Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
These are the best chocolate chip cookies: deeply caramelized, crisp golden edges with thick, tender, chewy centers. Browned butter and dark brown sugar give them a nutty, butterscotch flavor that makes them unforgettable.
Equipment
- Medium saucepan
- Mixing Bowls
- Rubber spatula
- Electric Mixer
- Cookie scoop
- Baking sheets
- Parchment Paper
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped 60-70% dark chocolate or semi-sweet bar
- flaky sea salt optional, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a medium stainless-steel or light-colored saucepan over medium heat. Use a light-colored pan so you can actually see the color change — dark pans hide the whole process. Stir or swirl gently as it melts. The butter will foam dramatically, then the foam will begin to subside, and you’ll see little golden specks appearing near the bottom of the pan. Keep going, stirring constantly, until the butter smells fragrant and toasty and the bits turn a deep amber. It should smell like toasted hazelnuts, not burnt caramel. About two minutes after it first foams, you’re there. Remove it from the heat immediately and pour it into a wide bowl to stop the cooking. Let it sit for about 15 minutes, until it’s warm but no longer hot — warm enough to melt sugar, cool enough that it won’t cook the egg when you combine them.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon of fine sea salt. Whisking here aerates the flour and distributes the leavener evenly. Set the bowl aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the still-warm browned butter with both sugars. Beat on medium speed for 2 full minutes. The mixture will look like wet sand at first, then gradually lighten and become slightly fluffy, with tiny air pockets visible. Scrape down the bowl. Add the whole egg, the yolk, and the vanilla. Beat until everything is completely homogeneous — about 1 minute on medium. The mixture should look glossy, like taffy.
- Add the entire flour mixture to the butter-sugar mixture. Using a rubber spatula, fold gently from the bottom of the bowl. Stop when a few streaks of flour remain — this is the moment to add the chocolate. Fold just until the streaks disappear and no dry pockets remain. Take care not to overmix; too much folding develops gluten, which makes cookies tough. The dough will look dense and heavy, and that’s exactly right.Let the dough rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. This allows the flour to fully hydrate. Then cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. A longer chill of 24 to 72 hours produces an even better cookie with deeper toffee notes and a more caramelized exterior, but a half-hour minimum is non-negotiable for the right spread.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two heavy sheet pans with parchment paper. A real parchment liner matters more than you’d think: it insulates the cookies slightly and prevents the bottoms from scorching before the centers finish.Scoop the dough using a #40 cookie scoop, which holds about 1½ tablespoons per ball. Place 6 dough balls on each sheet — they need room to spread without touching. If the dough feels too sticky to release cleanly from the scoop, let it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes, then trust it. Roll each ball briefly between your palms until smooth, but don’t flatten them. A taller, rounder hill spreads into a cookie with a thicker center and craggy edges — that’s the look we want.Sprinkle each dough ball with a pinch of flaky sea salt, if using. Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack for 11 to 13 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through. Pull the cookies out when the edges are set and deeply golden brown, while the centers still look puffy, pale, and slightly underdone. They will finish cooking on the hot pan during the 5-minute cool-down. If you wait for the center to look baked, the final cookie will be dry.
- Let the cookies sit on the hot baking sheet for exactly 5 minutes. This is when the magic happens: the residual heat firms the edges, sinks the centers into that classic crinkly top, and lets the chocolate set just enough to be glossy but not liquid. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to finish cooling. If you try to move them any earlier, they’ll fall apart — they’re that delicate straight from the oven.
Notes
Keep the dough cool: If you bake the second sheet while the kitchen is warm and the dough has been sitting out, the dough will spread more than the first batch. Scoop all the dough and keep the rest in the fridge between batches.
Use an oven thermometer: The display on many home ovens lies by as much as 25°F. A $10 oven thermometer on the rack costs nearly nothing and ensures the butter sets at the right rate.
Bake on grey or aluminum pans: Dark nonstick pans absorb heat aggressively and will over-brown the bottoms. If you only have dark pans, reduce the oven temperature by 25°F and start checking at 9 minutes.
Bang the pan if you want extra crinkles: At the 9-minute mark, give the pan a firm tap against the oven rack to slightly deflate the centers. This collapses the air pockets and creates those gorgeous rippling wrinkles across the top. It’s optional, but it’s my favorite step.
Let the pan fully cool between batches: If you add dough to a hot sheet, it begins melting on contact, and you lose the structure you spent 30 minutes building. Run the pan under cool water, dry it, and re-line it with parchment, or just use a second pan.