The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You'll Ever Make
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You'll Ever Make
If you’re anything like me, you’ve been looking for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe your entire life. I’ve gone through probably hundreds of chocolate chip cookie recipes in my lifetime, but none of them worked. Too much flour, too much butter, too chewy, too soft, too crispy, there’s never one recipe that’s just right. Not too long ago, I read this article from Food52 about a chocolate chip cookie recipe with custard powder added to the dough. I thought that adding custard powder is super interesting, so why not try. I don’t think I’m ever going back to making cookies without custard powder in them, and it’s just too good not to do! Trust me, you’ll never look back after trying these - the custard powder gives the cookies this perfect tenderness, preventing the sugar from crystalising. Mixing this with the intense sweetness of the sugar and the bitterness of a high-quality and high cocoa content chocolate brings the perfect balance of flavour to this cookie. In France, 'American-style' cookies (that are goey, have things mixed into them, and are not rolled out into a sheet before being cut out) are just called cookies, with no French word for them. The Frenchs' idea of les cookies just isn't the same - I wish I had an oven to bake these chocolate chip cookies in. These cookies, along with some earl grey cookies, make a perfect holiday gift!
Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
I know every recipe you’ve made for chocolate chip cookies uses brown sugar. And you probably use light or golden brown sugar, not thinking of the difference. If you haven’t already learned the difference between dark and light brown sugar, I highly suggest you do so by reading this article from Taste of Home. The dark brown sugar in this recipe adds a ton of flavour, making it noticeably molasses-ey and preventing the cookies from spreading out too much. The mix of the dark brown sugar with the granulated sugar allows for a perfectly crispy edge that will satisfy your crispy-edge cravings while also allowing for a soft and tender centre. Eggs are essential to any cookie recipe. Eggs add moisture to the recipe while ensuring that the cookies stay together, creating structure and stability once the cookies are baked. You’re probably thinking to yourself, “why would I put all-purpose flour in tender cookies?” While you usually would want to use cake flour or a mix of cake and all-purpose flour to prevent gluten development, using a slightly higher gluten content allows these cookies not to break apart. Because I like my cookies slightly undercooked, the all-purpose flour develops just enough gluten to prevent the cookies from being a big gloopy mess when the centres are just slightly undercooked. Custard powder is just a few different types of starches, yellow colouring and vanilla flavouring. The starches prevent the sugars from crystalising after taking them out of the oven. This allows the cookies to stay soft and tender as they cool, making them the perfect cookies. We’ve all wondered why we use baking soda in cookies instead of baking powder. Some cookie recipes use baking powder, but there is a straightforward reason why. Cookies that call for baking soda are just too heavy for baking powder! Baking powder is a mix of baking soda and a few more ingredients, so using baking soda ensures a reliable rise in the cookies, that is, if your baking soda is not expired. With the amount of sugar in this recipe, you’re probably wondering how much water you’ll need to drink to compensate for how sweet these cookies are. That’s what the dark chocolate chips are for! Many chocolate chip cookie recipes call for semisweet chocolate chips, and some even ask for milk chocolate, but you’re just adding more sweetness to the already so sweet cookies! The bitterness of the dark chocolate will counteract the cookie dough’s sweetness, providing you with these perfectly balanced cookies. Don’t trust me? Try it for yourself! If you can't find dark chocolate chips, I will often take a bar of dark chocolate and chop it into chip-sized pieces.
Chocolate Chip Cookies Methodology
Just like any other cookie recipe, you’ll start with creaming together the butter and sugars. You do want to ensure that the butter is a room temperature when you do this; otherwise, you’ll be creaming these together for quite some time. You do want to cream these together until they are incredibly light and fluffy. This is the only time you can aerate the dough, and you sure do want to take advantage of that! Ensure not to overwhip the butter and sugars, though, and you don’t want the cookies to flatten in the oven. Once the butter and sugars are creamed together to form a light and fluffy mixture, add the eggs, one at a time, mixing between additions. This ensures that the eggs are mixed in well and do not over-saturate the butter mixture by adding them all at once. You want to mix the eggs in well enough that the entire mix becomes one homogenous mixture while not overmixing to the point that you are adding more air - you’ve already done that. To allow for the least amount of gluten development possible, we will combine the additions of the rest of the ingredients. Over the bowl of the mixer, sift together the dry ingredients and add the chocolate chips. Mix until just combined. This is the part where everyone rolls their eyes at me. Scoop your cookies all onto one or two trays, cover them with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge for at least twenty-four hours. Trust me, it works. Doing this allows for a fantastic flavour to develop and the flour to fully hydrate, giving you a perfect cookie that you haven’t been able to have in forever. When you are ready to bake, take the cookies out of the fridge and allow for them to soften just a bit. Preheat your oven to 325°F/160°C convection, or 350°F/175°C for conventional ovens. While the oven is preheating, spread out the cookies so that there are twelve to a tray and about two to four centimetres between the cookies. When the oven is ready, place two trays in the centre two racks and bake for approximately ten to twelve minutes until lightly golden around the edges and slightly undercooked in the centre. Allow these to cool just a bit before enjoying them with a cold glass of milk!
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mixing bowl
Stand mixer
Rubber spatula
Fridge
Baking sheets
Parchment
225 g unsalted butter (softened)
215 g dark brown sugar
170 g granulated sugar
10 g vanilla custard powder
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
355 g all-purpose flour
1½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
340 g dark chocolate chips
In a bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, and chocolate chips. Mix to combine.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugars, custard powder, and vanilla extract. Mix on medium speed until very light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions. Make sure to use a rubber spatula between additions to ensure the egg is fully incorporated.
Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and set in the fridge for at least two hours, or overnight.
Take the dough out of the fridge and set aside on the counter until it becomes softer.
Preheat the oven to 325°F/165°C for convection ovens or 350°F/175°C for conventional ovens. Divide the dough into twenty-four even pieces and roll into balls.
On two parchment-lined baking sheets, space out the cookies with at least two niches between them.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until slightly golden brown around the edges.
Serve warm with a glass of cold milk.