chocolate chip cookies

ingredients

• 2 sticks salted or unsalted butter (2 cups, ~450g)
• up to 3 cups of bread flour (~400 grams)
• 1.25 to 2 cups of sugar (~250-400g)
  • if you want cookies to spread and be more crispy, go on the higher end of sugar here. if you want your cookies to be more “cake-like”, i.e. very… fluffy feeling? while also being extremely chewy in the center, go on the lower end. I much prefer the latter texture, and it comes with the side effect of less sugar intake. kind of a win-win.
• 1.5-3 teaspoons of salt (~8-15g)
• 2 eggs
• teaspoon of baking soda (~3.5g)
• however much vanilla extract your heart desires
• molasses
• however many chocolate chips your heart desires (but not too many, as it can impede baking)
  • I personally find that mini chocolate chips allow for a more “even” cookie. I like both mini and normal size chips

steps

1. melt the butter completely in the microwave
2. mix butter with sugar in a big bowl
3. drop in a bit of molasses and mix
   • I don’t measure it, like adam. I just do a quick dip and rotate so it doesn’t go everywhere. any amount that isn’t ridiculous is usually fine. even if you overdo it some, it just makes the cookies taste a bit more Brown than Sugar, which honestly isn’t a bad taste!
4. add eggs, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, mix until smooth
   • I just dip some of the vanilla extract in. a “glug” as he says
5. Add 2 cups of bread flour (~366g) to start off with, and continuously mix
   • continue adding bread flour and mixing until you get a consistency described as “wet, but not sticky”. I usually average out at about 2.5 to 3 cups of bread flour for this, but it’s infinitely more important to go off feel instead of measurements here. it should feel wet, but not stick to your fingers
6. chill for at least an hour in the fridge
   • this recipe excels with long dough chill times. it’s basically the secret to a good cookie no matter the recipe. if you’re in a rush, half an hour is passable, but the texture and flavor really starts to kick in after an hour. I tend to make my cookies in small batches and keep the dough chilling for up to multiple days, which results in really good cookies
7. (optional) turn the oven to “broil” (or “grill”, whichever setting makes the top heat up a lot)
   • adam does this because it allows the middle to brown evenly as well, while not losing the good “underdone” soft middle part. it’s mostly an aesthetic difference. I like it, so I do it
   • if you don’t want to do it, preheat to 375F (~190C)
8. shape the dough into slightly-larger-than-a-golf ball spheres, before smushing them down into a sort of hockey puck shape. place as many as you can on a pan
   • the hockey puck shape allows it to spread better and bake the middle some as well, especially if you reduced the amount of sugar in the recipe
   • you can use olive oil or parchment paper if you want. I use parchment paper personally. I’ve also rawdogged it without either of them and it came out fine. your call
9. if using the broiler, put the pan on the top rack for about a minute. Take it out and set the oven to 375F (~190C) afterwards and wait a bit for it to cool
10. Bake for ~9 minutes at first, then start checking the cookies for a consistency you like
    • for me, after using the broiler, I usually bake for about 10 minutes flat. if you’re not using the broiler, it’ll be longer, like 11 or 12 minutes.
11. let cool for a few minutes before transferring to something else and repeating the process for however many batches you make

comment on “brown sugar”

if you’re using brown sugar in the context of a recipe with a bunch of other wet ingredients, like most of baking, it’s not really useful to have the solid brown sugar. adam suggests using sugar + molasses, which I find that I like more since it allows me to control how Brown Sugary I want the thing to taste

in this recipe specifically, a “glug” of just “enough that’s not too much” came into intuition for me. I kinda just sent it the first time, it was too much, did a little less next time was perfect