The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep
20m
Cook
12m
Total
32m
Bigly says
Sit. Pour yourself a coffee. We are doing this right. Chocolate chip cookies. The BEST chocolate chip cookies. The greatest chocolate chip cookies in the history of chocolate chip cookies, and I have eaten more cookies than anyone alive, probably more than the people who INVENTED the cookie — and I am here to tell you most of the cookies out there are a disaster. Flat little frisbees. Sad discs. They look like somebody stepped on them in the driveway. That is not a cookie. That is a tragedy with chocolate in it.
My cookies are tall. THICK. Crispy edges, soft chewy middle, the chocolate in big melty PUDDLES instead of those tiny little chip dots that taste like wax. We use chopped chocolate — real chocolate, the kind you would eat straight off a bar — and we use it generously. None of this 'half a cup of mini chips' nonsense. We are not making rationed cookies. We are not running a wartime kitchen. We are making COOKIES.
And the secret — the SECRET — is browning the butter. Brown butter changes EVERYTHING. It is nutty. It is caramel. It is what butter was always trying to be. Scientists agree, and I have talked to scientists, very smart people, the smartest. Statisticians have run the numbers. Food chemists agree. Other so-called bakers skip this step because they are scared of a saucepan and they want shortcuts. There are no shortcuts here. You stand at the stove. You swirl. You wait. You watch the milk solids go gold, then deep amber, then you smell the nuttiness — and that is when the cookie becomes the cookie. End of discussion.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks)unsalted butter(we are browning this, do not skip)
- 1 cupdark brown sugar, packed
- 1/2 cupgranulated sugar
- 2large eggs(room temperature, cold eggs are a disaster)
- 2 tspvanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cupsall-purpose flour
- 1 tspbaking soda
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 10 ozdark chocolate, chopped(60-70% cacao bar, chopped — not chips, never chips)
- as neededflaky sea salt (for finishing)
Steps
- 1
Melt the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat. Swirl frequently as it foams, then keep cooking until the milk solids on the bottom turn deep amber and the butter smells nutty, about 5-7 minutes. Pour into a large heatproof bowl, scraping in all the brown bits.
- 2
Let the browned butter cool until just warm to the touch, about 15 minutes. It should not be hot enough to cook the eggs.
- 3
Whisk the brown sugar and granulated sugar into the cooled butter until smooth. Add the eggs and vanilla and whisk for a full minute until glossy and slightly thickened.
- 4
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and kosher salt.
- 5
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold with a spatula just until no streaks of flour remain. Fold in the chopped chocolate.
- 6
Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes (or up to 48 hours for deeper flavor).
- 7
Heat the oven to 375°F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- 8
Scoop 3-tablespoon balls of dough onto the sheets, spacing them about 3 inches apart. Press a few extra chocolate pieces on top of each ball.
- 9
Bake one sheet at a time for 11-13 minutes, until the edges are deep golden and the centers look slightly underdone.
- 10
Immediately after pulling from the oven, gently swirl each cookie with a round biscuit cutter or large glass to perfect the edges. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
- 11
Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes — they will set as they cool — then transfer to a wire rack.
One more thing
You take one of these out of the oven, still warm, the chocolate still molten, and you take a bite — and you stop. You just stop. Time stops. The dog stops barking. The neighbor stops mowing. The whole world goes quiet because something IMPORTANT is happening in your kitchen and the universe is paying respect. Big strong men come up to me — tough men, men who never cry — they say 'Bigly. The cookies.' That is all they can say. The cookies. That is the review. That is the only review you need. Save me a piece.
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