Gordon Ramsay’s chocolate chip cookies are loaded with dark chocolate chunks and chopped walnuts, ready in under 20 minutes. Baked at 200°C for just 8 to 10 minutes, the edges go golden while the centres stay soft. The recipe makes about 28 from butter, brown sugar, egg, flour, and a pinch of sea salt.
The recipe comes from Bread Street Kitchen, in the “In Between Meals” chapter alongside his chocolate brownies and biscotti. Ramsay says “adding nuts to chocolate chip cookies makes them that little bit healthier, so you can feel less guilty.” If you want that guilt gone entirely, his oatmeal cookies skip butter, flour, and sugar.
The technique that sets these apart is the temperature. Ramsay bakes at 200°C, a full 25 degrees hotter than most recipes suggest. That blast of heat sets the edges quickly while the middle stays raw, so you get crisp outside and chewy inside.
Gordon Ramsay’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
Course: DessertsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy28
cookies10
minutes10
minutes136
kcal20
minutesWalnut chocolate chip cookies from the Bread Street Kitchen cookbook. Dark chocolate chopped into irregular chunks for that mix of gooey and solid in every bite. Around 136 kcal per cookie and roughly 10p each at current Tesco prices.
Ingredients
110g (4 oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
180g (6½ oz) light soft brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
190g (6¾ oz) plain flour
Pinch of sea salt
90g (3 oz) walnuts, chopped
180g (6½ oz) dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
Directions
- Preheat: Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan / Gas 6 / 400°F). Grease three baking sheets.
- Cream: Put the butter and sugar into a large bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Mix in the beaten egg.
- Combine: Sift over the flour and salt, and fold in until combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts and chocolate chunks until evenly distributed.
- Shape: Use a tablespoon to scoop out walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll them roughly into balls between your hands. Place on the baking sheets about 5cm apart and press down with a fork to flatten.
- Bake: Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges and still soft in the middle.
- Cool: Cool slightly on the baking sheets, then using a spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay chop a chocolate bar instead of using chips?
He uses 180g of dark chocolate chopped into small irregular chunks, not a bag of chips. Chips are designed to hold their shape in the oven because they contain stabilisers, so they look neat but don’t melt into the dough properly. Chunks from a real bar melt unevenly, which gives you that mix of gooey and solid chocolate in every bite.
It also means you choose the cocoa percentage. A 70% dark bar gives you a more bitter, grown-up cookie than standard supermarket chips, which tend to sit around 45%.
Why does Ramsay bake at 200°C when most recipes say 175°C?
At 175°C, the butter melts slowly, the cookie spreads, and the edges and centre cook at roughly the same pace. You get an even, flat biscuit. At 200°C, the outside sets fast while the inside is still raw.
By the time you pull them at 8 to 10 minutes, the edges are golden and crisp but the centre is barely set. It firms up as it cools on the tray, which is why Ramsay says to cool them slightly on the baking sheets before transferring.
Can you freeze the dough for later?
Ramsay includes a specific freezer technique in the headnote: roll the raw dough into a log, wrap it in cling film, and keep it in the freezer for when friends turn up unexpectedly. Slice the frozen log into 1cm rounds and bake straight from frozen, adding a couple of extra minutes to the cooking time.
The dough keeps for up to a month. His rosemary shortbread from the same Bread Street Kitchen chapter freezes just as well, so you can stock both in the freezer and have two completely different biscuits ready to go.
Do you have to use walnuts?
Ramsay’s version includes 90g of chopped walnuts, but he says you can swap them for hazelnuts, pistachios, or almonds. The nuts add crunch and break up the sweetness of the brown sugar and chocolate.
If you want a pure chocolate chip cookie without nuts, leave them out. The dough holds up fine, though you lose that crunch contrast. If you like the nutty direction, his peanut butter and jam cookies from Ultimate Home Cooking build the whole dough around peanut butter instead.
