Bake

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies With Rainbow Fennel Seeds

by:
June  6, 2019
5
5 Ratings
Photo by Rocky Luten
  • Prep time 15 minutes
  • Cook time 15 minutes
  • Makes 12 fat cookies
Author Notes

I love the malted nuttiness that candied fennel seeds give cookies, not to mention their bitter aniseed flavor. In my mind it's that candy coating, the same way M&Ms somehow lend their own taste to cookie dough (beyond just chocolate). But these are just theories. Speaking of which, feel free to replace the 1/2 cup fennel seeds (which you can buy on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com...) with M&Ms. Don't skimp on whipping the butter, sugar, and eggs for the full 10 minutes—that's how you'll get the gorgeous crinkles and unutterable chewiness, which is my preferred chocolate chip cookie texture.

Adapted slightly from "Jaay's Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies." —Eric Kim

Test Kitchen Notes

Featured in: I'm Gay & I Bake. But Does That Make Baking 'Gay'? —The Editors

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Ingredients
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, absolutely at room temperature
  • 1 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon pure vanilla
  • 1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup rainbow candy-coated fennel seeds
  • Flaky sea salt, for topping
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Sift the dry ingredients (flour and baking soda) and set aside.
  3. Cream the butter and sugars for a good 5 minutes; add the vanilla, eggs, and salt and cream for another 5 minutes. To these wet ingredients, stir in the dry ingredients, along with the chocolate chips and fennel seeds.
  4. Scoop dough with a medium-sized ice cream scoop onto a couple half-sheet pans lined with parchment paper (these are pretty fat cookies, so space them out, 6 to a pan).
  5. Place both sheet pans in the oven and bake cookies for 15 minutes. Once out of the oven, top cookies with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt.

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Eric Kim was the Table for One columnist at Food52. He is currently working on his first cookbook, KOREAN AMERICAN, to be published by Clarkson Potter in 2022. His favorite writers are William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and Ernest Hemingway, but his hero is Nigella Lawson. You can find his bylines at The New York Times, where he works now as a writer. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @ericjoonho.

2 Reviews

Monique September 6, 2020
These are a dream!
chowter May 5, 2020
These are incredible. The fennel seeds and the chocolate are a delicious combination!