The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You’ll Ever Eat
My dentist says I “have a sweet tooth,” but truth be told - they’re all sweet.
I’ve been around the block when it comes to baking cookies. I’ve heard lots of little tricks, and I’ve tried them all: use bread flour… try light brown sugar… maybe dark brown sugar would be better… how about more/less baking soda?… and maybe the most important of the things that I have done extensive research on - what to do with the butter! I’ve found the butter is best when brown. I’m not trying to bore you - let’s get to it!!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup Bread Flour
3/4 cup AP Flour
2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 cup (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter
1 cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Egg + 1 Egg Yolk
5oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
3oz Dark Chocolate Chunks (this round I used PB chips instead!)
BAKE
Bake at 350° for 12 minutes
Makes 24 cookies… plus a couple tablespoons of top-notch, heigh end, raw cookie dough - FEED ME!!
STEP ONE: BUTTER
There is a fine line between “brown” butter and BURNT butter - the best advice that I can give is DO NOT WALK AWAY. Even if you think you’ve got it covered - you don’t. Cut your butter up into chunks and put them in a small pan, over medium heat. The butter will melt, and then after a couple of minutes, start to get kind of foamy. This is where you need to watch it. Stir it up every 30 seconds or so. When you start smelling a “nutty” smell - that’s it - get it off the heat.
Put the butter into a measuring cup, and let the foam die down. When the butter has cooled, you’ll notice it’s not quite a full cup anymore… some of the water has boiled off and you’re just left with those beautiful, brown milk solids. Yum. Make up the difference by filling the cup up to “1 CUP” line with water.
STEP TWO: WET
Fire up your KitchenAid mixer if you have one, it makes this a breeze.
Now that our butter has cooled down to room temp (I even pop it in the fridge if I’m in a hurry), mix the butter in with sugars and vanilla extract. Mix this together for a minute, and then add the eggs. Add them one at a time, that’s a lot of liquid to be absorbed into the sugar, give it a chance to mingle. Mix it well. This will get you something that smells good enough to quit there… but keep going!
STEP THREE: DRY
In a separate bowl, mix together your flours, salt, and baking soda. When you’ve got them all well-incorporated, we’re going to combine them with the wet ingredients. I like to take the bowl off the KitchenAid at this point, and go from here with just a spatula. Once you start adding in the dry stuff, DO NOT OVER MIX. If you beat the hell out of it here, your cookies will be flat and hard. The more you mix, the more air you add into the dough. When they get baked, they’ll puff up, and then crash.
It’s okay to have SOME flour left in your mix. Just combine the ingredients with as little mixing as possible. Also remember - you’ve still got to stir in the chocolate chips.
STEP FOUR: CHOC.CHIPS
I ALWAYS think “man, that’s WAY TOO MANY chocolate chips.” Spoiler alert - it’s the perfect amount. Like I said, this is not my first cookie-making rodeo. Just add all the chocolate and send me a ‘thank you’ card later.
STEP FIVE: SCOOP
DO NOT try to put the guys in the oven just yet. They have to cool down in the fridge for at least an hour - overnight if you can wait. If you can leave them until tomorrow before you bake them - you’ll be rewarded, BIG TIME.
I scoop as many as I can on to ONE baking sheet. They’re all crowded together, but it doesn’t matter - we’re not baking yet. I repeat - DO NOT try to bake these now - they have to cool off for AT LEAST an hour, or I promise you, they will not cook right. I usually get 8 cookies per sheet, and this recipe is enough for 24 cookies. So, I scoop 24 dough balls onto a single silpat-covered cookie sheet, and put them in the fridge. Goodnight.
Pro tip: I’m not trying to tell anyone how to spend their money… but if you’re baking cookies often, get yourself a silpat. You’ll save yourself so much parchment paper, and never need to scrape a baking sheet off again. Great for sheet cakes too.
STEP SIX: BAKE
Take your cold cookie balls, spread them 8 to a pan, and bake them at 350° for 12 minutes. When they come out, I let them cool on the pan for a couple of minutes, and then move them to a wire rack. They are ready to eat immediately, but let them solidify a little more, because you’ll look like an idiot trying to pick up a liquid cookie. Wait 5 minutes, it’s enough time to grab a glass of milk and think about some of the mistakes that you’ve made today. Enjoy.
