Every sunday my boyfriend and I go for brunch together, and nine times out of ten it’ll be to Gail’s on Abbeville Road. Sometimes, when our Gail’s is full, we even drive to the Clapham Old Town or Northcote Road bakeries to get our fix – it’s that much of a tradition!
When we’re there, we sometimes treat ourselves to a reverse cookie – a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chunks – that are insanely good, but probably so bad for you (and not cheap!) So I decided to give making them at home a go to surprise my boyfriend who doesn’t really like sweet things that much, but loves these cookies.
The cookies are very round but flat, which made me think they were maybe cut from a log before they were baked rather than scooped onto the baking tray, so I searched online for slice-and-bake recipes and then adapted them to fit the Gail’s taste.
I’ve made them twice now – once with one recipe, and then again with a few more changes. The first batch were quite like a shortbread, which wasn’t the right texture for a Gail’s dupe, but they were delicious in their own right. The second time I made them I swapped the sugar for brown sugar to give them a softer texture, but they still were what I had in mind.
I used this master recipe from the genius and endless source of inspiration that is Smitten Kitchen, and made my own tweaks:
Version 1:
230 grams softened unsalted butter
2/3 cup icing sugar
2 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons unsweetened almond milk
1 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
175g white chocolate, cut into chunks
Version 2:
230 grams softened unsalted butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons unsweetened almond milk
1 & 1/3 cups plain flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
200g white chocolate, cut into chunks
Combine wet and dry ingredients, wrap in clingfilm and pop in the fridge for half an hour. Take it out, roll it in a sausage shape (the size depends on how big you want your cookies – I went for large ones, whilst the original recipe got 5 times more biscuits out of her mix by making them much smaller) and put it in the freezer for two hours. Slice, arrange on a baking sheet (they won’t spread at all) and bake until they look just cooker – about 15 minutes at 180C.