Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Best Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe! A chewy chocolate chip cookie loaded with chocolate chips! Make the dough ahead, freeze, and bake anytime.

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BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe for you today! How could anyone ever resist a warm ooey-gooey chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven??  If you can, please tell me your secret because I can NOT!!  These chocolate chip cookies may not scream out CHRISTMAS or HOLIDAY cookie, BUT they are the best chocolate chip cookies ever in my opinion!  And over the next week or two, I’m going to show you how you can take the basic dough from this recipe and change it up to create completely different cookies!  By adding some different ingredients to the finished dough and cooking the dough in different shapes, you will soon have a bunch of different cookies perfect for the holidays and no one will know it all came from ONE dough!!!  So make up a big batch of this dough and get ready for my very own holiday cookiepalooza!! 

Sorry this is a long write-up but I have lots of important details for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe ever!  I realize everyone has a different idea of what the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie is.  To me the best chocolate chip cookie is not too thin, not too thick, and not too cakey.  It’s a little crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  They’re a little sweet and salty, and they are ooey-gooey right out of the oven!!!!  That is perfection in my book!

I will start by saying I am NOT a food scientist, so I have no idea if this information is 100% accurate but it worked for me!  I looked at some of my favorite and popular chocolate chip cookie recipes over the years and decided to combine what I liked about each recipe to create my own.  Some of the recipes had a little more salt than others, and since I like a little salty flavor, I went with a higher salt ratio.  I used more brown sugar than granulated sugar for a softer texture, as well as more egg yolks than whites and cornstarch to also help keep the cookies moist and soft.

Some recipes also use different kinds of flour such as pastry flour and others.  I  figured out the protein content of those flours then tried calculating what I would need so that I could use all-purpose flour.  All flours are not equal so to speak.  I used an unbleached all-purpose flour with a 10% protein ratio.  It’s nothing fancy and you should be able to easily find one at your grocery store.

If you’re not sure about your flour look at the nutritional information.  My flour had 3g protein per 30g serving size (10%).  Your cookies will turn out slightly different if you use different flours.  I also weighed my flour.  If you do not have a scale, I highly suggest one!  One cup of flour can vary a lot between people and to make sure you get similar results every time when baking, a scale is a must!  I also think a scale is a lot quicker than measuring things out.  If you MUST use measuring cups, I added the approximate amounts.

You can double, triple, quadruple, etc. the basic dough recipe and make multiple cookie recipes at the same time.   I made a huge batch of this dough and made completely different cookies out of it as you will see over the next week or so.  The finished dough is best if refrigerated for at least a few hours but better if you can wait overnight or up to 2-3 days.

You can also make the finished cookie dough, ball it up (see below), and freeze the balls in plastic bags for a few months then take out what you  need and bake for fresh cookies anytime!!!  I like to keep a few bags of cookie dough in my freezer JUST in case I need cookies!!!

I used Gold Medal unbleached all-purpose flour and weighed it.  You can find good kitchen scales all over, but this one is from Williams-Sonoma.

Whisk all the dry ingredients together and set aside.

Mix the sugars, butter, eggs, and vanilla for a few minutes until well combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.

Once the basic dough is done, you can add your add-ins.  For this chocolate chip cookie recipe of course you’re going to add a lot of chocolate chips!  Buy the best chocolate you can afford!  You can use semi-sweet, dark, bittersweet, or your favorite chip!

Scoop the dough out and place on lined baking sheets. I like to put  dough balls on silpats but you could use parchment or wax  paper for this.  An ice cream scoop works great for scooping!  Cover the cookies with plastic wrap, then refrigerate for at least a few hours, but better yet, overnight or up to 2-3 days.

OR you can not cover the dough balls and place the sheets in the freezer and after a few hours when the dough is hard, place the cookie dough balls in resealable bags and freeze for up to a few months.  Then you can pull out what you need when you need it.  As long as you keep the cookie dough balls frozen they will not stick together!

Bake up your cookies!  The colder they are the longer they will take to bake so you may have to adjust the baking time.  You can bake the dough right from the freezer or you can place the dough in the refrigerator overnight to defrost.  The chocolate chip cookies may be a little more “puffy” if baking right from the freezer and not spread as much but they’ll still taste great!

You’re going to want a big glass of milk with these chewy chocolate chip cookies!

Hope you enjoy this Best Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe! Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Hope you enjoy!