Let’s get something out in the open – chocolate chip cookies are my absolute FAVOURITE sweet treat ever!!! Honestly, I could eat them every day. For breakfast, as a snack, as an after-dinner treat… I just could never say no to a chocolate chip cookie.
When I started baking I really struggled to get cookies right! They were always too crispy or too dry or too sweet or a million other things! Then as I started to learn a bit more about baking and about what makes cookies be a certain way (I mean – a gooey chocolate chip cookie isn’t the same texture as a Christmas sugar cookie or a peanut butter cookie and so on) and by trial and error (and lots of deep internet digging!) I think I’ve now found my favourite cookie recipe. It’s all about the ratios.
For me personally, chocolate chip cookies are best (always good but even more so!) warm out of the oven – when the chocolate is still a bit melty and the whole house smells like heaven – and they should be slightly crispy and browned on the edges but the middle should definitely be soft and gooey.
I love to make a double or triple batch of these every once in a while and put them in the freezer so I always have perfect chocolate chip cookies on hand – in case of a cookie emergency! Full disclosure though: the texture isn’t just quite the same when they’re cooked from frozen. They’re still absolutely delicious but the texture is just a bit different.
Get stuff ready:
- Make sure your butter and eggs are at room temperature
- Preheat your oven at 180C
Dry ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda (in the UK they call it bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/4 tsp of cinnamon (or a pinch)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 250g of chocolate chips – you can also chop up a bar of regular chocolate you like to eat, I personally like 70% cocoa solids
Wet ingredients:
- 1/3 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 115g butter (soft, at room temperature)
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste (approx, I never actually measure this)
Method:
- Mix all the dry ingredients together until they’re uniform in color
- Mix your soft butter and both kinds of sugar for a few minutes (about 3-4 min), until they’re well combined and starting to look pale in color and a bit fluffy. You can use a stand mixer on medium-high, an electric mixer or a wooden spoon! Whatever you’ve got
- Scrape down the sides of your bowl to make sure everything is getting evenly incorporated
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract and mix together for a couple more minutes. It’s okay if it starts to look curdled – this happens sometimes and gets “fixed” once we add the dry ingredients
- Scrape down your bowl again!
- Combine your wet and dry ingredients gently, mixing ONLY until they’re just about combined
- Fold in the chocolate chips and again, stop as soon as you no longer see chunks of flour
- Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper – I like to use a medium-sized ice cream scoop to do this – and leave some space in between them as they tend to spread a little (a couple of inches should be fine).
- Bake at 180C for 9-10 minutes, until they look nice and browned around the edges but the middle looks gooey and the house smells like a bakery!
Top tips:
- Don’t worry if your cookies look slightly undercooked when you pull them out, they keep “baking” once they’re out of the oven and they set up a bit more while they cool down. As long as your edges are brown they should be good but if you’re not sure just try them out and if you’re not happy you can just pop them back in for another minute or two. You can always bake them more but you can’t un-bake them!
- If you let your cookie dough rest for a bit before baking it it gets even yummier! I think that it gives the flavours a bit of time to get to know each other better and the cookies come out even better. I like to make the dough and cover it with some cling film, I tidy up the kitchen, then preheat the oven and cook them, usually giving them about an hour or 2 of resting time.
- The best way I found to freeze cookies is to scoop them out onto a baking tray as if you were going to bake them (I just pack the baking tray a lot more), put the whole tray in the freezer for a few hours until the cookies harden (1-2h minimum) and then put the dough balls into a resealable plastic bag. They should last a few months in there (if you can resist eating them!).
- To cook them from frozen – take them out of the freezer and plop them onto your baking tray lined with parchment paper and in the meantime preheat your oven to 180C. Once the oven’s temperature is up, put the cookies in for about 10-11min and same rules apply – they should be nicely browned around the edges and gooey in the middle. Plus the smell, obviously!!
And that’s it! Yummy chocolate chip cookies – you’re welcome!! Please enjoy these delicious gooey chocolatey heavenly cookies and share your experience! I’d love to know if you like them, if you changed anything, if you had any issues… sharing is caring! Have an awesome day and thanks for reading me! 🙂
Bake with Andrea 