The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie: Tested on Baking Rookies
Chewy, crispy, fluffy… The “best” chocolate chip cookie texture is about as subjective as it gets. To decide once and for all what the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe really entails, we teamed up with OXO and invited a few gals over for a baking party. And after making six (six!) variations, we think we found The One. TBH, a few of us are admittedly rookies in the kitchen, but with the trusty Internet and the right baking tools, nailing these recipes was a cinch.
OXO’s latest campaign is one we can really get behind: They’re all about testing their products on people — real people — with different preferences and skill sets to build truly useful tools that will make everyday living easier. Their Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer was especially helpful in this rookie cookie crusade. It has a soft-glow LED headlight that will illuminate the bowl as you mix, so you can really see the consistency of your batter as you go. That, plus the smooth and steady motor and intuitive controls, made each recipe a breeze.
Let’s get mixin’! First up, the control recipe for a standard (and delicious) chocolate chip cookie.
CONTROL RECIPE
Ingredients:
— 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
— 1 teaspoon baking soda
— pinch of salt
— 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter
— ¾ cup light brown sugar
— ⅔ cup granulated sugar
— 2 large eggs
— 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
— 12 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl, and fold together with a spatula. Set aside.
3. Add granulated sugar, brown sugar and room temperature butter to a large bowl, then beat on medium-high with the hand mixer for about 4 minutes.
4. Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add one egg, beat until combined, then add the second egg and repeat again.
5. Add in the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.
7. Scoop about one tablespoon worth of dough two inches apart onto your cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, then let cool.
A big thanks to the Food Network for the control recipe!
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Combine flour, baking soda and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl, and fold together with a spatula. Set aside.
Add granulated sugar, brown sugar and room temperature butter to a large bowl, then beat on medium-high with the hand mixer for about four minutes.
Add vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add one egg, beat until combined, then add the second egg and repeat again.
Add in the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
Psst: You know what else we love about OXO’s Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer? The cord swivels and snaps in either direction, making it especially user-friendly for this lefty.
Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula or on low speed with the hand mixer.
Scoop about one Tablespoon worth of dough two inches apart onto your cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes, then let cool.
VARIATIONS
Alright, onto the science-y part. Believe it or not, switching up *one* ingredient per batch completely changed the consistency — and sometimes taste — of each cookie. Read on for the breakdown.
Swap baking soda for baking powder: These fellas were definitely on the fluffier side. If you’re partial to a cake-like consistency in your cookies, go with this recipe.
Use half baking soda, half baking powder: FYI, splitting the BP and BS didn’t affect flavor, only texture. This batch seemed like the happy medium between chewy and crispy.
Replace brown sugar with more granulated sugar: This one didn’t go over too well. Evidently, we expect a molasses element in our chocolate chip cookies, and this one was majorly lacking in that department.
Replace granulated sugar with more brown sugar: This batch was *by far* the crowd favorite. Not only was the result chewy and dense, it also had a richer flavor.
Replace solid room temperature butter with melted room temperature butter: It was a toss-up between this recipe and the all brown sugar batch. If you’re a fan of crispy cookies, melted butter is the way to go.
The verdict? Replacing granulated sugar with brown sugar makes a very, very good cookie. At least, that’s our opinion :)
Happy baking, friends!
Will you be trying out these recipes? If so, we want to see the results! Post a photo on Instagram and use the hashtag #iamcreative so we can take a look.
This post is a collaboration with OXO.
Authored by: Maddie Bachelder
Recipe Production + Food Styling: Maddie Bachelder
Photography: Chris Andre
