Description
Soft and chewy, perfectly sweet, and loaded with chocolate, these cookies are irresistible. I’ve been making them for over 20 years. The original recipe appeared in a 2003 Fine Cooking Magazine.
Notes:
- This recipe halves beautifully, too. When I make a half batch, I use two teaspoons of vanilla, and I use a scant teaspoon of kosher salt.
- Chocolate Chips: Honest Weight Food Coop no longer sells the chocolate wafers I loved so much for these cookies, and while I can find them online, they are astronomically expensive. I’ve been liking the Guittard Super Cookie Chips for these, but because they are slightly larger, I find I need to use more like 15 ounces of chips.
- Gluten Free: Cup4Cup Gluten-Free Flour works great here as a 1:1 swap for the flour.
- Sheet pans + parchment: I recently purchased 2 new sheet pans, which I have designated for cookies only, as well as a stash of parchment paper sheets (so handy!).
Ingredients
- 305 grams (1 1/3 cups) butter, softened, unsalted or salted (I always use salted)
- 290 grams (1½ cups packed) light brown sugar
- 220 grams (1 cup) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 13 grams (1 tablespoon) pure vanilla extract
- 482 grams (3¾ cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 9 grams (1.5 teaspoons) Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 6 grams (1 teaspoon) baking soda
- 340 grams (12 oz ) to 425 grams (15 oz) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (see notes above)
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling, optional
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl, beat again on high for one minute. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla, and beat until well blended, about another minute on medium-high speed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the mixer and beat very briefly, until just blended. Add the chocolate chips and stir till combined. The dough will be stiff.
- Portion the dough into 48-gram balls. This is a tedious task, but it makes for beautiful and uniform cookies that bake evenly. If you have a digital scale, this is easy; if you have no scale, use a small ice cream scoop or some other uniform measuring device —you should get 35-36 balls.
- Chill the portioned balls in an airtight bag or container for at least one hour, but ideally for at least 24 hours. Keep the balls in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for 3 months.
- Preheat Oven:
- Original Method: If you’ve made these cookies before and loved the method, continue to use it. Preheat oven to 375°F. Place portioned balls nicely spaced on an ungreased or parchment-lined sheet pan — I like to bake 6 cookies at a time. Sprinkle with sea salt if using. Bake for 11 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through cooking if your oven tends to have hot spots. Keep a close watch. You want to remove the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly raw—you will think you are removing them too early. The cookies will continue cooking as they sit on the tray out of the oven. Let cookies cool completely on tray before removing.
- Updated Method: I prefer this method as I find the cookies spread a teensy bit more, which I like. Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Place portioned balls nicely spaced on an ungreased or parchment-lined sheet pan — I like to bake 6 cookies at a time. Sprinkle with sea salt if using. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. The cookies will still look slightly underdone when you remove them from the oven. Let the cookies cool completely on the sheet pan before transferring them to a cooling rack.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
