Ingredients
- 3 Cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Cup White Sugar
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar
- 1 Cup Grass-Fed Butter (Kirkland or Kerrygold)
- 2 tsp Vanilla
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 1 Whole Egg
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 Bag Guittard Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
Steps
Beat the Hell Out of the Butter
- The butter should be room temperature. I never leave it out, so I put it in the microwave for just under 30 seconds. If there is a little melting, it’s fine.
- Combine room-temperature butter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in a stand mixer.
- Slowly increase the speed to high and leave it running for at least two minutes.
- The mixture should be very light and look like icing. You are trying to mash down all the grains of sugar.
Slowly Mix in Eggs
- Separate out an egg yolk and mix it in at low-medium speed for just a few seconds.
- Separate out another egg yolk and mix it in at low-medium speed for just a few seconds.
- Mix in the whole egg until the wet ingredients are fully incorporated. Do not overbeat.
Get The Dry Ingredients In
- Lightly mix the baking powder, baking soda, and flour in a separate bowl (I rarely do this).
- Add a third of the mixture and beat at a low speed. The flour will fly out. But you also want it to be barely mixed, just so no flour will spray if you keep mixing. You can easily overmix at this step.
- Add the second third of the mixture and barely mix.
- Add the last third and the chocolate chips. I do this to help prevent overbeating.
- Mix the entire mixture slowly for only another five seconds, just until everything is incorporated. Sometimes flour will be hanging out at the bottom of the bowl. Do not overbeat; hand-incorporate if needed.
Give It a Break
- Eat some dough. Or not.
- Move the dough to containers and place them in the refrigerator.
- Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours. I rarely cook the dough immediately.
Cooking Time
- Preheat the oven to 335°F.
- Refrigerated dough is harder to work with. I use an ice cream scoop to get it out of its container.
- I put parchment paper on a cookie sheet.
- I make fairly large cookie balls and then flatten them out. Eight cookies per tray.
- I sprinkle on Maldon sea salt flakes to bring out more flavor.
- You can also put chocolate sprinkles, mini M&Ms, or walnuts/pecans on right before baking.
- Cook for ~7 minutes.
- Rotate the tray and BANG it twice to flatten the cookies.
- Cook for ~6 minutes.
- BANG the tray once and move it to a cooling rack. I just pull the parchment paper and cookies off together. If the cookies are underbaked, then leave them on the tray to let them cook a little more.
- Wait a few minutes so you don’t burn your face.
Other
The key thing to remember is that everyone’s environment and equipment are different. Nothing is written in stone. If you find your oven cooks slower, adjust the temperature and time as needed. Maybe you don’t use parchment paper and butter the pan. Maybe you have a darker pan.
Also, everyone has their own preference. Adjust the baking powder and baking soda to play with how much the cookies rise. Change the size of the cookies (adjust the cooking time to match). Maybe you’re using unsalted butter and need to add more salt.
Don’t be afraid to try things.
The Frontier
I would like to get to a place of better reproducibility. I feel weighing the flour is best. I have also played with doing 1/2 cup of bread flour vs. all-purpose, but didn’t notice a significant difference.
I haven’t tried browning the butter. I feel like I kind of like the more classic cookie taste, but that’s something people do.
I have also debated lessening the brown sugar for similar reasons.
I’m also still not positive on the exact consistency that I enjoy. These cookies are still leaning a bit toward an undercooked center for chewiness. Also, once they’re stale, they’re trash.
