3 min
October 16, 2022

The Best Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

The following chocolate chip cookie recipe from ChefSteps is made with a few minor changes (equipment, type of chips, size of cookies, bake time). Wherever you can, use good quality ingredients to elevate the deliciousness of these special treats.

I like to give them as gifts at Christmastime. Find really cute cookie tins (The Dollar Tree is surprisingly excellent for this) and load up the crevices of the tin with colorful holiday chocolates like red and green peanut M&Ms and Reeses’ Christmas bells. Be thoughtful in your candy choice. If you don’t like Hershey’s Kisses, what makes you think other people do?

EQUIPMENT

  • Digital scale
  • Small bowls
  • Sifter
  • 3 or 4 half-sheet pans (roughly 18”x13”)
  • Parchment paper
  • Oven
  • Stand mixer (or hand mixer and large metal bowl)
  • Cooling racks

INGREDIENTS

  • 287g butter, unsalted
  • 213g cane sugar
  • 213g brown sugar
  • 5g baking soda
  • 5.4g Kosher salt (my scale only rounds to the whole decimal, so 5 or 6 grams is fine)
  • 11.5g vanilla extract (11 or 12 grams is fine)
  • 100g eggs (it’s usually a little less than two large eggs)
  • 200g cake flour (bleached)
  • 200g bread flour 
  • 236g Godiva bittersweet chocolate chips (69% cacao) OR Guittard semisweet chocolate chips (49% cacao)
  • 200g Godiva white chocolate chips
  • Maldon salt                     

TIMING

  • Collect ingredients, measure in separate bowls, and make dough: 90 minutes
  • Refrigerate and rest: 3-5 hours
  • Bake time: 75 minutes
  • Total time: 5hrs 45min - 7hrs 45min

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LET’S GET STARTED

*Set out 3 sticks of butter overnight.

MEASURE AND MIX

Measure all ingredients in appropriate bowls (butter will be less than 3 sticks). If butter wasn’t left out overnight, microwave at 50% power in 20-second increments, taking care not to melt the butter. 

After measuring the flours, sift them together.

Add the softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer (I use a hand mixer and a big metal bowl), followed by the cane sugar and brown sugar. Mix on low speed until blended, making sure to scrape down the sides as you go until it’s evenly mixed.

In the same fashion, add baking soda, then mix. Add salt, then mix. Add vanilla extract, then mix. 

Add eggs one at a time. Mix until there are no visible egg streaks. 

Little by little, add the sifted flours, mixing until blended each time. 

Note: careful to add flour in small increments, as a lot at once will fly out of the bowl!

Unplug hand mixer. Remove metal mixers and lick off the dough. :)

Add the chocolate chips and use a wooden spatula to mix the dough until chips are evenly dispersed throughout.

Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper. Using a teaspoon, spoon dollops of cookie dough onto the sheets. (Depending on the size of your scoops, this should be anywhere from 55-65 cookies total.)

Note: Shape doesn’t matter; in fact, blobs are best. It also doesn’t matter how close the dollops are to each other because baking them will take place on a different sheet. As long as they’re not touching, they’re good!

REFRIGERATE AND REST

Place the sheets in the refrigerator, uncovered, for at least two hours and at most four hours. 

Place the sheets on the countertop and let rest at room temperature for one hour before baking.

BAKE AND EAT

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 more baking sheets with parchment paper. Place dollops of cookie dough onto each baking sheet with plenty of room in between (I usually do 8 or 9 cookies per sheet).

Place one sheet on middle oven rack. Only bake one sheet of cookies at a time for best results!

After 5 minutes, rotate pan 180 degrees. After another 5 minutes, remove sheet from oven and put second baking sheet (with 8 or 9 dollops of dough) into the oven. 

Note: If the cookies look a little under-baked, that’s good! They will continue to bake when pulled out of the oven. Besides, a little under-baked is the goal, anyway. 

While the newly baked cookies are still hot, sprinkle a generous amount of Maldon salt onto each one. Using a spatula, remove cookies one-by-one and place on a cooling rack. 

Re-line the baking sheet with more dough.

Repeat. 

This process requires you to remain in the kitchen the entire time. It will take about an hour and 15 minutes to finish all the cookies. 

It’s totally worth it. 

Cookies taste best for up to a week. Share with others or freeze the rest and enjoy later!