How to make the best chocolate chip cookies ever

By
Juliet
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5
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Generally speaking, most sane people like chocolate chip cookies. I mean, there’s really not much to complain about (aside from the obvious lack of health benefits) when one combines butter, sugar and chocolate to produce a delectable treat such as the chocolate chip cookie. But how can an ordinary person like you or me seek to work the magic required to form this delicious amalgamation of ingredients without reverting to dramatically inferior store-bought versions? Fear not, for this blog will show you how. And not only will I include a wondrous recipe, I will also provide step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make the best cookies ever. So, you ready for this?

Recipe: Pretty Much the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

1 cup of butter, softened

1 1/2 cups of brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup of white, granulate sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp of vanilla

3 cups (375 grams) of flour

1/2 tsp of salt

1 tsp of baking soda

1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips

Before baking:

Tip #1. Make sure the butter is SOFTENED. And by softened, I don’t mean a rock hard chunk straight out of the refrigerator, or a half-melted puddle because you microwaved it for 30 seconds on high power. Softened. As in you could easily make a dent if you were to push your finger against the surface. If you don’t know how to achieve this particular state, I recommend microwaving the butter for 10-15 seconds at a time on low power.

Tip #2. The eggs (and everything else) need to be a ROOM TEMPERATURE. If you’re like me, who can’t remember to take the eggs out of the fridge two hours before baking, place the eggs into some warm water and let them warm up a little.

Tip #3. Use a SCALE MEASURE for the flour. This was actually a turning point for my cookie-making. Previously, I had used measuring cups for flour, but the thing is, when I measured my flour, I would take the tip of the flour bag and wipe off the excess flour. I didn’t realize that this was actually compressing the flour and as a result, I was adding in way more flour than I needed, so my cookies always turned out thick and cakey. The conversion from cups of all-purpose flour to grams is: 1 cup = 140 grams.

Baking the cookies:

Step 1. CREAM the butter and sugar together. A lot of people seem to have troubles with this. Use a hand mixer (or stand mixer, if you have one) and beat the butter and sugar until you can no longer see the sugar granules. Generally, if you see the colour of the mixture lighten slightly, that means that the butter has been sufficiently whipped and that you’ve achieved the required amount of creaming. This process usually takes about 2-3 minutes and the end result should look something like this:

Step 2. Beat in the eggs at ROOM TEMPERATURE (refer to Tip #2) one at a time into the mixture. Add the vanilla.

Step 3. Using a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking soda. Do NOT skip adding the salt – it’s actually very important in bringing out the sweetness in a chocolate chip cookie.

Step 4. STIR in the flour mixture. Yes, that means that you should put the hand mixer away. Over-beating the dough will take away the chewiness of chocolate chip cookies and instead, make your cookies taste cakey.

Step 5. STIR in the chocolate chips! My Asian background requires me to use chopsticks for positively everything, but spatulas work just as well. At this point, you can probably preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 6. Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto a baking sheet. I strongly recommend lining your sheet with parchment paper as that makes it much harder to burn the bottoms of the cookies. If you really want to get OCD and make sure that your cookies are uniform in size for each batch, you can weigh out each piece of dough.

Step 7. Bake the cookies for about 8-10 minutes in the oven. PLEASE remember that every oven is different, and thus baking times will vary depending on the oven. Always check your cookies a little bit before the timer is up. The cookies are “done” when you start to see the edges turn slightly golden; the tops may still be relatively pale. Do NOT (and I repeat, DO NOT) wait for the entire cookie to turn golden because cookies continue to bake on the sheets after you take them out of the oven. If you take your cookies out when they are golden all over, the bottoms will most likely be burnt and your cookies will turn rock hard during the cooling process. Most people do not like rock hard cookies. Also, don’t forget to put the dough into the fridge in between batches – this way, the butter won’t begin to break down and cause the cookies to go flat and ugly. The finished product should (hopefully) look something like this:
And that, dear reader, is how you make a chocolate chip cookie. Please note that these cookies are more on the thin and chewy side, and if you prefer eating thicker cookies with layers of chips, you will need to increase the ratio of flour to butter. So, what are you waiting for? Stop gawking and go make your own!

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