How To Make Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

I am not claiming that these are 'the best chocolate chip cookies' ever, but to me, my easy chocolate chip cookie recipe has everything I look for in a cookie. As a baking blogger, I have made my fair share of homemade chocolate chip cookies, and this cookie recipe is my back pocket, everyday simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. It is the one I go back to time and time again, for so many reasons:

• The dough comes together super quickly with no additional steps.
• Three kinds of sugar gives you amazing texture and chew.
• Huge chocolate puddles (which are optional), are my favorite.
• Crispy outsides, and a chewy chocolate chip cookie middle
• The dough freezes amazingly, so it is great to keep on hand.

To me, these are the perfect chocolate chip cookies. I have also stuffed this post full of tips and tricks for making the best chocolate chip cookies - a lot of these tips can be applied to any chocolate chip cookie recipe, I just wanted a place for them all to live!

It is important to ensure that the mixture is light and fluffy before adding in the eggs. Using melted butter in a recipe such as in my M&M cookie recipe and my mini egg cookie recipe, or brown butter like I use in my small batch chocolate chip cookie recipe gives a slightly denser, chewier cookie.

Don't over mix your dry ingredients.

I like to only just mix in my flour and baking powder and soda to the cookie dough batter, and then add the chocolate when the dough still has some flour streaks. This prevents over mixing, and the cookie dough can finish mixing when the chocolate is mixed in.

Measure your ingredients properly.

I think we all know now how important baking with a scale is to ensure accuracy - this applies here too. If you make the recipe in cups and it doesn't work out, that is because you have altered the recipe to how it is written.

Portion with a scoop.

Having nice evenly sized cookies means that they are going to bake evenly. I like to use a spring loaded cookie scoop to scoop out my cookie dough, but if you do not have one, you can weigh the balls of dough - each one should weigh about 55g.

Chill the cookie dough.

This is an important step for this recipe - chilling the cookie dough allows the flavours in the cookie batter to develop, the flour to hydrate slightly, and the butter to chill down. Give the cookie dough at least an hour in the fridge, or up to overnight. I tried both ways during the testing process and the chilling really does help with this recipe.

How to make gooey chocolate chip cookies - bake until just set.

The level of doneness on a chocolate chip cookie is obviously personal preference. I prefer mine only just baked. Removing the cookies from the oven when they are just done gives you a nice gooey inside and a slightly crispy edge - remember they will set up on the pan a little too.

How to make chewy chocolate chip cookies

The role of sugar in cookies is important - both the amount in terms of the ratio of sugar to other ingredients, and the ratio of brown to white sugar.

When I am testing, I will play around with the quantities of white and brown sugar in a recipe - if i want the cookie to be thicker, a little chewier, and spread less, I will use more brown sugar, whereas if I want slightly crispier edges and more spread, I will increase the ratio of brown to white sugar.

I often get asked if it is possible to reduce the quantity of sugar in a cookie without compromising the texture - the short answer to this is no. Sugar plays an important role in the structure of the cookie, as it contributes to the moisture level while also interacting with the fat to provide lift within the cookie.

If you want to make a cookie appear less sweet, you can make sure that the dough is properly salted, and use darker chocolate in the cookie to offset the sweetness.

This recipe has brown, white, and raw / turbinado sugar in it. The brown and white sugar provide texture, while the turbinado gives a little crunch that I love so much.

Adding an extra yolk to chocolate chip cookies can also help provide chew - I do this in my egg yolk chocolate chip cookie recipe.

CHOPPED CHOCOLATE OVER CHOCOLATE CHIPS ALWAYS.

I almost always use chopped chocolate in my chocolate chip cookies. There are a few reasons for this:

• Sizing - Cutting up chocolate into chunks gives you a great range of size in your chocolate. This means you get a good distribution throughout
• Melty Pockets of chocolate - Chocolate chips often have a stabiliser in them which means they don't melt. This makes them great for things like muffins, but I much prefer using chopped chocolate for cookies because the chocolate melts, and you get pockets of chocolate throughout.
• Quality - if you use chopped chocolate, you can use whatever quality you like. It's also a great way to mix up the types of chocolate you use too - I like doing a mix of dark and then sometimes a fun flavour
• Chocolate Dust - This is a name I made up, but the dust is what's left from chopping chocolate. It all goes into the bowl and you get tiny chocolate specks all throughout the cookies.
• Melty Chocolate Puddles - Chopped chocolate means you can press extra chocolate onto the top of the cookies to get big chocolate puddles!
• If you want to use chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate, by all means go ahead.

I ALWAYS have this cookie dough in my freezer.

This dough freezes perfectly. Scoop it out, chill for an hour, and then bake off whatever you are wanting to bake off. Transfer the rest to a parchment lined baking sheet, and freeze until solid.

This is a flash freeze and should take 30 minutes to an hour. Then, transfer to a ziploc bag and label with the type of cookie dough you have. You can bake it directly from frozen - decrease the baking temperature to 325°f / 165°c and bake for the same amount of time - you may need to add an additional minute or so.

For all my tips and tricks on freezing cookie dough and baking from frozen, check out my post: how to freeze cookie dough