Soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies

These chewy delights use chocolate chunks and an unexpected add-in to get the right amount of softness and chocolatey flavor in every bite. Better yet, they stay that way even when they're not straight out of the oven!

|
The Pastry Chef's Baking
These crowd-pleasing cookies use chunks of chocolate instead of chips to ensure some in every bite.

Although I can never resist trying out new recipes for chocolate chip cookies, you know I have standards of almost Herculean-heights in order for me to consider a new recipe good enough to join the ranks of the ones I already hold in high esteem, namely Alton Brown's and Crazy for Crust's recipes for chocolate chip cookies. They don't spread much, stay thick, have the perfect consistency in terms of chewiness and, perhaps, the real standard, tastes good even at room temperature.

That might sound funny but I have many chocolate chip cookies that are fantastic when you taste the cookie 10 minutes out of the oven yet I'm less enthused about them an hour or two later or, "heaven forbid" says my snobby taste buds, a whole day later. Cookies stale quickly and I lose all interest in consumption if they're more than a few hours old. When you've been spoiled eating warm chocolate chip cookies when the mood strikes, you tend to have high standards for said cookies.

So it should come as no surprise that the recipe that joins my Top 3 list for "This One's a Keeper" chocolate chip cookies comes from Averie Cooks. I've made other chocolate chip cookies from Averie's blog that were also good but this particular one easily joins my Top 3 list. I expected it to be good because it's from her blog but I admit to a little surprise by how much I liked it.

It has vanilla pudding mix which I've baked in chocolate chip cookies before so I expected it would add to a soft texture. Surprisingly, while it did that, this cookie also still had the requisite crisp edges I like in a freshly baked cookie. Good taste, great texture, excellent 10 minutes out of the oven, good even completely cooled. The dough was also a dream to work with, not too soft or sticky (make sure your butter isn't too soft or warm) and held its shape well even when scooped into large dough balls.

Soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies

From Averie Cooks

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (1-1/2 sticks)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
one 3.5-ounce packet instant vanilla pudding mix
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt, optional and to taste
one-12 ounce bag (2 cups) milk chocolate chips or chunks (I chopped up a bar of Trader Joe's milk chocolate into good-sized chunks)

1. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.

2. Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, pudding mix, baking soda, optional salt, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute.

3. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the chocolate chips; beat on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.

4. Using a large cookie scoop or 1/4-cup measure, form approximately 14 equal-sized mounds of dough, roll into balls, and flatten slightly. Chill for at least 2 hours or up to 5 days.

5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place dough mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart and bake for about 11 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just set, even if slightly undercooked, pale, and glossy in the center; don't overbake. Cookies firm up as they cool. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. 

Related post at The Pastry Chef's Baking: Death by Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2014/0726/Soft-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookies
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe