This cookie is what has been missing from our baking collection…
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Years ago in England, we tasted the perfect chocolate chip cookie. We have tried many recipes and have eaten a lot of delicious cookies, but it never completely resembled that celestial one from our memory. Recently we have tried it again and we believe we succeeded in our experiment.
What’s the difference with other cookies?
The average cookie you buy in the shops is fully baked until it is completely dry and crisp. The same applies to the chocolate chip cookies in the supermarket. This is of course done for the shelf life. In the Netherlands we are used to the fact that every cookie is and should be this way. But in countries like the US you will more often find cookies that can be described as ‘moist’ and ‘chewy’. These other textures make a cookie more interesting and above all tasty. As home bakers we are lucky we can make this type of cookie ourselves without worrying about long shelf life. Just bake, eat fresh and store what’s left in your freezer.
This recipe provides a cookie with crispy edges and a soft center, a sticky texture that you can deliciously chew. In order to get this texture you do need to follow the instructions and ratio of ingredients. The fridge and oven times also determine the final result. Yes, there’s a lot of sugar compared to the flour, that’s right, but just look at this cookie like a pastry or slice of cake. The method may be a little different than you are used to, but it’s certainly not difficult!
Happy baking!
Ingredients for the perfect Choc Chip Cookies
makes 10 cookies
110 g butter room temperature
50 g soft light brown sugar (muscovado)
50 g soft dark brown sugar (muscovado)
90 g granulated sugar
2.5 g salt
2.5 g Baking soda
50 g egg (1 small egg)
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g Pastry flour
40 g milk chocolate chopped
40 g dark chocolate chopped
35 g chopped pecan nuts (optional)
The use of the different types of sugar gives your cookie a delicious taste with tones of coffee and caramel. You can experiment with this yourself by changing the ratio.
The method
- Combine the butter with all the sugar (light, dark and granulated), salt and baking soda into a bowl. Mix the ingredients until light and airy. We prefer using a hand mixer and beat for 2 to 3 minutes on medium speed. You can also use a standing mixer but will need to scrape the bowl a few times.
- In a cup, beat the egg with the vanilla extract until combined. Add this mixture little by little to the butter-sugar mixture while mixing on medium speed. When all the egg is added, beat the mixture for another minute at high speed.
- Now add the flour, chocolate pieces and chopped pecans. Bring the mixture together to form a dough with a spatula or dough whisk and finish to form a smooth dough with your hands.
- Preheat the oven to 175 ºC / 345 ºF conventional setting.
- Divide your cookie dough into 10 equal parts (around 65g). Use a scale to ensure the biscuits are cooked evenly during baking. Shape into 10 balls and place them in the refrigerator to cool for 15 minutes. This is important for the structure of the cookies. The cold will aid to delay the spreading in the oven. The cookies hold a certain height which will give room to that nice structure we were talking about in the introduction of this recipe.
- Place the 10 balls on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Leave enough space so the cookies can spread without touching each other.
- Bake the cookies in the preheated oven for 15-17 minutes. Each oven is different, so you may need to experiment with temperatures and time for the perfect result.
- Cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before sinking your teeth into a cookie! If and when you have some cookies left, you can store them in your freezer.
- If you want to play with the cookie structure, you can carefully flatten the cookies right after they come out of the oven (for example with the back of a jam jar). Doing this will make the cookies a bit more compact,chewy and moist inside. We prefer the cookie without this extra flattening. Experiment with both and see what makes you happy!
CarolineM says
Great recipe!
I always shape my dough into a log, then wrap tightly in cling film (and if frozen in foil too) and freeze or fridge.
Once cold, I cut chunky slices off it, recover and bake only as many as I need.
I do find my cooking time is far shorter than yours.
Baking from frozen is my preference. Delicious smelling home anytime!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Caroline,
Thank you for sharing your great tip on ‘keeping it fresh’. Very useful!
About the cooking time, could it be that your cookies are a lot smaller than our 65 gram cookies, because if we would bake them for a far shorter time they would still be quite raw.
And you are right, with your method you can have that fresh cookie smell more often. Excellent!
Irene Loh says
Super yummy cookies. I only used light brown and white sugar but the taste and texture was already perfect. Brought them to a party and paired them with vanilla ice cream, yummy! The first batch came out a bit flat but after freezing overnight, they were like yours!
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Irene,
Thanks for sharing your experience. And great tip about the freezing, we have not tried this yet, but it will be a very good one to try and can also help other bakers.
Enjoy the cookies and ice cream!
Douglas says
The taste was great, but my cookies came out flat and huge. Do I need to get the dough colder or do I need to get my oven hotter or a combination of both to get that thicker cookie?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi again Douglas,
Great you tried the cookies. With some tweaking you will get it right, no problem. First it is indeed a good idea for the dough to be colder, so little bit extra fridge time (our fridge is around 5 to 6 C). Also, just to make sure, the cookies go into the oven as balls, so do not flatten them or anything. Lastly it could be your true oven temp deviates from ours and you would get a better result by a slightly higher setting. Also always resist the temptation to open the oven door during baking if a recipe does not call for this, because a lot of heat is lost this way with most ovens.
Hope you give it a few more tries.
Douglas says
So I finally got around to making them a second time. The third tray of cookies cane out like your photos after resting in my fridge for 45 minutes at 39 F / 4 C. An extra thermometer in the oven said I was at 355 F. Not sure why I need the cookies to be so cold to make it work, but that’s the solution for me.
Also, since I always make a double batch (6 family members x 3 cookies each + the 2 I will eat for “testing” purposes = 20), my flour here in the USA needs 3 eggs rather than 2 to get a batter that holds its shape better. I also used the higher butter fat Kerrygold unsalted butter to try and slow down the melt.
Weekend Bakers says
Great Douglas,
And again your flour seems to absorb so much more liquid. The butter we use over here always has a fat % of 82.
Enjoy the cookies with your family!
Recour Luc says
excellent merci pour les explications claires amitiés
Weekend Bakers says
merci à vous Luc!
Terri Arens says
Hello!
These just came out of the oven and they are, indeed, THE PERFECT chocolate chip cookie! This is now the only receipe for chocolate chip cookies I will ever use!
Thank you!
Terri
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Terri,
Excellent! So glad you like it too. Mixing it up with other nuts and white chocolate pieces also very good!
Happy cookie baking and sharing,
Marieke
Pieter says
Hi there,
I made these and it came out fantastic. Really easy and quick. Thank you for the great recipe. A real winner!
Kind regards
Pieter
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Pieter for the excellent feedback. Very glad to hear it. They are a big hit with anyone we bake them for. The big weekend batch again was gone in no time over here.
Greetings,
Marieke