Everyone has their preference, but in this house, we like our chocolate chip cookies soft and cake-like in texture. But darn it all if they don’t always turn out that way, right? Baking nerds like me take to Google in search of what is going on behind the scene. It’s all about chemistry friends. I’ll admit, chemistry wasn’t my favorite subject in school, but I have developed a deep appreciation for its lessons especially when I can apply them to baked goods.
So after all the research, I learned that my best advice is to find a recipe you like and then tweak the ingredients for the taste and texture of the cookie you prefer. I base my recipe off of
Sally's Baking Addiction Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. She is so good at what she does and I’m certain if you follow her advice you'll get a fantastically soft treat. But I do deviate from her advice a bit. To obtain a soft cookie that doesn't spread out too much, I use a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar, COLD butter, a room temperature egg, and if time allows 30 minutes for the dough to chill in the fridge. To learn how to make cookies just how you want them here is a great place to start: NPR's Cookie-Baking Chemistry: How To Engineer Your Perfect Sweet Treat, or feel free to just follow my plan down below: :-)
Ingredients
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1.5 sticks or 170g) unsalted butter, nice and cold, like basically straight out of the fridge
3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1 large egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (we used mini chips)
*Note that I did use real butter and eggs in this batch of cookies because I knew they'd come out just how my kids like them. But I did make a second batch subbing in Melt and Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer just for fun. I put the Melt butter in the freezer a couple of hours before I made the cookies. That may have been too long as it was pretty rock hard, but I do think it helped the plant-based version not spread so much, which is always my concern when not using real butter. See pictures of the plant-based batch at the bottom.
Instructions
Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together. I don't worry too much about lumps as they get beaten out in the next steps and my goal is to keep my butter cold.
Whisk in the egg, and finally, whisk in the vanilla extract.
Combine the wet and dry. Mix together with a paddle attachment or large spoon. The dough will be thick.
Fold in the chocolate chunks.
If time allows, cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes (or up to a couple of days) or skip to step seven.
Preheat the oven to 325°F and line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
Roll the dough into balls, about 2 tablespoons of dough each, and place on the parchment-lined baking sheet. You'll want a few inches in between each ball of dough. Careful not to flatten the balls to ensure the cookies will bake up thicker.
Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes or until the edges are slightly golden brown.
Cool and enjoy!
Pictures of the second batch with plant-based ingredients.
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