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.
Yuu use “dark chocolate ” in your recipe—you don’t specify what percentage——how bitter? how sweet? semi-sweet?
Thanks
It is totally up to you. The darker the chocolate, the richer however more bitter taste it will have. Personal preference.
You know what’s so great about this recipe? Well, it definitely tastes great – everyone loved them – but what I think is fantastic is that you can freeze the dough so that you don’t end-up baking several dozen cookies in one go – and you can take them out and bake them 4 at a time if you really want. :))))
Hey you twos. Would you please translate the measurements into cups for me? Thank you so much!
hey todd–
ns’s current fave are the Times cookies. i have a great pix but don’t know how to post in comments. will put it on my blog. when i make your. maybe this evening. will let you know, but also… if you get back to me in time, would love to know what kind of chocolate you are using.
carolynn – We’ve still to try the NY Times recipe. I, too dislike having to use 2 diff. flours so I’ve dragged my feet about it. Plus these are so damn good. I’ve never tried resting the dough in the fridge for that long of a period, but I also never cook the dough directly after mixing. It nearly always gets rolled and frozen, or at least chilled for a couple hours. Looks like it is time for cookie lab work. I’d love to hear Nancy’s take on the cookies, although I’m sure she has her own favorite that she has crafted herself. That woman’s desserts are incredible. Thanks for sharing. Todd.
hi–have you tried what may be the Toll House of the Foodie Generation–the now legendary New York Times recipe–? i get annoyed that it calls for two different flours, neither of which you can get at grocery stores (i get them at Surfas), but they ARE delicious and they have a great chewy rise-and-fall texture. they call for letting the dough rest in the fridge for at least 36 hours–and it does make a difference. i’ve tested that out with impatience. (i wonder if yours could be even better using that tip?) my friend queen of baking herself Nancy Silverton, and i made the times cookies at her house in Italy last summer (we brought over the ingreds). i’m going to try yours and bring some to her! will let you know how it goes….
carolynn
in case you don’t know, this is a chocolate chipper!
http://carolynncarreno.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/ladies-and-gentlemen-this-is-a-chocolate-chipper/
Sophie – Thanks and you’re welcome!
RecipeGirl – We’ll start putting up more baking stuff in the future. I always love desserts, we just haven’t posted them that much yet. Weighing, besides accuracy, also makes it easier to dirty less bowls. Love that.
jen – Thanks, sweetheart. Ahh those banh xeo are so tasty. We don’t have a recipe posted yet. We’ve been wanting to do a video for it and haven’t made the time to put everything together. I’ll email it to you for your dining pleasure. xxoo.
Lori – My mom taught me well!
Susan – Often flat cookies are the result of a little too much sugar. Could be the recipe or sometimes inaccurate measuring (that’s why we scale.) I love the cookies fluffy & chewy!
yvonne – Not sure the brand. Local store sells cut bulk chunks labeled as French Vanilla Dark Chocolate. Have yet to see the whole name on the pieces. It’s tasty, though.
Manggy – Extra chunks for you!
Lily – I have to minimize the amount baked or else I’d be super chunky. I eat them all, munching every time I go past their storage spot. Like the espresso powder touch. Excellent idea.
Thanks for visiting and sharing everyone. Todd.
Great images (as always) and wonderful recipe. I always keep frozen choc chip dough in the freezer for those “just in case” moments, but after reading this, it is time to make up a new batch… I sometimes add a few tbsps of espresso powder into the dough and it gives the cookie a nice subtle mocha flavor that compliments the chocolate. I think that is why I keep the dough frozen… much more difficult to get at and eat the entire thing in a single sitting!!!
I think the number one secret to a really good cookie is the chocolate chunks, above everything else 🙂 (or maybe that’s what I tell myself because I can’t find/afford Plugra) Those look perfect indeed. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
what kind of chocolate bar did you use? looks amazing!
I’m with you on using good butter. It really does make a difference! The cookies look perfect! I hate when they flatten out like pancakes!
I love those nice big chunks of DARK chocolate! 🙂
Fabooooo cookies! I’m not surprised to see a baking recipe on here – you two do EVERYTHING. You know, I dreamt of your Vietnamese crepes last night (while fasting before my c-scopy this morning – ugh). Is that recipe on here? I must find it. It means a lot when I’m dreaming of YOUR food 🙂 xxoo
Fun to see baked goods on your site… not the usual for you guys! You know, I bake A LOT and I have never really even thought about how much things change if you actually weight the ingredients. And the butter too… I’m definitely going to try using a high quality butter sometime to see how much different that is. Thanks for the tips!
Hélène – Hope you love them as much as we do.
Kathy – Thanks. Rolling them into a log makes it fairly easy to have them nice and consistent. The only problem is with the chunks of chocolate sometimes being in the line of the cut. But I’ll just patch up the shortened piece with a little extra dough.
sharon – Thanks. They were tasty. We try to always have a log or two frozen to slice of in time of need.
Thanks for visiting everyone. Todd.
MMMMMM…your cookies look FABULOUS!!
Thanks for the tips too!!!