Over the past couple years I’ve started to bring baked goods to school for clubs and my friends, and requests for my recipes quickly piled up. After receiving many for my now somewhat famous chocolate chip cookies, I’ve finally decided to give my variation of the recipe, as well as some advice on how to make them. Whether you’re baking these for friends and family, or eating the whole tray yourself (in true Bard fashion 😉 I guarantee that these chocolate chip cookies will not disappoint!
Total baking time: ~1 hour
Servings: ~18-30 cookies (depending on the size when baked)
Ingredients:
▢ 2½ cups all-purpose flour
▢ ¾ teaspoon baking soda
▢ ¾ teaspoon salt
▢ 1 cup unsalted butter softened
▢ ¾ cup light brown sugar
▢ ½ cup granulated sugar
▢ 1 large egg
▢ 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
▢ 1½ cups chocolate chips
▢ Flaked sea salt (optional)
Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a tray with parchment paper or grease the bottom.
2. In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, use a stand mixer or hand mixer to combine the butter with both sugars, scraping down the sides of the bowl periodically. Beat the mixture on a low speed until it appears light and fluffy (It is also possible to do this by hand if you don’t have a mixer, but I would definitely recommend using a mixer for the sake of your wrists).
4. After reaching a fluffy mixture, add the egg and vanilla extract and beat well until combined.
5. Add half of the flour mixture with the mixer on low speed, and once incorporated add the other half and mix until almost combined.
6. Stir in the chocolate chips, making sure that the chocolate is uniformly distributed throughout the dough.
7. Mold the dough into balls and place on the tray, baking for around 12 minutes or until the edges brown.
8. Quickly add the flaked salt if desired, and let the cookies rest for around 5 minutes before eating.
My advice:
-Make sure that the butter is softened before starting, but if large chunks of cold butter stay in the batter you can briefly put the bowl in hot water and stir in order to better incorporate it.
-To prepare in advance, you can make the dough ahead of time and chill it for up to 72 hours before use.
-If you prefer crunchy cookies, add more white sugar than brown, increase the oven’s temperature, and bake for longer.
-Chopping up Baker’s chocolate can also be a great substitution for chocolate chips if desired, and create more diversity in chocolate size between cookies.
-My biggest piece of advice is to take it easy, as there’s no need to distress if your cookies take longer to bake or don’t mix well initially. Everyone’s kitchen is different and sometimes works more than others, so just give it some time and it will work out eventually (baking may be a science, but it’s truly far less rigid than it seems :).
If you liked this recipe I highly recommend looking at the baking blog “Preppy Kitchen”, where my recipe was adapted from! The author has great recipes, and you can never go wrong with anything they put out, so you should check it out.
Enjoy!