Growing up in NZ our chocolate chip biscuits ^[1] were inherently small, crisp and usually contained small chips of chocolate and sweetened condensed milk.
My teens see these as a bit ho hum and instead like the American style cookies,  filled with big chunks of molten chocolate that are delicious when eaten warm and then cool to a crisp on the outside and softish style biscuit.
After playing around with a few recipes including David Leite’s famous 36 hour cookies ^[2] I have come up with a simple recipe that everyone is happy with.

Yield: makes 20 large cookies

Ingredients

• 150g (5.29 oz) butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup (3.7 oz) white sugar
• 1/2 cup (3.7oz) brown sugar (gently pressed into the cup)
• 1 size 7 egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups (8 1/2 oz) standard white flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 250g (8.8oz) chocolate (dark or milk), roughly chopped

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F) and line a tray with baking paper. Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla, mix well. Stir through the combined flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Lastly mix in the chocolate. Drop large scoops (about 40g) of dough on to the baking tray and press with your hands to flatten into a rough disc. Allow room for spreading. Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies are golden on the outside and starting to colour through the middle.  The longer you cook them, the crisper the biscuit will be. Cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container.