My pursuit of the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe has lasted as long as the time it takes from the moment I enter the gym until I leave. In other words, forever.
These cookies have me torn.
For years I’ve been cooking up new and different versions: brown butter or creamed; white or brown sugar; with or without baking soda; with chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. A million versions, some of which were super successful and others a little less so.
Each time I bring the new batch to work and everyone raves about how great they turned out, I taste them again, but I’m never satisfied with the result, something’s always missing.
And then I made these. Quite by accident.
I was looking for a delicious, quick, no-mixer recipe to bring to a meeting. I knew one thing: I didn’t have time to soften or cream the butter, or make a second chance batch if these turned out wrong since I only had two hours.
So what could I do?
Simple. Make these cookies that I adore, and appeared two years ago in the first video I ever uploaded online.
They didn’t turn out perfect that first time, but I knew their dough was the closest to what I was looking for: a combination of a delicately crisp bottom and a slightly cakey, risen texture in the center.
And, to give these an upgrade, I decided on 3 alterations – the addition of baking soda, using dough balls instead of flattening them on the pan, and using chopped chocolate instead of chocolate chips (explanation below).
The second they came out of the oven, I could feel this was it—the marbled look, the large chocolate cubes alongside smaller dots, the cookie height that left the middle soft, and the aroma that had spread throughout the house left no room for doubt—I was in love.
So now that I’ve calmed down, it’s your turn to fall in love with these chocolate chip cookies. And to read the 10 most important rules for making great cookies. Don’t skip the list – the tips there explain the logic behind the preparation and why something was done this way and not another.
10 Rules for Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
1. There is no need to cream the butter. Creaming produces cookies that are too fluffy and chewy. The faster version, that doesn’t use a mixer, is better in my opinion.
2. Combining white and brown sugar does 2 things: after cooling, the white sugar makes the cookies crunchy and firm, while the brown sugar adds a subtle butterscotch flavor and a brown color. I tried increasing the amount of brown sugar at the expense of the white and the cookies came out overly chewy, a texture I don’t like but is absolutely possible for those who want a deeper caramel flavor.
3. It is really important to use high-quality vanilla extract. If you don’t have any, simply omit the vanilla. Do not use vanilla-flavored extract.
4. It is important to use baking soda, which produces the delicate crispness on the bottom.
5. My most important tip regarding chocolate chip cookies – chop the chocolate from a bar so that you get pieces of various sizes, with the larger ones becoming soft and chewy mounds and the smaller ones giving the dough its tone and sweetness. You can also use high-quality chocolate coins.
6. M&M’s or nuts add a very fun crunch, but are not mandatory.
7. The longer the dough stays in the refrigerator or freezer (up to 3 days in the refrigerator and several months in the freezer), the better and tastier the cookies will be.
8. There is a lot of chocolate in this in relation to the dough, which is super critical for delicious, chocolatey cookies.
9. Another very, very important rule is not to knead the dough before baking. This will produce a cookie that is too thin, without substance or the soft inside.
10. I like cookies that are a little crispy on the sides and a little soft on the inside. To get them that way, bake them for 12 minutes, no more, and allow the cookies to cool outside until they are completely cool before transferring them to a sealed container. You can also bake them for 10 minutes, and they will be softer and more indulgent. Just give them a few minutes to cool because they are super soft when they come out of the oven.