a stand mixer, beat the cold butter until creamy. Beat in vanilla and both sugars and continue to beat for 3 to 4 minutes, scraping the side of the bowl every minute or so.
- Add the egg and beat until blended, scraping side of bowl.
- Using lowest speed of mixer (or by hand), stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until it is almost fully blended. Stir in the chocolate chips and mix until fully blended.
- Divide dough into 6 large balls. To give them a roughed up look, break each in half and pat halves together with broken sides showing.
- You can chill the dough or bake right away.
- Convection Baking: Bake cookies one or two at a time on a parchment lined tray at 400 degrees F. for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, lower heat to 330 and bake for another 5 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool for at least an hour before serving. They need time to set.
- You can also bake these in a regular oven. I've had success with 410 degrees for 15 minutes in a Blue Star. Again, you have to give the cookies time to cool. And if dough is chilled, bring it to room temperature or put it in cold and expect it to take a little longer.
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