The Foolproof Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe From The Wasteland Of My Childhood
⬇ No teasing — here’s the cross-section at the top of the recipe.
I have very few passions but baking is one of them. This is one of my favorite original recipes.
I have searched high and low most of my adult life for a chocolate chip cookie recipe as delicious as the lofty memories from my childhood. At some point before I reached double digits, I had the lord of all cookies, and I have been chasing its ecstasy ever since. I have likely romanticized it over the years, but I think that this recipe comes dangerously close. And it is definitely dangerous because there is no way you can eat a reasonable amount of these after baking them. R.I.P. to your diet.
I created this recipe through trial and error. I knew that I had perfected it after Thanksgiving of 2019. I had failed to make them in time for the holiday, but I still had all the ingredients, so I did them for myself at home in a countertop convection oven (my actual oven had been out-of-commission for months). Of all the times that I had tweaked this recipe before, this was the most resplendent. Enough time had passed since I had last made them and enough imitators had come and gone that I was able to judge them dispassionately.
Most of these ingredients you will already have in your kitchen. I’ll note where you can replace or substitute items in the footnote.
Dry Ingredients
2 1/4 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp instant coffee mix
1 1/2 11.5oz pack semi-sweet chocolate chips
Wet Ingredients
1 cup toasted butter (preferably full-fat European)
2 eggs
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp mixed essence
Instructions
1: Making toasted butter is easier than it sounds and it is an essential step for that flavorful, fragrant kick. Place the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring often until bubbly, fragrant, and golden brown. Transfer to a dish and allow to cool to room temperature. That’s all.
2: Preheat oven to 350°
3: Thoroughly combine all Dry Ingredients (flour, soda, salt, coffee, chocolate) in a large mixing bowl.
4: Cream together the cooled butter and sugars until homogenous. Add eggs and extracts and mix well.
5: Combine wet and dry ingredients until a thick, smooth dough is formed.
6: Using an oversized ice cream scoop, gather a rounded portion of dough. Roll it into a smooth ball. Place the cookies on a parchment paper-lined sheet 2 inches apart. For a flatter and more aesthetic cookie, lightly press down into the center of the balls with your thumb (do not flatten them completely, just significantly indent)
7: Bake at 350° for 16 minutes or until lightly bronzed. Cool on the tray for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
Now that you’ve made these cookies, I welcome you to the wasteland of my rural New Jersey childhood. Feast upon the treats of God and grow fat.
- This began as a base chocolate chip cookie recipe for a mail-order bakery company that my sister and I were planning to start.
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