Chocolate Chip Cookies -Ten Top Tips to Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate Chip Cookies -Ten Top Tips to Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
I love chocolate chip cookies, who doesn’t?
Everyone is drawn to them for their own reasons, and with so many types of cookies to make, I can see why.
There are crunchy ones, chewy ones, ones with white chocolate, milk or dark chocolate chips.
My perfect chocolate chip cookie would have to be a double sized cookie with a soft chewy centre with a crispy outer rim.
Not that I’m picky or anything ha ha!
Having said that, if I’m offered a home-made choc chip cookie, I’m never going to say no to it.
I don’t feel the same way about shop bought cookies.
I think that anything that has a use by date of more than a month, doesn’t really have the same home-made taste I’m looking for.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a cookie snob, I love packet cookies, and usually can’t put the packet down once I’ve started them, dunking them into my hot drink is my favourite way to eat those, but there’s nothing as decadent as a working my way through a fresh batch of home-made chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven.
I’ve made a few in my time, few thousand more like it!
I’ve put together my top ten tips to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies along with a couple of recipes too, but if I’ve missed anything, let me know.
First things first, it’s impossible to have chocolate chip cookies without a recipe, so scroll to the end to find the perfect recipe to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie.
1) Let’s start with the chocolate
My preference in milk chocolate chips in my cookies but I know that there are so many different views out there, so I say, choose which chocolate you like the most and go with that, but let me just plant this little seed, try changing it up a little.
If you like more than one type of chocolate use both, or go for all of them, it’s about you and what you like most.
If you don’t have any chips around when you get a cooking urge, grab a chocolate bar and start chopping!
Having different sizes of chocolate chunks in my cookies is a real treat and chopping a chocolate bar up leaves behind lots of tasty chocolate crumbs on the chopping board, this to me is an extra bonus and adds to the cookies making them a darker shade with a subtle taste of chocolate all the way through.
My favourite chocolate to use isn’t anything expensive or difficult to find. The 200g bars of Lidl chocolate are the ones i prefer. The milk chocolate isn’t creamy, it has a darker side to it which makes it perfect for my taste, and the white, isn’t too sweet. Both together, and i’m in chocolate cookie heaven.
Lidl chocolate is my preference
2) Add extra
The way to get an extra indulgent cookie is to take the amount of chocolate chips the recipe specifies, and double it.
I know it goes against all the baking handbook 101 rules, but I don’t care, I want the decadence.
Don’t stop there with those chips!
Before baking, once the cookies are portioned out, pop a few more strategically positioned chocolate chips on the top so that when cooked, they melt and add even more yumm to the bite.
I do the same with vanilla.
Adding an extra teaspoon of the smooth extract gives my cookies an amazing lift, along with the extra chocolate, it’s a sure winner for me.
Go on, try it.
More is more
3) Butter every time
My rule for baking is butter for cookies and margarine for cakes, and there is no exception with chocolate chip cookies.
Butter in cookies helps the batter hold its shape when baking, margarine becomes too liquid making the cookies spread too much on the baking sheet.
Have the butter at room temperature but not so soft as to be runny and make sure that the butter isn’t warm (I know, a fine line), and then beat the butter with a paddle beater.
Yes, I said a paddle beater!
I stay away from the whisk attachment on my Kitchen Aid mixer when I’m in the cookie making frame of mind, I want a really good creaming between the butter and the sugar, but I don’t want to add lots of air to the mix.
So cream, cream and cream again until the egg and sugar mix is very pale and light ready to add the eggs.
4) Dry Ingredients- Not the time to over mix
Once the eggs have been beaten in with a paddle whisk it’s time to add the dry ingredients.
The tip I’ve got for this stage is the complete opposite to that of the butter and eggs.
Don’t over beat once the dry ingredients have been added.
The same with a cake, working the flour too much activates the gluten too soon which will make the cookies tough and virtually inedible.
To make life a little easier and to make sure that the baking powder gets evenly distributed, place the dry ingredients into a bowl and give them a quick roll around with a big spoon ready to be incorporated into the wet.
And then it’s time to get out that wooden spoon.
Using a wooden spoon to mix in the dry in ingredients, flour etc, makes it less likely that the dough will be over mixed, so it’s the way to go with cookies.
No need to be gentle, it’s ok to give it a good few stir, but once everything is incorporated that’s the time to stop.
Don’t over mix
5) Not all sugars are equal
Which sugar is used makes a difference to the cookie that comes out of the oven.
The sugar can affect the colour, flavour and even density of the cookie.
For a crispier cookie, mix together equal measures of castor and granulated.
Golden castor sugar has more molasses that regular white castor sugar giving it a little bit of a caramel even nuttier taste.
Light brown sugar will make a caramelised flavour with a softer texture to the middle.
Now if you’re looking for a more complex flavour to the chocolate chip cookie, go for dark soft brown sugar. Lots of molasses still left so the flavour is a rich, indulgent and caramelly as well as a chewy centre.
I think it’s worth trying all of the sugars to see which is the one for you.
Both light brown sugar and white castor sugar in this recipe
6) Not ready for the oven yet
It’s one thing rustling up a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies, and another to be left with a great batch of chocolate chip cookies.
To get the best shape on my cookie, chocolate chip or another flavour, the best tip is to cool them down in the fridge for around 30 minutes.
Cooling the shaped dough gives them the best chance to stay in shape and gives the best texture for the recipe used.
Remember, the choice of sugar is a factor in this?
Freeze them too!
What I love about the recipe above, is that it’s a great one for making ahead, not only to chill before baking, but to make batches up the point of shaping them and then freezing them in batches.
I do this a lot, making several batches at once, all different flavours or combinations of chocolate, freezing them and when I have people over for a cuppa, taking out a few of each to bake off.
It always makes people feel really special to think I’ve baked them especially for them!
Use a scoop to get them to come out of the oven the same size, ish!
7) Get them in the oven
Now, it’s time to get the cookie dough in the oven.
Ever wondered how others peoples cookies come out of the oven perfectly round and all the same size?
The answer is in the ice cream scoop.
Scooping out same size portions means every cooky is consistently the same and comes out of the scoop in that signature mound that’s seen all over the internet.
Of course, if you’ve not an ice cream scoop hidden in the draw or, like me can find it when I need it, pulling off blobs and weighing them, rolling into balls will give the same effect.
A mistake I see a lot is the greasing the baking tray.
Don’t do it, use non-stick baking parchment instead.
In the oven the oil or butter heats up quicker than the cookie dough making the dough too soggy and then spread out too quickly on the tray.
What’s left are flat spread-out cookies and more likely than not they’ll have a burnt bottom from the overheated oil too.
If your cookies do spread a little too much in the oven, it might be an easy fix to salvage them.
While they’re still hot from the oven, use a flat knife to give them a push back into shape before they cool.
8) How to know they’re cooked
The obvious way to know a cookie is cooked is to make sure they are brown, right?
Yes and no!
Chocolate chip cookies don’t take too long to bake but if they wait until they are brown, they will be overcooked.
Look for light golden-brown spots barely dotted on the top of the cookies, rather than wait until they are covered.
Once the cookies are out of the oven they will carry on cooking and hardening while still on the tray, so having them a little under, is not necessary a bad thing.
Take them out of the oven before they are brown all over
9) Let them rest
The smell of the hot cookies long s enough to make me want to dive into them before they’re cool enough not to scorch my mouth, but I’ve learnt over time that if I want the cookies to stay looking like cookies, let them cool for at least 10 minutes first.
Leave the out of the cookies on the tray to cool, don’t try to move them or they will break up, once you can handle them without them crumbling, all bets are off and they are up for grabs.
Double chocolate yummmmmm!
10) And the rest
If you’ve frozen them, no need to defrost them before cooking.
Put the frozen cookies straight onto an oven tray covered in non-stick baking parchment and straight into a hot oven.
You may need to add a minute to the cooking time though.
Chocolate goes really well with so many other things, so why not add them?
Try these combinations:
Choc ‘chip & hazelnut,
Choc ’chip & Cranberry
Choc ‘ chip & peanut butter
Choc ‘ chip & banana
Choc’ chip & oat
Choc ‘chip & raisin
White chocolate and raisin cookies
Heres my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. This recipe will make thin, soft, chewy cookies just the way i like them, but if you want the less chewy, substitute the brown sugar for 90g of castor sugar.
Soft and Chewy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
What You Need
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
200g Plain Flour
125g Butter – Room Temperature
120g Light Brown Sugar - See Tip Box
90g Castor Sugar
1 Large Egg
1 Tsp vanilla
200g Milk Chocolate chips – See Tip Box
100g White Chocolate – See Tip Box
One is never enough for me
How It’s Done
Place the room temperature butter and both sugars into a mixing bowl of an electric mixer and, using a paddle blade, beat until the mix is very light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla and give it another beat.
Add the egg and beat again for another few minutes to really get it in there and add to the lightness
Add the flour and bicarbonate soda into a bowl and give it a bit of a mix to combine.
Remove the paddle blade and add the flour and baking powder with a spoon – See Tip Box
Add the chocolate chips and mix in so they are evenly mixed in – See Tip Box
Portion the cookie dough out onto an oven tray which has been covered in non-stick baking parchment around 2 inches apart
Place the trays with the cookies in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven up to 180c
Remove the cookies from the fridge after 30 minutes and place in the hot oven until golden spots are on the top pf the cookies. – around 9 minutes – See Tip Box
Once cooked, remove the trays from the oven and let the cookies cool n them for around 10 minutes before removing them to a cooling wrack
Tip Box
Don’t want them chewy? – If you’d like the cookies less chewy, substitute the brown sugar for 90g of castor sugar.
Chocolate- 1) I’ve stipulated chocolate chips but I prefer to use chopped chocolate from a chocolate bar.
2) Don’t over mix them into the dough otherwise the cookies will be tough to eat.
Flour – Don’t over mix when adding the flour, just mix enough to combine it.
Cooking time – Every oven is different so adjust cooking times accordingly
If you want to change it up-If you want to change the flavour of the cookie, replace one of the chocolates for another taste profile such as raisins.
Crispy around the outside, soft and chewy in the middle.
