Alexandra's Kitchen

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Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

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These cookies, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, still happen to be my favorite, chocolate chip or otherwise, a decade after first making them. These cookies might help when you're snowed in. I can't think of a better way to pass the time. // alexandracooks.com

I need another cookie. You?

chocolate chip cookie dough balls

ready for the oven

pistoles

just out of oven

just-baked cookies

These cookies, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, still happen to be my favorite, chocolate chip or otherwise, a decade after first making them. These cookies might help when you're snowed in. I can't think of a better way to pass the time. // alexandracooks.com

Over the weekend, Ella and I made cookies, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, the ones that still happen to be my favorite, chocolate chip or otherwise, a decade after first making them. I’ve posted this Fine Cooking recipe before, twice actually, but in each post it has been buried beneath another recipe, and I thought it was time to give it its own space.

Also, snow. You might be holed up. Cookies might help. I can’t think of a better way to pass the time. Stay warm, Everyone.

A few thoughts/notes for perfect soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies every time:

1. A scale is best for accurate measuring. Butter should be at room temperature.

2. Chocolate: Over the years I have made these cookies with crappy chocolate chips, crappy chocolate chunks, high-quality chocolate bars roughly chopped, and chocolate pistoles. The cookies have never failed to please no matter the chocolate morsel, but, in my old age, I do have two preferences:

    • Most recently I discovered chocolate pistoles (Guayaquil Pistoles Ecuadorian Cacao, 64% cacao, photo above) at the Honest Weight Food Co-op in Albany. The flavor of the chocolate is great, and I love having big chunks of chocolate in my cookies that are distinct from the soft and chewy dough.
    • Before I discovered these pistoles, however, I was chopping up bars of Scharffen Berger 62% cacao, which creates the effect of chocolate melting throughout the cookie along with some nice chunks. Both chocolates/methods are delicious, it’s just a matter of preference.

3. For this recipe, portion the dough into 1.75 oz (48 g) balls, also using your scale. So anal, I know, but the cookies bake evenly every time.

4. Chill the dough balls. The cookies taste even better when baked from dough balls that have been chilled. Keep unbaked balls in an airtight container in the fridge — they’ll last for weeks there. Bake off as you need.

5. Bake cookies of this size for exactly 11 minutes at 375ºF. Remove tray from oven and let cookies cook completely on cookie sheet. They will not look done when you pull them out of the oven. Have faith. Again, do not remove cookies from sheetpans until they are completely cool. I think these cookies taste best once they are completely cool.

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Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • Author: Alexandra Stafford at alexandracooks.com
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 11 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hours 36 minutes
  • Yield: 35 cookies
Print Recipe

Description

Source: Fine Cooking 2003

Notes: This recipe halves beautifully, too. When I make a half batch, I use two teaspoons of vanilla, and I use a scant teaspoon of kosher salt. See other notes above re measuring/baking.

Ingredients

  • 10¾ oz unsalted butter (1⅓ cups)
  • 10¼ oz light brown sugar (1½ cups packed)
  • 7¾ oz granulated sugar (1 cup)
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 T. pure vanilla extract
  • 17 oz unbleached all-purpose flour (3¾ cups)
  • 1.5 tsp table salt
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 12 oz semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (see notes above)
  • nice sea salt for sprinkling, optional

Instructions

  1. Cream butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl, beat again on high for one minute. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended, about another minute on medium-high speed. Whisk flour, salt and baking soda together in separate bowl. Add to butter mixture and combine with a spatula or wooden spoon (or very briefly with paddle attachment) until just blended. Add the chocolate chips and stir till combined. The dough will be stiff.
  2. Portion into 1¾ oz (48 g) sized balls. This is a tedious task, but it makes for beautiful and uniform cookies that bake evenly. If you have a digital scale, this is easy; if you have no scale, use a small ice cream scoop or some other uniform measuring device. Chill the portioned balls for at least one hour, or keep in the fridge for weeks or freeze for months.
  3. Preheat oven to 375°. Place portioned balls nicely spaced on an ungreased or parchment-lined jelly roll pan. Sprinkle with sea salt if using. Bake for 11 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through cooking. Keep a close watch. You want to remove the cookies from the oven when they still look slightly raw—you will think you are removing them too early. The cookies will continue cooking as they sit on the tray out of the oven. Let cookies cool completely on tray before removing.

These cookies, soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, still happen to be my favorite, chocolate chip or otherwise, a decade after first making them. These cookies might help when you're snowed in. I can't think of a better way to pass the time. // alexandracooks.com

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. These look so good….I am a huge chocolate chip cookie fan and so is Jeffray! Thanks so much for the New Year card with those beautiful cuties on it! Also, I ordered the Canal House cookbook…omg, it’s so beautiful and I actually started crying when I got to the page that had Ithaca on it…that’s one of my favorite poems…..To me food is about life and love and nurturing the soul and that cookbook is a perfect representation of how I feel about cooking….thanks for letting me know about it! XO!

    Reply

    • So happy you like the cookbook, Laurie! Isn’t it beautiful?! I just like to flip through it. And I know, that poem is beautiful. Glad the card arrived, too! xoxo

      Reply

  2. These cookies reminded me of those from Jacques Torres, which are superb when made with his chocolate feves. A friend of mine went to his store in New York and gave me a bag, what a gift!

    I actually went to amazon now to search for your choc pistoles but balked at the price…. 🙁

    Reply

    • Oh, I know! I looked for an online source but was shocked by the prices. These were $11.49/lb, so a half pound cost $6.66, which isn’t cheap but it’s not outrageous either.

      I need to check out JT’s feves. They sound perfect for cookies!

      Reply

      • Oh, you definitely scored with this price! I wish I could find them in a store near us, but…. I know it will be impossible

        still… I think the shape of this type of chocolate helps a lot to get the special consistency. You just cannot get that from a regular choc chip. And slicing by hand is a bit iffy, I end up with melted bits of chocolate deep down in the cutting board. And fingernails.. 😉

        Reply

  3. Sometimes I think I should go back to the food blog I abandoned seven years ago when I had my second child. But then I remember that everything I make is from you, so that won’t work. I would be reposting all your recipes, Including these, which I can’t wait to bake even though I swore off all other recipes after making New York times chocolate chip cookies.

    Reply

    • Oh my gosh, you are too funny. I love it. Now I’m curious about the NY Times chocolate chip cookies….hmmmm. The snow is finally coming down up here, which means I’ll have hours to play in the kitchen 🙂

      Reply

      • Surely you have tried NYT chocolate chip cookies. I can not beleive you haven’t but if that is true then I sense a cookie throw down coming on. If I lived in New England I would be shoveling out to bring you a batch right now.

        Reply

        • I am so embarrassed…I haven’t. My only priority for the weekend is to make those cookies. Anything I should keep in mind? Very excited for this little throwdown 🙂

          Reply

          • The NYT’s recipe is fantastic. I’ve made it with the recommended bread flour/cake flour combination and with just all purpose flour. I prefer the all purpose option, partly because it can be hard to find unbleached cake flour (unless your grocery store stocks King Arthur cake flour), and because my family couldn’t tell the difference on a side-by-side comparison. Also, the Guittard “Super Cookie Chips” are a nice alternative to the pistoles because they are misshapen little disks that melt perfectly into chocolate layers….

    • Haha, you are welcome! It’s almost February, right? So the end of the detox madness is in sight? Somehow I’ve managed to do more baking in January than Nov/Dec. What can I say, I will never give up carbs 🙂

      Reply

  7. Gosh, this post came at the perfect time! With the anticipated snow, which we ended up not receiving much of, I was in the mood for chocolate chip cookies. The recipe I used also chilled the dough. I’ve never done that before. They turned out great but I know which recipe I’m going with next time!

    Reply

  8. These look delicious! I was wondering if the butter needs to be cold, softened, or room temperature? This varies so much for chocolate chip cookies that I just wanted to make sure before trying these out.

    Reply

    • Hi Jennifer! Room temperature is perfect for these cookies. If I haven’t taken the butter out early in the morning (or in the evening before bed — the kitchen is so cold these days that I do that when I remember), I microwave the sticks at five second intervals until I can poke them and easily make an indent. Hope that helps!

      Reply

  10. Just Sunday, I made your Canal House recipe and was thinking it is the only choc. chip cookie recipe I’ll ever use. But I guess I was wrong! Have to give these a go.

    Reply

    • I love those, too! They’re just different. If you like that thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie, Canal House is the way to go. But if you like thicker, soft and chewy, these are hard to beat. Loved your insta-pic 🙂

      Reply

  11. I started pulling out the ingredients for the cookies and realized I haddark brown sugar and no light brown sugar. Is there a way to get away with using that?
    Also I would love to make a batch with nuts. Any recommendations?
    I love your recipes by the way!

    Reply

    • Hi Gina! I have made these with dark brown sugar, and while they still come out very well, I do feel I notice a stronger molasses taste because of the dark brown sugar, and I prefer these with light brown sugar. But don’t let that deter you! The texture will still be soft and chewy. As for nuts, what do you like? Walnuts? I would add a cup of chopped walnuts if so. Also, since you have dark brown sugar on hand and are looking to add nuts, you might like these better: https://alexandracooks.com/2014/11/14/ak-cookies/

      Reply

  12. These just came out of the oven and they are so good! Even the one cookie that somehow had no chips was heavenly. That’s when you know you have a great recipe-when the dough, sans chocolate chips, is irresistible. I really thought that the NY Times chocolate chip recipe was my go to but this one is very good as well.

    Reply

        • THank you for the link! I am totally trying this weekend. I really can’t believe I haven’t made it yet. Will report back!

          Question: do you use bread flour and cake flour? I feel like I should stick to the recipe but I’m tempted to use all-purpose…will do what you say 🙂

          Reply

          • I used the bread flour and cake flour because I always follow a new recipe to a t the first time I try it. (And to be honest, because I am not talented enough not to.) Also, because the recipe is so popular, and the combination of those two flours was the only perceptible difference, to me, than most ccc recipes, I decided I should try it. The chilling, as you know, helps as well.

  14. Love your cookie pictures! I am working on a gluten-free version of these. The first round was delicious, but very crunchy and flat. The second round is in the oven–we’ll see how it goes! 🙂

    Reply

  16. I was soo excited to make these yesterday, but they didn’t turn out anything like the picture. They were a lot more crumbly and cakey (not spreading out at all when I baked them) but not thin and chewy like in the photos. (They were still delicious though!) But just wondering, any idea what went wrong? (I followed the recipe exactly-except for the eggs as I only had medium and put 3 in instead) 🙂

    Reply

    • I had the same problem. Mine are delish, but they don’t look like the pictures. Mine didn’t spread and are really cakey. Still really good. Also I used the same amount of chocolate (I used chunks) but mine don’t look nearly as chocolaty as the pics. Next time, I’ll do a bag and a half! Also, my bake time was only 8 minutes (after 2 failed batches, ha ha). Either way, they are really good. I just need to play around with them a bit more, so that I can get them ‘right’! 🙂

      Reply

      • Lindsay, I have learned over the years with many failed batches that there are countless variables to consider — I should really add this to the notes section of the post. For instance, I just replaced my jelly roll pans, and when I baked a batch of cookies on them, they came out completely differently from what I was used to with my old pans. So, if yours are coming out cakey, I would suggest flattening them a bit before baking them. Also, are you using a scale to measure flour? If not, you might be adding just a touch more flour than I am. And definitely play around with timing. I am a fan no matter what of taking them out when they look pretty pale and a little puffy and then letting them finish their cooking process on their sheetpans out of the oven until they are completely cool, during which time they sink and reveal those beautiful chocolate disks. Let me know if you have any other questions!

        Reply

        • I just read your response (after making another batch, lol). So I think I stilllll over baked a couple batches! I need to quit second guessing myself about taking them out too early. I think I need new cookie sheets. Also, I didn’t weigh my flour (I don’t have a scale) but next time I will definitely cut back a tad. I wish I would have noticed this comment before my batch today! Oh well…an excuse to bake again! Either way though, I have decided that this will be my go-to recipe from now on. Thank you!!

          Reply

      • I had that happen too. They didn’t spread even thought I followed the recipe to a T. Also, the yield was less than 35 cookies.

        Reply

  17. I’m a long-time reader and not very good at commenting, but after making a half-batch of these cookies last night I felt compelled to say thank you. These are so delicious. My husband just said that they’re the perfect chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made!

    Thanks for all your great recipes – I get so many great ideas from your blog.

    Reply

  19. These cookies came out great, but I made some changes that made them DoubleTree authentic. I added 2 cups of additional rolled oats (do not grind). After scooping out dough on a cookie sheet using a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop, freeze for 30 minutes. Bake as directed. After 15 minutes, if cookies are still in high mounds, use a spatula to flatten slightly. Continue baking until edges are golden. This addition makes the texture and thickness of the cookie more original.

    Reply

  20. These turned out GREAT! I love that you can keep them in the fridge and bake them off as you please. Thank you!

    Reply

  21. These are so good. I made a half batch, but since we polished those off I’m thinking it is time for the other half. Wow. They are so yummy!

    Reply

  22. Made these today while babysitting some boys. Literally the BEST recipe I have used in a very long time!! There were thick and soft and just awesome!! Will be my new go to recipe!!

    Reply

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