The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chewy center; crispy, caramelized edges, not too fat, not too thin, the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie! Below I will give you my secrets and tips for achieving the perfect chocolate chip cookie at altitude or sea level!! They are after-all the quintessential iconic American cookie!

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NOTE | This post was updated on 06/19/18

Well here I go, my first post. This past fall I was in a bit of a funk, kind of had the blah’s, so I spent some time praying and thinking about what I was passionate about, several days later I was browsing several food blogs that I enjoy; and it dawned on me, I get energized by cooking, baking, and hosting people in our home! The idea to start a food and hospitality blog began to take shape. I am honored and humbled that you, family and friends have chosen to view my site.

My hope for this blog is to encourage others to try something new, remove fears about adapting a recipe to your own likes, try a new recipe (or 10) and most importantly to invite others into your home. I recently read an article that there is a BIG difference between entertaining and hospitality, and I couldn’t agree more! Here is a quote from the author who does a beautiful job summing up the differences:

“Author Jen Wilkin, offers clarity between the eerily similar but vastly different practices: * Entertaining is always thinking about the next course. Hospitality burns the rolls because it was listening to a story. * Entertaining obsesses over what went wrong. Hospitality savors what was shared. * Entertaining, exhausted, says, “It was nothing, really!” Hospitality thinks it was nothing. Really.
* Entertaining seeks to impress. Hospitality seeks to bless.”

I am guilty of entertaining at times, but have been leaning more and more into hospitality in the last 10+ years. Not driving my family into a frenzied craze as I try and clean every room and nook and cranny, instead trying to be real more often than not, I’ve learned people don’t really “see” the mess, they see the fact that you invited them over, made them feel comfortable, listened and laughed and maybe even cried with them. So my hope is to encourage you in the wonderful art of hospitality, something truly beautiful happens between people when we invite them into our homes and hearts, mess and all.

If you want to read more about why I started The Fresh Cooky, check out my About page.

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So let’s get going and get this baby launched!

I must begin with my family’s very favorite cookie that I make almost weekly…truly! And you will find I do all sorts of things with the dough.

Yes, you read that right…altitude, though they probably have a little attitude as well! Living in the Mile High City baking can be a bit of a challenge at times. I’ve made it one of my goals to achieve the chewiest, most chocolatey, chocolate chip cookies since I moved to Colorado. I have tried all sorts of recipes, some have been good, some have flopped, but honestly the best recipe base I’ve found is right on the back of the Nestle Tollhouse package. In the fine print under the regular recipe are instructions for a high altitude variation and theirs has inspired my recipe with several few tweaks.

TIP | NOT AT ALTITUDE? No problem, I’ve given you the recipe adjustments for sea level, but please follow instructions below for the best, chewiest chocolate chip cookies!

I’m a bit of a cookie snob, okay, a humongous snob; I love warm, fresh from the oven, just slightly cooled cookies, day old cookies do not float my boat, just saying…here’s a picture of the magical ingredients.

Plop the room temp butter into your mixer and cream the heck out of it, whirl it around until it’s nice and creamy, about 2-3 minutes on medium-high. Scrap down sides.

TIP | Forgot to take out your butter? You may have to try this a few times to get the best results from your microwave, but I’ve found that 10-11 seconds softens is perfectly. Just don’t melt it! So start at 8-9 seconds and slowly find the best time for your microwave. You should be able to push your finger into the butter with gentle pressure to make a small indent.

Now pack your light brown sugar and drop it in the mixer, along with your sugar. Cream the sugars and butter together on medium-high, at least 2-4 minutes; you want it really fluffy and light, scrape down the sides about half way through.

TIP | If using natural cane sugar (versus refined white sugar) you will need to cream the sugar butter mixture longer, closer to the 4 minute range so that it breaks the larger crystals down further giving you a light, fluffy base.

Add your eggs one at a time with mixer on medium-high, mixing each egg for a full minute. Scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

While your eggs are whipping, measure your flour, soda and salt into a mixing bowl and use a whisk to gently mix the ingredients together.

Now add your vanilla. I eyeball mine, but feel free to use a teaspoon. A little extra vanilla never hurt my recipes!

Add your all-purpose flour with the mixer on the lowest setting so you don’t floof your flour all over your kitchen as I so often do! Add about ½ a cup at a time, mixing in a bit of the water* with each flour addition, let it mix for a second, then add more until all flour is incorporated, trying not to over mix. Scrape down sides and give it one last mix on low, making sure all of your flour is incorporated.

NOTE | Water not needed for those baking at sea level and not at altitude.

Add water while mixing in flour.

With the mixer on the lowest setting, add your chocolate chips, I typically give it a stir (setting) on low on the mixer, but fee free to mix them in by hand.

Now add your chocolate chunks, I can’t help but think of the the song, “Big and Chunky” from Madagascar 2…rather fitting I’d say. Chunky, chunky!! Turn mixer on lowest setting just one or two times around, or stir in by hand.

And lastly, add the mini chocolate chips.

Now you have a beautiful, doughy, chocolate-y chip goodness thang going on. One final mix to make sure those chips are evenly incorporated. Or just give it a good hand stir.

The dough at this point should be soft, fluffy and pretty sticky.

Using a medium scoop (2 Tablespoon, about the size of a large walnut) scoop your dough onto parchment lined cookie sheets, about 2-3 inches apart. I typically put 9 cookies on each sheet. Feel free to make them smaller too, sometimes I use a small scoop, if making small cookies, bake less time and you can fit 12 on a sheet pan.

Once you have filled a cookie sheet, place them in the fridge for 10 minutes. This is a CRITICAL step to the thick and chewy factor! This will allow the dough to firm up, flavors to mingle, doing some science-y thing that then allows them to spread perfectly and evenly while baking.

Now would be a great time to preheat your oven to 375°.

At this point you can freeze what you won’t be using, that way you will have cookie dough to pop in the oven anytime you need them, for perfectly fresh and warm cookies. Scoop the rest of the dough into balls while your first batch is chillin’. Place close together onto a wax paper or parchment lined quarter sheet pan, I love mine and as you can see it gets a lot of use in our home; freeze until firm.

After your cookie dough balls have spent at least 10 minutes in fridge, pop them into your preheated 375° oven for 8-10 minutes and repeat the process (chilling, baking, cooling, salting) until desired amount of cookies are baked.

WHY is CHILLING Cookie Dough so IMPORTANT?

Chilling the dough firms up the fat (butter, in this case) and gives the flour time to absorb liquid evenly. It reduces the dough’s stickiness, making it firm and much easier to work with, allowing for the flavors to permeate the dough completely. I do this with the majority of my cookies and they typically come out perfect and chewy every time!

Watch them closely, your oven might be hotter or cooler, so you may have to take them out at 8 or leave them in for 12 minutes. You want them only slightly golden, they should look done at the edges and a little “undone” at the center. My oven has them perfectly done to a thick, chewy, gooey, golden color in 10 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven to a cooling rack and if desired, sprinkle with a little flaky sea salt, if you have never tried a sprinkle of sea salt or fleur de sel on your cookies, you will be amazed!! Let cool for 2-3 minutes before removing to a wire rack for full cooling, if they make it that long. Store any un-eaten (yeah, right) cookies in an airtight container or freeze for later use.

TIP | They will firm up as they cool.

Once your previously scooped dough balls are firmly frozen, transfer them to a gallon freezer baggie, getting out as much air as possible, seal and put in freezer. These are also great to give as part of a meal for a friend, package up a dozen in a baggie, provide thawing and baking instructions and they will love you forever!

When ready to use your frozen dough, just pull out of freezer, place dough balls onto parchment lined cookie sheet letting them come to room-ish temp (about 10 minutes) while the oven preheats. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes and cool as described above. I also like to keep my freshly baked cookies wrapped in cellophane to keep fresh or I double them up, wrap them tightly and freeze, then they can be easily plopped into a lunch box, they will be perfectly thawed by lunchtime.

Making up the entire batch of cookies for a team feed, picnic, potluck? This is a fabulous way to transport these cookies so they don’t get smashed or broken, plus you can fit a LOT into the container.

TIPS for chewiest chocolate chip cookies:

• Always use real butter, not butter blends or substitutes.
• Always, always refrigerate your dough for at least 10 minutes prior to baking, up to 36 hours (covered).
• Remove from oven when edges are golden and appear baked, but centers still appear slightly under-baked.
• Cool on pan 2-3 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

Give these other Chewy Cookie Recipes a try!

Holiday M&M Chocolate Chip Cookies

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Heart
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies with Fleur de Sel
Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Maple Brown Sugar Frosting
Brownie Sandwich Cookies with Cookie Dough Frosting

RECOMMENDED FOR THIS RECIPE!

The Best Chewy Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Cookies

★★★★★

5 from 3 reviews

An American tradition, the ultimate chewy chocolate chip chewy cookie, crisp on the edges, soft, and chewy centers. Customized for high altitude, but adjustable for all elevations.

• Author: Kathleen | The Fresh Cooky
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins
• Total Time: 30 mins
• Yield: 36 cookies
• Category: Cookies
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks), softened butter (the real deal, no substitutes)
• ⅔ cup white sugar (I use, organic raw sugar) [¾ cup if not high altitude]
• ⅔ cup brown sugar, packed [¾ cup if not high altitude]
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 ½ cups flour [2 cups if not high altitude]
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 ¼ tsp salt
• 2 tsp water [omit, if not high altitude]
• 1 cup chocolate chips (use a good quality chocolate chip)
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips
• ⅔ cup chocolate chunks
• Flaky Sea Salt for sprinkling on top of baked cookies (optional) I love Maldon Flaky Sea Salt

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375°.
2. Cream softened butter in mixer, 1-2 minutes, until light and fluffy, scrape down edges of bowl.
3. Add both granulated and brown sugar and cream well, beat on medium-high for 2-4 minutes, scraping down sides about half way between. (About 4 minutes if using natural cane sugar).
4. Scrape down sides of bowl.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, cream on medium-high 1 minute for each egg addition, scrape down sides in between.
6. Add vanilla and mix well.
7. While creaming butter and sugar mixture; in a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda and salt gently with a whisk.
8. With mixer on low/stir, slowly pour in ½ cup of flour mixture at a time and gently mix, add water in between flour additions, don’t over mix.
9. Once mixed well, scrape sides of bowl and pour in chocolate chips, minis and chunks, stir (with low on mixer or by hand) on low, until combined.
10. Scoop into dough balls using a 2-tablespoon scoop onto a parchment lined cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.
11. Place in fridge 10 minutes prior to baking, bake 8-10 minutes until just set and slightly golden.
12. Cool on pan 2-3 minutes and then remove to cooling rack to cool completely.
13. Enjoy warm or room temp.

FREEZING COOKIE DOUGH

1. If not enjoying all the cookies at once, freeze dough balls until firm, then place in freezer ziplock bag until ready to use.
2. Once ready to bake, take out of freezer and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. Allow cookies to soften while the oven preheats to 375 degrees.. Bake as directed above.
3. Always fresh cookies!

Notes

TIPS for the Chewiest Cookies

• Always use real butter, not butter blends or substitutes.
• Always, always refrigerate your dough for at least 10 minutes prior to baking, up to 36 hours (covered); 2-3 months if frozen.
• Remove from oven when edges are golden and appear baked, but centers still appear slightly under-baked.
• Cool on pan 2-3 minutes before transferring to wire rack.

SMALLER OR LARGER COOKIES | If smaller cookies desired, use a small cookie scoop and bake for 6-8 minutes. If larger cookies are desired, use a large cookie scoop and bake 10-12 minutes.

© 2017 | This recipe for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies was featured first on The Fresh Cooky.

Keywords: Chocolate chip cookie, chocolate, cookie, best, chewy, high altitude, soft

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