🍪 The Cookie Chronicles: How I Perfected My Signature Recipes

When someone says “homemade cookies,” most of us imagine a little old granny in her kitchen, baking for her grandkids. And honestly, that’s the kind of warmth I want people to feel when they eat my OG cookies: Chocolate Chip and Chocolate & Oats.

But the thing I really love about cookies is that they can be anything. They’re small enough that you can experiment wildly with flavours, turn a cookie into the reminder of an ice cream (hello, Rocky Road), a muffin (Lemon & Poppy Seed), or even a season (Pumpkin & Chocolate). Unlike a cake or muffin where you commit to a whole slice, a cookie is a tiny adventure. One bite, and you’ve experienced something completely new. That’s why cookies became my signature product: they’re versatile, playful, and almost always a success.

👩🍳 Testing, Failing, and Tasting

Every recipe starts with testing. My partner Ryan and his family were my first (and very honest) taste testers. They didn’t hold back, and I’m grateful for that, because it pushed me to keep refining.

My first “out there” cookie was the Lemon & Poppy Seed, inspired by one of my favourite muffins. The problem? I could never finish an entire muffin. So, I thought: what if I turned it into a cookie? That way I could have two, feel satisfied, and not waste the rest of a muffin. It took multiple failed batches (finding the right wet-to-dry ratio was tricky), but eventually I nailed it. Today it’s still one of my personal favourites, right next to the Rocky Road, which I adore for the way marshmallows, pecans, and chocolate collide into one fun, texture-packed bite.

Other cookies took just as much fine-tuning. The Spiced Chocolate Cookie was a tug-of-war between me and Ryan over how fiery it should be. As someone who doesn’t handle spice well, I wanted balance. He wanted more heat. The end result is a cookie that delivers a gentle kick but is still deliciously enjoyable.

And then there’s the Orange & Dark Chocolate, my nod to Ryan’s love of Terry’s Chocolate Orange. These personal touches are woven into almost every flavour.

🎁 The OG vs The Wild Box

When I first started, I created a sampler with six flavours. But as my cookie line-up grew, it got harder to choose what made the cut. That’s how the two gift boxes were born.

The OG Box is the “family box”, the classics, the crowd-pleasers, the nostalgic flavours. It includes:

• Chocolate Chip
• Chocolate & Oats
• Caramel Kissed Red
• Spiced Chocolate
• Lemon & Poppy Seed
• Rocky Road
  
  

It’s a box with something for everyone: caramel and marshmallows for the kids, spiced chocolate and lemon for the grown-ups, and timeless chocolatey goodness for all.

The Wild Box is for the adventurous. It includes some of the OG favourites, but also two of my more surprising creations: Pumpkin & Chocolate and Orange & Dark Chocolate. These are less traditional flavours, and while maybe not every child’s first pick, they’re the ones that intrigue people at markets and make them say: “Wow, I didn’t expect that, but it works.”

🍫 Why Callebaut Chocolate?

Cookies are only as good as the ingredients inside them, and chocolate is the heart of most of mine. At SA Chef Academy, I was introduced to Callebaut Chocolate, and I’ve never looked back. It’s smooth, rich, and simply unmatched in taste and texture.

I use it generously in my recipes, but always in balance, enough to shine, without overpowering the cookie’s core flavour. Sometimes I have to stop myself from snacking on the chocolate chips straight from the bag (occupational hazard, right?).

🍪 A Recipe to Try: Chunky Delights’ Chocolate Oat Cookies

Want to try baking one of my classics at home? Here’s a simple version of my Chocolate Oat Cookie recipe, fun to make for yourself or as a baking day project with the kids.

Ingredients (Yields ±24 cookies):

• 281g cake wheat flour
• 100g treacle sugar
• 200g light brown sugar
• 6g salt
• 240g unsalted butter
• 3g baking soda
• 10ml vanilla essence
• 2 large eggs
• 50g cocoa powder
• 150g oats

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C and line a baking tray.
2. Cream together butter, treacle sugar, and light brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs and vanilla, mixing until combined.
4. Sift in flour, cocoa, salt, and baking soda. Mix until just incorporated.
5. Stir in oats until evenly distributed.
6. Scoop spoonfuls of dough onto tray (leave space for spreading).
7. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until edges are set but centres are soft.
8. Cool slightly before transferring to a rack. Enjoy warm or store in an airtight container.

Cookies might have started as simple bakes in my kitchen, but they’ve become the foundation of Chunky Delights. Each one carries a little story, of experiments, family taste tests, or flavours tied to memories. And that’s the joy of a cookie: small, but full of meaning.