Classic Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies
Updated: Dec 16, 2021
Let Baker Mary take you back to your childhood. Imagine going to grandma's house. Granny has baked a fresh batch of soft, baked, chocolate chip cookies with crispy edges and a chocolatey gooey center. When we were children we got tempted to eat the piping hot cookies straight off the cookie sheet. We risked burning the roofs of our mouths for the ultimate cookie experience.
As bakers, we pride ourselves on creating the ULTIMATE chocolate chip cookie. We want to recreate granny's experience in one bite. Making chocolate chip cookies is deliciously effortless. As long as you have the correct ingredients and appropriate bakeware you can whip these cookies in a snap.
JUMP TO RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
The ingredients that are in Baker Mary's chocolate chip recipe are probably what you already have laying around in your cupboard or fridge. Butter, all purpose flour, eggs, salt, baking soda....we always have that!
The secret to her cookies are "buerre noisette." That is just a fancy French term for brown butter. Brown butter is butter that has been melted down and cooked slowly until the butter turns dark, golden brown. When you continuously cook the butter after the melting point, the fat will separate from the milk. The milk will sink to the bottom of the pan and caramelize. Buerre noisette has a nutty flavor and a butterscotch aroma. Not only is brown butter delicious in cookies but it works in savory dishes as well. Try tossing potato wedges in buerre noisette and ground rosemary then place on a baking sheet that is lined with parchment paper. Cook the potatoes at 375F for 45 minutes. Your guest will believe you bought your baked potatoes from the restaurant. The brown butter is guaranteed to elevate any side dish.
Baker Mary why did you add brown butter in your chocolate chip cookie recipe?
"The addition of brown butter in chocolate chip cookies makes the cookies have a pronounced, nutty, bittersweet, caramel flavor that pairs well with dark chocolate. It is as if a peanut butter cookie and butterscotch candy became one cookie, without the added nuts"
DO NOT FORGET THE SALT
Remember to add fine, kosher salt in your cookie dough. The salt should be fine to distribute evenly throughout the dough. Salt is needed in this recipe to enhance the chocolate flavor and mellow out the sweetness. A trick from Baker Mary, is to add flaked sea salt on top of each pre-scooped cookie dough before it hits the oven. The first bite into the cookie with flaked sea salt will do two things. One; it prepares your taste buds to experience the sweetness and chocolatiness of the cookie. The second role sea salt plays is extra texture. The added crunch of the sea flake, makes the cookie that more enjoyable to munch on.
INSTANT COFFEE
Ohhh the fears of adding coffee in a cookie. Worrying about the addition of coffee creating a mocha cookie instead of chocolate chip. "Will my kids be up all night eating this cookie?" Two teaspoons of instant coffee for a whole batch of cookies will not keep your kids up and the cookie will not magically turn into a mocha creation. The addition of coffee in a chocolate chip cookie is added for one reason only.
Coffee pairs excellently with dark chocolate. It will turn a basic chocolate chip cookie into an INTENSE chocolate bite.
BAKEWARE
Believe it or not, a crucial factor into making chocolate chip cookies is the baking time with the appropriate bakeware. You need a sheet pan or cookie sheet that has the right metal thickness to distribute the heat evenly to your cookies. The thickness of the metal cannot be too thin or cookies will over bake and be extra crunchy. The metal cannot be too heavy either, because who wants to wait an hour for a cookie! Not only that, the longer the cookie takes to bake the more butter will release, equaling one FLAT COOKIE! Baker Mary likes to bake her cookies on a Crown Cookware Cookie Magic Sheet for a couple of reasons:
The gauge is 16, which is the perfect thickness of metal.
Crown Cookware manufactures their products with pure food-grade aluminum. BONUS: They are Canadian manufacturer!
Their baking trays has no crazy coatings on it, I only like to bake with products that are non-toxic. Over time coatings on cookie sheets can peel, and chip into the baked treats. DANGEROUS: can cause health problems in the future.
Each aluminum pan features a flat surface with two tapered raised edges for extra stability and easy handling and cleaning
The two tapered raised edges make it easier to cool and remove cookies from the baking pan. The cookies and baked goods SLIDE RIGHT OFF!
The trick to perfectly, baked cookies is the temperature of your oven. You want to bake your cookies at 345F. You want to take your cookies out of the oven 5 minutes before they are finished baking. Cookies continue to bake on the baking tray out of the oven. If you happen to take your cookies out and think it needs 5 more minutes, they are probably finished baking. You want to achieve crispy edges and and a soft, chewy interior.
"Make sure to cool your HOT cookies on a cooling rack or baker's rack. This stops the baking process. Cooling cookies on a wire rack ensures perfectly, baked cookies with crispy bottoms, instead of a soggy treat.
Baker Mary
Another trick is to refrigerate your scooped cookie dough at least 2 hours before baking. Refrigerating your cookie dough helps maintain the cookies' shape when it hits the hot oven. It will spread less during the baking process.
BAKER MARY'S CLASSIC CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE
Yields 25 Cookies
Ingredients
1.5 Cups Brown Butter
3 Cups All Purpose Flour
1.5 tsp Salt
1.5 tsp baking Soda
3 Eggs
1 ¼ granulated sugar
2 Tbsp Cold water
2 Tbsp Vanilla Extract
¾ cup Brown Sugar
2 Tsp Instant Coffee
2 cup dark chocolate chunks
1 cup milk chocolate chips
1 Tbsp Maldon salt
Method
Line three Crown Cookware Cookie Magic Sheets with parchment paper.
In a large bowl mix cooled, melted, brown butter with vanilla extract, cold water, sugars and instant coffee. Mix until fluffy and well combined and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, and cream mixture until light and fluffy.
In a separate bowl mix all purpose flour with salt and baking soda.
Add flour mixture to creamed sugar mixture. Mix until flour is combined. Do not over mix.
Mix chocolate chips into the cookie dough.
Scoop cookie dough into 1oz scoops, onto prepared Cookie Magic Sheets.
Refrigerate raw cookies for 1hour.
Add a pinch of malden salt on top of each cookie.
Bake cookies at 345F for 10-15minutes (Must be straight out of the fridge)
Cool on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.
Freshly baked, homemade, chocolate chip cookies! They are best eaten at room temperature.
Store in an air tight container, these cookies can stay fresh up to 5 days. We doubt there will be any leftovers. These cookies are seriously addictive. Once the cookies come out of the oven, the smell will take you back to childhood lane.
As you take your first bite, you taste salt but will vanish quickly, followed by a sweet caramel note from the brown butter. Take a second bite and notice the melted chocolate, with an intense cocoa flavor. Crispy edges, with a soft inside. You dive into another cookie.