MAKES: 48 servings TESTED BY: Sarah B.

084 Chocolate Chip Cookies

TASTING COMMENTS:

This recipe creates a classic puffy, slightly chewy cookie—but with just a few tweaks, you can make cookies that are soft and cakelike or thin and crispy. The secret to getting the cookie you love is to know how each ingredient works: butter for crispness, cake flour for a finer texture, brown sugar for chewiness.—SB

prep 30 minutes bake 6 minutes per batch at 375°F cool 2 minutes

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. In a large bowl beat butter and shortening on medium to high 30 seconds. Add sugars, baking soda, and salt. Beat on medium 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs, corn syrup, and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour. Stir in chocolate pieces.

2. Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 6 to 8 minutes or just until edges are lightly browned (cookies may not appear set). Cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.

*Tip To substitute ½ cup vegetable oil for the shortening, prepare as directed, except beat butter on medium to high 30 seconds, then gradually beat in oil.

**Tip The corn syrup ensures chewy, tender cookies that stay fresh for days.

Per serving 128 cal., 6 g fat (3 g sat. fat), 13 mg chol., 85 mg sodium, 17 g carb., 1 g fiber, 11 g sugars, 1 g pro.

Soft-and-Cakelike Chocolate Chip Cookies Prepare as directed, except omit butter, use 1½ cups packed brown sugar, omit granulated sugar, add ½ tsp. baking powder with the brown sugar, beat in one 8-oz. carton sour cream after beating in eggs and vanilla, and substitute cake flour for the all-purpose flour. Bake on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets 10 minutes or just until edges are lightly browned (cookies may not appear set).

Thin-and-Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies Prepare as directed, except use 1 cup butter, omit shortening, use ¾ cup each packed brown sugar and granulated sugar, and reduce flour to 2¼ cups.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies Prepare as directed, except substitute 1 cup whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose flour.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

essential cookie ingredients

fats

Fats influence the cookie’s flavor and how much the batter will spread while baking.

Shortening doesn’t melt as quickly as butter during baking, so cookies keep their shape and won’t be too crisp.

Butter adds a richer flavor to the baked cookies than shortening. Butter also melts faster during baking, so the batter spreads more, resulting in thinner cookies.

flours

Different types of flour contain different amounts of protein. The protein content may influence the shape, tenderness, and color of the final cookies.

Cake flour is low in protein, so baked cookies are tender and light in texture and color.

Bread flour is a high-protein flour, so the final cookies will be chewier.

All-purpose flour has a moderate amount of protein and falls in the middle of the two.

Leaveners

Baking soda is a chemical leavener that activates when it comes in contact with an acidic ingredient. Additional baking soda may contribute to browning.

Baking powder is another chemical leavener. Most is double-acting, so it first reacts when it comes in contact with liquid and then again with heat.

sugars

Granulated sugar has a low moisture content, so the sugars crystallize when baked, creating a crisp texture.

Brown sugar has a higher moisture content because it contains molasses. This moisture makes the cookies softer and well suited for cakelike or chewy cookies.

TESTING NOTES

1. Softened butter is the perfect consistency to cream with sugar. To soften, leave butter on the counter at room temperature 30 minutes or microwave on 50% power for 15-second intervals until you can press into it easily. Don’t melt the butter; it won’t behave the same way in the batter.

2. Creaming the butter and sugar together traps tiny air bubbles, helping to leaven the cookies. Beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light in color and resembles whipped butter.

3. Although you can use two teaspoons to drop cookie dough, a cookie scoop makes consistently shaped cookies. Look for a 1¼-inch scoop for these cookies.

chewy basic This cookie formula is made with a combination of butter and shortening, which gives the cookies a buttery flavor without spreading too thin. It has more brown than granulated sugar, and that makes these cookies just-right chewy.

soft + cakelike To make this cookie light with a cakelike texture, cake flour is used instead of all-purpose flour. Shortening helps the tender cookies hold their shape. Sour cream adds extra moisture. Brown sugar is used exclusively to make the cookies extra tender.

thin + crispy This cookie is made with only butter, which produces rich, thin, and crisp baked cookies. There is more granulated sugar in this recipe than the basic formula, which also adds to the crispness. Extra baking soda boosts the browning.

toasting nuts Why toast nuts when they are on their way into a hot oven? The cookie batter insulates the nuts, preventing them from getting hot enough to be toasted. Toasting nuts before baking brings out their nutty flavor and helps to keep them crisp in the finished cookies.

To toast nuts, preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread nuts in an even layer in a shallow baking pan. Bake 5 to 10 minutes or until toasted, stirring once or twice.

If you’re toasting hazelnuts, place the warm nuts on a clean kitchen towel. Rub the nuts with the towel to remove the loose skins.

Choose your chips All chocolate is made from the nut of the cacao (kay-KAY-oh) tree. The difference between chocolates is the percentage of cacao included in each kind, which is usually indicated on the package. The rest of the chocolate is sugar, so the higher the percentage of cacao, the more pronounced the chocolate flavor will be.

dark chocolate chips Dark chocolate can be either semisweet or bittersweet.

semisweet chocolate chips Technically considered a dark chocolate, semisweet chocolate usually contains 52–62% cacao, resulting in a smooth, dark chocolate flavor.

milk chocolate chips Milk chocolate contains 36–46% cacao and has the addition of milk, which makes the chocolate creamier.

chocolate chunks These could be any percentage of cacao, but the larger chunks will make the chocolate in the cookies stand out even more.

mix it up

To jazz up even the best chocolate chip cookies, try one of these add-ins:

2 cups chopped mini peanut butter cups

1½ cups chopped nuts

1 cup snipped dried fruit

2 cups rolled oats (reduce flour to 2½ cups)