A photo of chocolate chip cookies stacked on top of each other next to a glass of milk

You really just can’t go wrong with any chocolate chip cookie recipe. Crispy, thin and crunchy, or thick and bready, I’ll take all comers. But that said, my favorite chocolate chip cookies are those that have a crispy exterior and are dense, rich, sweet and salty.

I made a mash-up recipe that used portions of Alton Brown’s famous chocolate chip cookie recipe, and the traditional Toll House recipe that you can find on the back of the Nestlé chocolate chips bag. Where Alton’s original recipe called for bread flour for chewiness, I used all-purpose to keep things a bit lighter, and I couldn’t bring myself to melt the butter instead of creaming it with the sugar. The little bit of saltiness from the kosher salt is the perfect counterpart to the sweet chocolate chips.

And this recipe uses weighed ingredients instead of the standard cups. With baking, measuring via weight is a necessity, so if you haven’t already got one, treat yourself to a high-quality kitchen scale.

Ingredients

8 oz room temperature butter
12 ounces all-purpose flour (use bread flour if you prefer a chewier cookie)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 ounces granulated sugar
8 ounces brown sugar (light or dark)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons whole milk
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 ounces of semi-sweet, milk, or dark chocolate (whatever you prefer. I did a “pantry cleanout and used a combo of milk, semi-sweet, and chopped-up dark chocolate bar and it turned out amazing)

  1. Add butter and sugars into a stand mixer bowl. Cream together until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.
  2. Sift the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a separate bowl.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla.
  4. Set mixer to low and pour the eggs, milk and vanilla into the butter/sugar. Mix until combined; about 30 seconds.
  5. Slowly pour in the dry ingredients while the mixer is on low. Allow to combine, but don’t mix too much or you will overwork the flour and make it tougher.
  6. Dump the chocolate in the dough and allow to mix together.
  7. Place pieces of parchment on 2-3 baking sheets. Scoop out balls of dough (about 2 tablespoons per cookie) and shape them into a ball. Place on cookie sheet and give them plenty of room to expand. Once portioned out, place the baking sheets in the fridge and allow to chill for at least 1 hour. 2-3 hours is even better. Don’t skip the chilling step. It might seem overkill, and we all want instant cookies, but allowing the dough to chill for some time will allow the cookies to retain their structure better while baking, yielding a taller cookie with better structure.
  8. Preheat over to 375 degrees. Bake cookies for around 10-15 minutes, checking for doneness, and rotating the baking sheet halfway through to make sure the cookies bake evenly.
  9. Remove from oven and scoop cookies over to a cooling rack to cool
Advertisement