Walnut crumble and dark chocolate cookies

A golden crunchy edged cookie, rich with the addictive flavour of brown butter; a chewy core rippled with pieces of nutty brown sugar walnut crumble and chunks of dark chocolate. Finished with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, and served with a not-compulsory-but-highly-recommended dollop of soft vanilla ice cream and more walnut crumble.

I adore cookies. A well made cookie is a thing to be respected, admired and adored; a beautiful medley of textures and flavours. Developing my perfect cookie was the first lengthy baking endeavor I challenged myself to–I became obsessed with learning about how altering the ratios of brown sugar to white sugar in a recipe can produce an entirely different cookie texturally; how the amount of butter in a cookie, and how it is incorporated, can produce something incredibly lacey and crisp-edged, or something very cakey and fluffy; how utilising different types of flour, and harnessing the powers of baking powder and/or baking soda can help you achieve a cookie more complex in both texture and flavour. It is a never ending hyper focus for me.

This particular cookie recipe was developed out of a craving for a crunchy cookie with a chewy core. I had surplus walnut crumble that I had made for another recipe, and I thought that it would lend an delicious depth of flavour and textural element to a cookie–I was right. I made a brown butter cookie dough which I gently mixed the crumble into, along with some roughly chopped chunks of 70% dark chocolate, and then let the dough rest in the fridge for 24 hours. Baked until the edges are a rich golden, with the core still close to the colour of cookie dough, and sprinkled with flaky sea salt and more pieces of crumble as soon as they came out of the oven. It was exactly the cookie that I was craving.

The crumble recipe makes more than is used in the dough, with the thinking being that the extra could be sprinkled onto the baked cookies. If you still have some leftover, it keeps well in a sealed jar for 1-2 weeks, stored in the fridge, and is delicious on top of yogurt and ice cream.