Perfect, Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been making chocolate chip cookies since I was nine years old. I have tried so many recipes and techniques over the years, and learned a lot in the process. When I got married, I found that my husband loves chocolate chip cookies and feels that any other cookie is just a waste of good ingredients, so, I have perfected my chocolate chip cookie recipe and technique.  If you like soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, this is a foolproof recipe that is as easy as it gets. There are a few secrets to making perfect cookies, so I will walk you through this recipe and share them with you.

First the recipe:

Yield: About 36 cookies

Author: Tonia

Perfect, Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe is so easy and absolutely foolproof, but what is best about it, is it results in perfect, soft, chewy, delicious chocolate chip cookies every time.

Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter (I use salted)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 1/4 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Cream together, butter, sugars, egg, soda, salt, and vanilla until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
3. Add flour and stir until well combined.
4. Add chocolate chips and mix until just incorporated.
5. Drop by heaping Tbsp. on ungreased or parchment covered cookie sheets and bake at 325 F for 9 - 11 minutes, or until the edges just barely start to brown.
6. Cool for a few minutes on the cookie sheet to allow them to set up, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes

*As with all cookie recipes, the amount of flour you use may vary depending on the brand of flour, how you measure your flour, even the weather and your location, so make adjustments if necessary.

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Now, onto the tutorial . . .

First, let's talk butter. The real deal is what you need when making these cookies. Do not substitute margarine or butter flavored shortening. Real butter is the only way to go. You also need to know exactly how soft softened butter needs to be in order to get the results you want. Here is a bit of a visual to help you.

The middle picture is what you are looking for. Make sure your butter is soft enough to make an indentation easily in the butter, but not so soft that your finger slides right through the butter when pressed.

If your butter is too soft, this can lead to your cookies being too flat.  If you used butter that was too soft and then bake a cookie and find the resulting cookies to be to be too thin, a quick hang-out in the fridge, to firm up the butter in the cookie dough a bit, should solve your problem.

So, next, this is going to rock the world of some of you bakers out there, but I am telling you the truth my friends, there is no need to to combine dry ingredients separately from wet ingredients. There is no need to add eggs after the sugar and butter has been creamed. With some recipes, these conventions are important, but not with this one.

So, add all the ingredients, except the flour and chocolate chips, to your bowl and cream away. (Yes, this means butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, soda, and salt). Cream together for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl down a few times during the process. You want to give the sugars a chance to start dissolving into the butter and make the mixture nice and fluffy. And please use a good real vanilla, no cheap imitation stuff. If you have been using the imitation stuff, you will notice the difference as soon as you open the bottle of a good quality real vanilla. I promise, it is worth it.

I generally use my paddle attachment to make cookies, but I think my baby threw it away. No joke, he is in this phase where he puts everything in the garbage. 

 Anyway, you want your mixture to look nice and fluffy as pictured above. Then add your flour and mix until incorporated, scraping down the bowl as needed.

*A few notes on flour - - The amount of flour you use may vary slightly depending on the brand of flour (cheaper brands generally have less protein content and will result in flatter cookies, while using a bread flour rather than all-purpose could lead to heavier denser cookie due to an increased protein content).  The way you measure your flour also heavily influences how flat or thick your cookies turn out.  Always fluff up your flour before measuring, and make sure to level off the measuring cup completely.  In addition, the weather and your location can affect how the flour affects your cookies.  So when trying a new recipe, you may want to err on the side of a tablespoon or two too little flour and bake a tester cookie to make sure the final cookie is the thickness desired.  If not, make adjustments as necessary. 

Add the chocolate chips (I prefer semi sweet with this recipe) and mix to evenly incorporate. Your dough should look pretty much like this.  If I have them, I usually use about 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips and then reduce the regular chocolate chips down to 1 1/4 cups.  I think this helps distribute the chocolate through the cookies a little better, so give it a try if you have some, and see what you think.

Drop by heaping Tbsp. onto ungreased cookie sheets. There is plenty of butter in these cookies, so they won't stick to the pans. If you grease the cookie sheets, you will end up with more spread, and flatter cookies than you would like. I usually use my 2 Tbsp. cookie scoop, but I also sometimes use my 1 Tbsp. scoop for smaller cookies - you just may need to reduce the baking time slightly. 

 Leave the cookies enough room to spread out while baking.

*Edit 8/12/22 *These days, I always bake these cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet.  I love these pre-cut, unbleached parchment sheets from amazon.  They are so convenient and I like to use them when I am baking on an aluminum sheet.

SMARTAKE 200 Pcs Parchment Paper Baking Sheets, 12x16 Inches Non-Stick Precut Baking Parchment, Perfect for Baking Grilling Air Fryer Steaming Bread Cup Cake Cookie and More (Unbleached)

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Bake for about 11 minutes, they will just start to get lightly brown around the edges when they are done. Remove from the oven and let rest on the cookie sheet for 2 -3 minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.

If you use these little secrets, you should end up with perfect chocolate chip cookies every time!