Best Damn Chocolate Chip Drop Biscuits

By Chef Thobeka Shangase

I don’t like a crispy biscuit, I prefer to bite my teeth down on a soft biscuit and these cookies are just that. They are the best damn cookies without a doubt, I love these to bits, and they are awesome. They’re soft, slightly chewy and loaded with chocolate. The secret ingredient in these cookies is the instant pudding mix that is what gives them their amazing texture and softness.

I like to make them a little extra special by adding in a variety of chocolate chips, I add in dark chocolate chips, with semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips. The combination of these is outstanding because you have the dark bitter chocolate which is then balanced of by the sweet milk chocolate and the semi-sweet chocolate just makes the transition from rich bitterness to sweetness a lot easier.

This is sheer indulgence and is a labour of love, but if you don’t feel like doing it my way, because lets face it this is an expensive exercise, rather add 4 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips into the mixture and it will be just as great.

Best Damn Chocolate Chip Drop Cookies

4 ½ cups cake flour

2 packets instant vanilla pudding mix

10 ml bicarbonate of soda

4 eggs

500ml butter, softened

10 ml vanilla extract

1 ½ cups packed brown sugar

2 cups dark chocolate chips

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

125ml white sugar

500ml walnuts, chopped

Preheat oven to 175º.

In a bowl sift together the flour and bicarbonate of soda and set aside.

In another large bowl cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the instant pudding and beat until well blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla.

Mix in the flour mixture and finally stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. 

The dough is wet so use a spoon to drop the cookies. Drop the dough into a baking tray that hasn’t been greased. You put 2 cups of butter into the mixture so you don’t actually need to grease your tray. You may use those great silicone mats if you like.

This mixture makes 24 cookies so I use a couple baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, keep a close eye on the cookies after 10 minutes, the difference between a soft cookie and a dry one is a split second with this recipe. So watch them closely, the edges should a lovely golden brown and that is when they are ready, not a dark golden brown, they will be dry.