Baking Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Baking perfect chocolate chip cookies isn’t just about following a recipe— it’s about the little things: chilling the dough, not overbaking, and using quality ingredients. In this blog post, we’re sharing our tried-and-true secrets for baking chocolate chip cookies that come out perfectly every single time.
Let’s Talk Sugar, Butter, and Eggs
01. Sugar
Brown sugar and white granulated sugar both play a role in achieving the perfect cookie texture. Brown sugar contains molasses, which adds moisture, keeping the cookies soft and chewy. White sugar helps the cookies spread and crisp up around the edges.
02. Butter
We like to brown our butter for extra flavor, then chill it so it’s soft enough to cream. But you can just use regular softened butter too! It’s SO important to use high-quality butter in your cookies for the best flavor and texture. Good-quality butter has a richer taste, which really comes through in something simple like chocolate chip cookies. Higher quality butter, like Kerrygold, has less water and more fat, which gives you chewier centers and crispier edges. Watch out for butter that contains more water, which can mess with your texture and make cookies spread too much.
03. Eggs
Eggs do more than just bind your cookie dough together. We like to use one whole egg plus an extra egg yolk because it gives the best results. The extra yolk adds extra fat and richness, which helps make the cookies soft and chewy.
Gather your Tools:
Our favorite cookie tips
Here’s what we’ve learned after lots (and lots) of cookie batches:
01. Whipping the sugar and eggs
How long you mix the sugar and eggs really affects the texture. The longer you mix, the more air you whip into the batter, which leads to cookies that are softer and more cake-like. If you mix just enough to combine everything, you’ll get cookies that spread more, resulting in a thinner cookie with crispy edges.
02. Chill the dough
Don’t skip this step! Chilling the dough for just 30 minutes helps the flavors come together and keeps the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
03. Use a cookie scoop
This helps your cookies stay the same size so they bake evenly. You can also weigh each ball using a kitchen scale for more accuracy.
04. Take them out just before you think they’re done
Pull your cookies from the oven when they still look slightly underbaked in the center. They’ll keep baking on the hot tray.
Chopped Chocolate vs. Chocolate Chips
Chopped Chocolate melts into the dough and gives you those gooey pools of chocolate. If you’re using only chopped chocolate, just know your cookies might spread a little more in the oven. That’s because chopped chocolate doesn’t have stabilizers like chips do.
Chocolate Chips are made to hold their shape while baking. They stay more intact and give your cookies that classic chocolate chip cookie look.
Ready to Bake? Click the image for our go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe!
