This recipe has different techniques whereas you start with cold butter, a bit like making pastry.  The end result for these biscuits is the best I have made.  This is a recipe created by Thomas Keller so who is going to complain or even modify it??

The biscuits will help put a smile on your face, which is what we all need on this 'grey' summers day!!

Makes 20

Ingredients 2 ½ cups plain white flour ¾ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 145g chocolate buttons 145g 70 to 72% chocolate, cut into chip-sized pieces 225g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces 1 cup packed dark brown sugar, preferably molasses sugar ¾ cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs Method

Position the oven racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 180`C. Line two baking sheet with baking paper.

Sift the flour with the baking soda into a medium bowl. Stir in the salt. Put the ½ the cold butter into the bowl of an electric mixer, beat on medium speed until fairly smooth.

Add both sugars and the remaining butter, and beat until well combined, then beat for a few minutes, until the mixture is light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until the first one is incorporated before adding the next and scraping the bowl as necessary. Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed to combine. Mix in the chocolate. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold the dough with a spatula to be sure that the chocolate is evenly mixed through.

The dough or shaped cookies can be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 5 days or frozen for up to 2 weeks. Freeze shaped cookies on the baking sheets until firm, then transfer to freezer containers. (Defrost frozen cookies overnight in the fridge before baking). Mould the cookies into either 45g balls or roughly 2 Tablespoons per cookie. Arrange 8 cookies on each tray, leaving about 3cm between them. Bake for 12 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny, switching the position and rotating the trays halfway through baking. Cool the cookies on cooling racks.