In a coffee mug or small bowl, melt the butter and cool.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix dry ingredients with a fork to combine. Set aside.

Add cooled butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on medium speed until creamy, approx 2 minutes.

Add egg and egg yolk to the butter mixture. Mix to combine. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

One cup at a time, gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in the stand mixer. Start mixing at low speed so flour doesn't fly out everywhere - then increase speed to medium until dry ingredients are just incorporated. No need to overmix.

Pour chocolate chips and chocolate candies into dough, and mix on low speed until fully incorporated.

Optional step: refrigerate dough for a few hours. This will help the cookies be extra thick and chewy - beautiful, bakery-style gigantic cookies. But the cookies are still good without this extra fridge step. Your call.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Set aside.

Spoon dough onto prepared baking sheets. Big spoonfuls are key here - smaller cookies will not achieve the same texture as large cookies for this recipe. Use approx 1/4 cup of cookie dough for each cookie. I usually get 5 cookies per cookie tray.

Bake cookies (1 tray at a time) for 15-20 minutes at 325 degrees F. Take them out of the oven when the edges are golden and slightly crispy and centers are just set.

Wrap up the cookies for your Valentines! Or, eat them yourself. I always make a double batch. ;)