Even though chocolate chip cookies seem like they would be easy to make, to me, they’ve always had this mystical unicorn-like quality to them. Because no matter how hard you try, you really can never perfect it in the same way Tollhouse has. Test kitchens have relentlessly experimented with different combinations of butter, flour, and baking products. Yet no matter what the conclusion is, never once have those recipes proven successful to my *brilliant* chocolate chip cookie secret. Are you ready for it? Before baking the cookies, broil the cookie dough.
I know it sounds so strange, but hear me out. Broiling the dough quickly cooks the outside of the cookie. That way you can still “under bake” the cookies to give them that chewy texture, without ending up with half baked cookie dough on the tops. Truly brilliant, right?
Now I do have to admit to all of you that while broiling the cookie dough is the secret to my success, I am not the original keeper of this secret. It was actually from my brother-in-law, Jesse, who does in fact make even better chocolate chip cookies than I do. Probably because his are the size of hockey pucks.
He found out about this trick through a video over on YouTube years ago, and because of it, he’s made perfect chocolate chip cookies ever since.
I didn’t want to outright copy Jesse’s cookies on here (I’ll let that secret remain a secret) so I went to my cookbooks to find the best recipe—one that uses less than 10 ingredients, of course.
I found that the chocolate chip cookies in Joy of Cooking and BraveTart to be incredibly simple, and surprisingly similar. I respect both of these cookbooks highly (because I know little about baking compared to cooking), so my adapted recipe is a combination of the two. Plus, my broiling trick, of course.
One note about the butter
Now before you bake, I need to be clear about the type of butter used in this recipe. I am a huge fan of having salty chocolate chip cookies, which is why I use *gasp* salted butter. This means I use just a touch less of salt in the actual recipe. But if you’re not a fan of that salty and sweet combination, use unsalted butter and skip sprinkling the tops with salt.
But if you do like salt on your chocolate chip cookies, I highly recommend using salted butter. And topping the cookies with flaky salt, if you have it.
Freeze the dough for later
Don’t feel like making all 20 cookies in one go? Save some cookie dough for later? You can easily freeze the cookie dough balls and pull out whatever amount of cookies you want to bake when you’re ready for them. To bake frozen cookie dough, simply bake it for at least two (maybe three) minutes longer than what the recipes says.
Storing the dough in parchment paper is the easiest way to get the dough balls to not stick. You can also separate them in smaller plastic freezer bags (or small containers) depending on how many you want to portion out at a time.
Or, just make them all at once and serve your friends some cookie ice cream sandwiches for dessert. That’s what I did. 🙂
Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 stick butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a stand mixer (or a large bowl with a hand mixer) cream together the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla extract, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, for 3 minutes.
- Once the mixture is fully mixed and somewhat fluffy, add the egg and mix until combined.
- Sprinkle in the all-purpose flour, then the chocolate chips. Let the stand mixer run until everything has mixed and a dough has formed.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough for each cookie and place each one on the baking sheet at least 2 inches apart.
- If desired, sprinkle some extra salt on top of the cookies. This is not a requirement.
- Switch the oven to the broil setting. Broil the cookie dough balls for 1 minute.
- Switch the oven back to 350 degrees and bake for 15 minutes.
Leave a Reply