I don’t think I’ve ever met someone that didn’t like warm, chocolate chip cookies. They are the perfect dessert, for any occasion. They taste good in summer, winter, spring and fall. No matter what is wrong, a chocolate cookie will always make it all feel better.
I’ve been on a quest for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe for a long while now. The main problem I faced when making them, is, they never had that bakery quality I craved. Meaning, they tasted great upon first coming out of the oven, but by morning, the cookie became hard and just not that special anymore.
I wanted a chocolate chip cookie that was golden brown crisp on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. This is a tall order given that I wanted something to have one consistency on the outside and the opposite consistency on the inside.
After college, I purchased a book by Nick Malgieri entitled, ‘Cookies Unlimited’ and his “Loaded with Chocolate Chips” cookie recipe came the closest to what I was looking for all these years. The cookies call for double the chocolate chips of any other recipe (which keeps the middle really soft) and has a nice crisp outside that holds for days after they are baked.
I would make this recipe whenever I had a chocolate chip cookie craving. I have it memorized. However, still, it lacked that big puffed up middle I wanted. I wanted a chocolate chip cookie that you really sink your teeth into! So I figured I could use his recipe as a base and tinker with the ingredients in order to get where I wanted to go.
I kept the large number of chips because I just love chocolate so, why not, and like I said before, it helps keep the middle moist. I just upgraded to bar chocolate cut up in chunks because bars melt more than chips. Chips are actually designed to keep their shape while baking and I didn’t want that. I want the chocolate oozing out everywhere.
I also wanted the height. In order to get the height, I applied a principal I learned making boxed brownies (yes, my brownies are not always from scratch). If you want “cakey” brownies, you add 2 eggs to the mix, if you want “chewy” brownies, you only add 1 egg. So, I added another egg to the recipe. I also added baking powder in addition to baking soda because again, baking powder allows the mixture to rise.
The final change I made to the recipe was in the technique. I noticed that in the past, when I made cookie dough ahead of time and stuck it in the freezer for a few days, the frozen dough produced a more compact cookie. Reason being, the butter had less time to melt and spread in the oven. So, I figured, if I got the dough really cold (like you do with sugar cookies), they would have less time to unmold from the ball on the cookie sheet.
The results were pretty amazing! I’m not saying I’m the next Debbie Fields here but I think I came pretty close! My final note to you would be to invest in a Silpat liner for your baking sheet. I found that when I put the dough direct on the sheet, the heat made the cookies spread almost instantly in the oven, NO GOOD. Also, make the cookies 8 tablespoons each. The bigger the better!! This allows more time for the outside to crisp and the inside to just cook to (medium rare, ha!)
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup of cold butter, cut up
2 ½ cups of all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Dash of Cinnamon (my secret ingredient)
¾ cup brown sugar
¾ cup white sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups of semi sweet, high quality bar chocolate, chopped
Mix all the dry ingredients together with a whisk to ensure even distribution. Cut the butter up into small squares and add. (I use the food processor and act as I’m making pie crust). Once the butter looks like little peas, add sugars and eggs until combined. Fold in the chips. Pack them into “meatball size” balls and lay them, only 4 per baking sheet. Put them in the fridge for 3 hours to chill.
Then, Cook for 16 minutes at 375 but check them at 8 minutes. If they are brown, flip the tray back to front and let them stay the full 16 minutes. Everyone’s oven is different so you might have to tweak the time to your liking. Take them out when top is light brown and middle is puffed but still soft.
