The perfect soft & chewy chocolate chip cookies with a special ingredient that takes them over the top!
It’s not difficult to make a good chocolate chip cookie, heck even Pillsbury has the recipe nailed as far as I’m concerned. These cookies are beyond good. They are legendary… at least in my social circle. I’d like to take credit for the recipe, but alas, it’s one of Martha’s. I do make one change to the recipe that is basically a game changer and makes these cookies as amazing as they are.
A girlfriend of mine’s birthday was coming up, and since I’m now a poor pastry student I decided to bake up a batch of these for her.
The recipe calls for your standard chocolate chip cookie ingredients, plus one modification…
The game changer:
Instead of regular old table salt I use sea salt. The chunks don’t dissolve in the cookie dough, which means that each cookie will have a crunchy bit of salt in it. The salt brings out the taste in the cookies and makes them amazing. If you don’t like crunchy bits of salt in your cookies, then by all means, use the plain old table salt and settle for less-than-perfect cookies :).
You can see the recipe below, but here are some progress pictures. Pretty much impossible not to dive into the cookie dough with a spoon. It happens every time.
Look at those perfectly round little scoops!
Heavenly just like this.
Post-baking.
I dare you to eat just one.
The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light-brown sugar packed
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Whisk together flour and baking soda, set aside.
- Beat butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy (approx. 2-3mins). I use my KitchenAid with the paddle attachment, but you can use a hand mixer as well.
- Reduce speed and add (sea) salt, eggs, and vanilla. Beat until combined.
- Add flour mixture a little at a time and mix until just combined (do not overbeat).
- Add in the chocolate chips I toss these right into my mixer but it struggles a bit. If you’re using a hand mixer I’d recommend folding them in with a spoon or spatula.
- Refrigerate cookie dough for at least 3 hours.*
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Use a cookie scoop to drop cookies onto your baking sheet.**
- Bake for about 8-10mins or until golden on the edges, but still gooey in the center.
- Remove from oven. Let cool on pans for 2 minutes, then transfer onto wire racks to cool completely.
- Dive into a cookie as soon as it’s cooled enough to handle.
Notes
**I typically use a medium sized cookie scoop, which is about a tablespoon, but have used the large one as well. I get 12 cookies per sheet with the medium scoop and 8 with the large one.
Lindsey says
i love this recipe! I wanted to make the dough in advance. Any thoughts on how to freeze the cookie dough and then use?
Olivia says
Hi Lindsey! I would portion the dough into balls, refrigerate until firm, then toss them all in a large freezer bag. They will last for months in the freezer. You can bake them from frozen or thaw in the fridge overnight.
Jeremy Pacheco says
Do I have to cool the dough for three hours to get soft and gooey cookies especially since there gonna freshly baked the first taste? If not what are the consequences?
Olivia says
Hi Jeremy! You don’t have to chill the dough, the cookies will just bake up a bit flatter. I like to chill it because I don’t like flat cookies! 🙂
Sonia says
Mine came out dome shaped and not flat
Olivia says
Hi Sonia! Sounds like the dough was too thick — how do you measure your flour? If you dip your scoop into the flour it might be adding more than you need. Ideally you would spoon and level into a measuring cup.
Athena says
I just tried the recipe and I was wondering why mine turned out big. I used an icecream scooper to scoop the dough and plop it on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet. I was hoping for thin ones like your pics. Any advice?
Olivia says
Hi Athena! Sounds like maybe your scoop was bigger than mine? The one I use is about 1.5 Tbsp.
Nissa says
Oooh, I need to buy a cookie scoop now!
livforcake says
It comes in really handy!
sharai grant says
“Dare you to eat just one”. I opened the bag and promptly ate 5!! So good. Thank you! ����
livforcake says
You are most welcome. I hope you had an amazing birthday! I wanna see pics of your chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich ;).