The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
OK….so who doesn’t love chocolate chip cookies? The answer is NO ONE, which leads me to a little story before I share my recipe.
I was fresh out of college and looking for my first real job. When I landed an interview, I needed to find a way to stand out, beyond simply nailing the case study. Up until this point, despite going to school for business, the bulk of my experience was in the culinary world. So what to do:
Step 1) Nail the interview questions.
Step 2) Give everyone I interviewed with a dozen cookies, in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon in the company’s colors.
My goal was to do three things:
1) Say thank you to the team for taking time out of their day.
2) Project confidence, and stand out.
3) Demonstrate that I am good at anything I set my mind to.
With my culinary experience, if the cookies weren’t amazing, there is no way they could have hired me. I knew they were good though. Clearly the cookies had an impact because I got the job and it launched my career.
So what makes these cookies my “go to”? They are sweet. They are salty. They are crisp. They are chewy. They are crumbly. They are caramelized. They have chocolate in every bite. They are perfection.
I don’t know how it’s possible to be all these things, but try the recipe and see for yourself:
Recipe (Makes ~45 cookies)
Ingredients
1 Cup (225 grams) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
3/4 Cup (162.5 grams) Dark Brown Sugar
2/3 Cup (150 grams) Granulated Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 1/4 Cups (375 grams) All-Purpose Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon of Sea Salt, plus more for topping cookies
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
12 OZ Dark Chocolate
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In large bowl, using a mixer, cream butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar.
Mix in eggs, one at a time.
Blend in baking soda, salt, and vanilla extract.
Add 1/3 of flour, and mix until combined. Repeat until all flour is mixed in.
Pour chocolate into food processor, and pulse until finely chopped. Please note, you do not want to turn it into a powder.
Mix finely chopped chocolate into cookie dough, by hand, using a spatula. Do not use a mixer for this step, as it has the tendency to blend in the chocolate, rather than swirling throughout.
Roll small balls of dough, and place on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I typically fit 15 cookies on 1 cookie sheet.
Set timer for 13 minutes. After baking for 7 minutes, open the oven and top each cookie with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, such as fleur de sel. It should take <1 minute. Close the oven and let cookies continue to bake until the timer goes off.
Let cookies stand for 1-2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
Repeat steps 8-10 until all cookies have been baked.
Imagery below shows measurements for a double batch:
