Buttery, soft, chewy, pockets of chocolate, sweet and warm. Chocolate chips cookies are just perfection. This wonderful byproduct of an accident by Chefs Ruth Graves and Sue Brides in 1938 has been a true blessing to us all. It gives us joy. It gives us comfort. When you scarf down many in one session, as I do, it gives you some extra lbs on the scale. But, who cares about that? It tastes too good to care about the repercussions.
There are many ways to make chocolate chip cookies. None are wrong per-say, but I certainly prefer my cookies a certain way. I like my cookies soft and chewy. They don't have to be that way all the way around, but the majority and the middle of the cookie should definitely be easy to eat. If the outside is a tiny bit crispy, I won't complain. I love chocolate. The cookies should be studded with chocolate. I'm talking chocolate chips and pockets of chocolate. I'm talking melted chocolate oozes out when you break one in half. That's how I like it. There are some recipes that use molasses. That's perfectly fine and that ingredient does produce a soft cookie, but molasses is expensive! What I love about my recipe is it hits all MY bullet-points. It produces soft and chewy, chocolatey cookies. The flavor is on point and is what a chocolate chip cookie should be. It's tremendously easy to make, as well. However, if I'm being honest, most cookies are very easy to make, but I'll talk about that some other time. Lastly, no molasses is necessary. So you can spend your well-earned money on the more important ingredient...chocolate. My cookies turn out great every time with this recipe. I'm sure it'll become you're go-to, once you give it a try.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, begin creaming the softened, unsalted butter and both the granulated and brown sugar for about five minutes until creamy and lighter in color.
Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl really well. Add in one egg and mix on medium-low speed until combined. When you see the first egg well-absorbed, add in the next egg and vanilla extract. Mix on medium-low speed for a couple of minutes. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl well again.
With the mixer still off, sift together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add in the dry ingredients into the dough all at once. Pulse a few times on the lowest speed until a lot of the flour is absorbed. A lot of flour will still show though.
Take the bowl off of the machine and add all the chocolate chips and chunks in. Use a rubber spatula to fold in the flour and chocolate. I use a stabbing motion to mix it in. This allows me to not overmix.
Cover the bowl with saran wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. You can also freeze it for a few hours, then thaw it out before baking. The cooling of the dough for 24 hours, at least, is vital. It helps with the flavor. It helps with how the cookies spread. It helps with rolling the dough. It even helps with the coloring. So, in general, cool the dough before baking!
Prepare the cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Spray with cooking spray. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Use an ice cream scoop to portion out the cookies. Place the dough into your palms and form balls. Place the balls on the prepared pan and use your fingers to press down slightly.
Place the cookies a few inches apart. The cookies tend to spread quite a bit so please take note of that.
Bake at 350°F and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. Take the pan out of the oven and leave the cookies on the pan for a few minutes to continue baking. Move the cookies to a wire rack to cool slightly. Enjoy warm. Please note: the cookies below were only the freezer for about 20-30 minutes due to the constraints in shooting the video. The ones in the photos that follow were in the fridge overnight. You can see the color difference and the difference in spreading. So once again, be sure to refrigerate overnight!
See how I do it:
Ingredients
- 2 ½ sticks (1 ¼ cups) unsalted butter
- 1 ¼ cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
- 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
- 2 cups minus 2 tablespoons (8 ½ ounces) cake flour
- 1 ⅔ cups (8 ½ ounces) bread flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt
- 1 ¼ pounds bittersweet, semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips and chunks (Use a good brand)
- Pinch of sea salt
Instructions
Sift all the dry ingredients together in a large bowl and set aside.
Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until lighter in color and fluffier in texture, about 5 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Scrape the bowl really well.
Stir in the vanilla and mix on medium-high speed for a minute or two. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl.
Turn the mixer off. Add the dry ingredients all at once. Pulse until just combined, about 10-15 seconds.
Add in the chocolate all at once. Unhook the bowl from the mixer and use a rubber spatula to combine everything. Use a "stabbing motion" to incorporate the flour into the dough. Don't overmix. Just combine until enough. A bit of flour can still remain visible.
Cover the chocolate chip cookie dough with plastic wrap, making sure to press the wrap against the dough, refrigerate for at least 24 hours.
Remove the dough from the fridge and let the dough thaw until you can handle it, but it's not at room temp.
Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Prepare your cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Spray with cooking spray well.
Use a cookie scoop (ice cream scoop) to scoop out mounds of dough. Form the dough between the palms of your hands. Place the balls on the sheet and press the tops down lightly with your fingers. Give enough space between each dough ball, as the cookies will spread a bit. Sprinkle very lightly with sea salt on top of the cookies.
Bake for 10-14 minutes or until lightly golden brown around the edges. Rotate the pan halfway between at about the 6-7 minute mark. Remove the pan from the oven and leave the cookies on the sheet for about five more minutes to continue the baking. After the five minutes, use a spatula to move to a wire rack to cool until warm.
Enjoy warm!
Notes
You can refrigerate the remaining dough for about a week or freeze the dough. It'll last for a couple months in the freezer. Wrap really well. I use Ghirardelli chocolate. It's great tasting and pretty reasonable. Use a good brand of chocolate, because you'll taste cheap chocolate.