This is based on the “Pittsburgh” cookie in Bayesian Optimization for a Better Dessert with even less sugar and other tweaks. That is an industrial recipe, so this version works well if you dump everything in a bowl and mix. It is a good recipe to make with kids.

Skeptical about the chilli? Divide your dough and make some cookies with and some without. The chilli makes the cookies compulsively more-ish.

Ingredients

• 136g butter, melted
• 107g flour
• 60g oat flour, which you can make by milling oatmeal in your blender into a powder
• 55g muscavado sugar, or brown sugar... or any kind of sugar
• ½ tsp salt, even medium coarse salt works well
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 50g egg, if you have more than 50g, use all of the yolk first
• ⅓ tsp vanilla essence
• ⅓ tsp orange essence
• two dashes of cayenne pepper, or ½ tsp chilli powder 🌶️
• 254g chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.
2. In a mixing bowl, add all ingredients except the chocolate chips. Mix well.
3. Add the chocolate chips and mix briefly to distribute them.
4. Using a tablespoon measure, scoop out crude balls and place on baking trays.
5. Bake until light brown, about 20 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Tips

• 🚫 Don't introduce the egg to hot melted butter: The butter will cook the egg and you will get a mixture of cookie dough and scrambled egg. I soften butter in a 500W microwave over for one minute, which is not very hot, add the flour, then the egg.
• 🚫 Don't mix the butter and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Without some sugar crystals, the surface texture of the cookie suffers. And we're already using a fine sugar.
• 🚫 Don't roll the cookies into smooth balls. This makes the cookie surface smooth and less crunchy. Before baking the cookies should look very rough and forlorn.