Chocolate Chip or Chunk Cookies
Our chocolate chip cookies recipe is an oldie but goodie! We’ll often make these cookies with chocolate chunks (cutting up bars or blocks of chocolate), but chocolate chips are perfect and easy too. It just depends on how much you are craving that big chocolate ooze!
Nothing brings unadulterated joy like a perfectly baked, warm, soft chocolate chip cookie. The whole process of making the cookies; the smell of the chocolate, licking the finished beaters, using the edges of my finger to scrape every last bit of dough from the bowl, the scent of the cookies right before they are done in the oven, and finally to breaking into the still warm cookies, chocolate oozing and quickly swooping in with the other hand in order to not lose a drop of deliciousness, they all take me back to my childhood days on the ranch when we would get treated to a batch of homemade cookies from mom.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
It took years of recipe tryouts to find the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. It wasn’t until we bought Bo Friberg’s Professional Pastry Chef cookbook that the search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe ended. His chocolate chip cookie recipe was the best we’d ever had, and has yet to be trumped. Over the years I’ve tweaked this chocolate chip cookie recipe. I make them with cut up chunks of good quality dark chocolate, rather than chocolate chips. I’ve also found it makes a big difference to not skimp on two other key ingredients.
If at all possible, I try to always use Plugra European style butter for these chocolate chip cookies. No other butter tastes as good unless you spend an impractical amount of money. At least for what we have available in our area. And the salt must be a good sea salt or kosher salt. It seems trivial being such a small fraction of the recipe, but the taste isn’t as good without that little detail. So don’t skimp on those three things, good dark chocolate, good unsalted butter, and good salt.
A few cookie cooking tips.
Cookies may be a hugely common dessert, but they can actually be fairly finicky. A 30 second lapse in cooking time will affect the cookies texture a good deal. Under bake these chocolate chunk cookies slightly to help them stay soft and chewy.
Ingredients are best weighed for accuracy. If you are heavy handed with the sugar, they will cook runnier, leaving you with a flatter, crispier cookie. That’s not what I’m what I really like in a chocolate chip cookie, but if that’s what you like, enjoy. Too much flour and you’ll loose the chewiness that make these so tasty. If you make the cookies bigger, drop the temp. 25° and increase the baking times. This recipe is easily doubled, so make more dough than what you need and freeze the extra. There should always be some cookie dough ready to bake in the freezer.
For the uninitiated on cookie log rolling, here is a quick tip on how to roll your cookie dough into a log: Lay out a sheet of plastic wrap. Lay the roughly shaped log on the wrap and roll it up inside the plastic wrap. Smooth out the log, using your thumb and forefinger in an “ok” sign, and by rolling the log on the counter top or cutting board. When the log is even, unwrap the plastic wrap to remove all the wrinkles, then roll it up again, smooth as silk (sort of).
All of you twitter followers were delightfully tormented and teased by my precious Diane with pics of these chocolate chip cookies presented in a tantalizing fashion. In order to not be out brattied by her, I won’t be sharing the secret sweetness with the rest of you. Not yet. Maybe tomorrow. However, today everyone will be getting the basic recipe for these delectable chocolate chunk cookies. So tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of Chocolate Chunk Cookies, and until then pull out the good butter and make your sweetie a batch of chocolate joy!
– Todd.
Chocolate Chip or Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all-purpose, unbleached Flour
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml ) Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Baking Powder
- 1 cup (227 g) Butter , at room temp.
- 3/4 cup (165 g) packed Brown Sugar
- 3/4 cup (150 g) Granulated Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Vanilla Extract
- 12 oz. (340 g) Dark Chocolate (cut into 1/2" chunks or smaller) , or dark chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line a baking sheet pan with a silpat or parchment paper.
- In a bowl, whisk together the 2 1/4 cups (280g) flour, 1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) of salt, teaspoon (5ml) of baking soda, and 1/2 teaspoon (2.5ml) of baking powder. Set aside.
- Using a mixer (hand mixer or stand mixer) with the beater blade, beat together the 1 cup (227g) butter, 3/4 cup (165g) brown sugar, and 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
- Stir the flour mixture into the batter until just combined, then stir in the chocolate chunks.
- Portion the Cookies - Option 1: Chill the dough for about an hour or until no longer soft. Scoop into ping pong sized balls using a medium cookie scoop. If not using soon, place in a ziplock & freeze the for future use. If baking now, place onto the prepared sheet pan.
- Portion the Cookies - Option 2: Roll into 1 1/2" thick logs. If not using soon, freeze the logs for future use, otherwise chill the dough for at least 1 hour or until no longer soft, then cut the cookies into equal portions, about 3/4" thick. Pat the discs even and circular then place on the prepared sheet pan. Space the cookies so they won't bake into each other when they spread.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Bake at 350°F (175°C) for @ 12-14 minutes, making sure to take them out when they are still slightly underdone looking. They will be a light golden brown on the outside edges.
- After the cookies cool for a minute or two, then transfer to a cooling rack and allow them to cool enough that the chocolate won't burn your mouth before eating.
The chocolate chunks were just perfect. And the cookies were nice and tender. Really great recipe.
I go to your site anytime I need a recipe. I have made these cookies a few times and they are always great. I always mess around when I cook so I added some almond flower and melted down my chips with orange zest and orange extract. Then freeze it and chop it into chunks so the chocolate has an orange flavor. It is good good. Thank you!!!
You can use these making two subs as well: white chocolate for dark chocolate; macadamia nuts for walnuts.
I agree this is the best recipe I have found for these to date. In general, all Friberg’s cookie recipes trump Gisslen’s without the bat of an eyelash. I wonder if Ewald Notter had anything better.
Basic question which I feel a little silly asking: If I prep these ahead of time and freeze them, can they go straight from the freezer into the oven or do they need to defrost first? If they’re baked frozen, do I need to adjust the baking temp or time? Thank you!
Hi Kelly,
It is a very good question. We usually take them out of the freezer when we first turn on the oven. By the time the oven is at temperature (plus another 15 minutes or so to make sure it is settled in at that temp.), the cookies have defrosted the perfect amount to cook to the same time or at least within a minute or so of perfect. If you are baking straight from the freezer to the oven, the cookies will stay a little more ball-like, and you’ll probably need to cook them for a little bit longer.
Enjoy!
Thank you for so many wonderful recipes and this one is definitely one of my favorites, it has now been my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe and everyone LOVES them. I just did a little twist on it by browning the butter (and letting it resolidify) and toasting the flour, it was absolutely DELICIOUS!!! a little denser and had a nutty flavor. I discovered the hard way that the flour needs to be sifted after toasting.
Thank you ! =)
Ciao!
We fall in love with this cookies & the pizookie… from the first time I baked for my family ( a couple of years I think…!).
Our big boy is going to have his six birthday party,and ask me for this cookies but with M & M’S insted of the chocolate chunk, do you think this will work? do I have to change something?
Thank you & saluti ! ^_^
Hi Candela. You can directly substitute the M&M’s for the chocolate chunks in the recipe. Have a great birthday party!
T
I made these last night to satisfy a craving and they were delicious! Not only did they taste great, they looked perfect, too. I did use half bread flour and half AP because I had it on hand, though I’m not sure if it really made a difference or not.
Awesome. These are one of the few that we always keep the dough on hand in the freezer. So glad you loved them too. The bread flour probably didn’t make much difference at all, especially since you only used half. I’ve done that a few times too and couldn’t really tell it apart from a regular batch.
Lately, I’ve been using around 1 1/4 cup white whole wheat and 1 3/4 all-purpose. I’ve also made them with all all-purpose flour and haven’t really noticed much of a difference (I only use the whole wheat flour by request). Since I first tried this recipe, I’ve been making a batch every week! Rolling the dough in logs makes it a lot easier to store and to handle. Thanks again for the recipe!
These sound (and look) perfect. Thanks for adding all the helpful tips too! I’m on a quest for the best CCC recipes and I hope you’ll add this post to the Chocolate Chip Cookie Challenge link-up. Learn more here: http://bit.ly/NOm7mT
Making these this afternoon for my husband… can’t wait to try the log method, and to be more careful with the oven time! That always gets me…
after making these the normal way a few times, i tried making them with chopped up heath bars. highly recommend!
Hi! Inexperienced baker here.
I made these cookies tonight (both the regular and deep dish versions) and while they look absolutely perfect I found them to be somewhat dry. Granted i did not use all 350 grams of chocolate, but they still almost demand the vanilla ice cream or a big glass of milk accompaniment. I’m not sure if it’s something i did or if it’s just a differing of taste-buds. Thanks for the recipe though! Loved the logging technique too.
Hi Alexis.
Cookies with all butter as the fat agent can be a bit sensitive. If you over bake them by as much as a minute they will be tough and dry. Usually aim for underbaking. You can also substitute a bit of lard or vegetable shortening for the butter to make it easier to have a softer texture, but the flavor won’t be quite as good in our experience. Good luck.
Todd
I am such an inexperienced baker but want to try these AMAZING looking cookies, do you have chocolate brand suggestions for these cookies? I love your site, it is so inspiring especially to total novices like myself…. ๐
I have been on a CCC making bender this month and as of this moment my favorite is the Cooks Illustrated (with melted butter) and using ghiradelli 60% dark chocolate chips. I would love to try these, can I just form into balls and flatten instead of rolling into logs?
Hi Katie,
Yep. We just roll them into logs to make it easier to freeze and roll into cookies later. If you want to make them into balls, I wouldn’t bother flattening them, as they’ll spread and relax when baking. The dough still benefits from chilling so it doesn’t flatten too much when baking, but that is our personal preference for thicker cookies. I’d chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes to an hour before balling and baking. Good luck!
Hi, I recently subscribed to your blog (I found a link to your blog on David Lebovitz’s blog) and stumbled upon this entry. I was wondering if you ever did post the Part 2 of the Chocolate Chunk Cookies. Thanks.
Hi Flo,
David has such a great site, doesn’t he.
We did post Part 2. It was about Pizookies – fresh baked cookies with ice cream. You can find the post here. Be careful, they are highly addicting, especially when using one of David’s ice cream recipes!
I am a huge chocolate chip cookie fan…but am very picky about taste…so in constant search of a perfect recipe. I like the Plugra butter as well and think it makes a big difference. When you say dark chocolate…is there a certain brand that you favor? Thanks for sharing your recipe!! Can’t wait to try it….and your photography…amazing!
Unfortunately, we don’t know the exact brand. We buy our chocolate in bulk chunks cut from a larger block at a local store. Occasionally we’ll also use the Trader Joes Dark Chocolate 1 lb bars, but most of our chocolate supply is from this mystery chocolatier. The flavor and texture is great and the price is good.