Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip cookies were the cookies I never knew I needed until I sat down and made the recipe for them. “The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies” is a big claim to make, but I’m making it with these cookies. I created this recipe early in 2020, and I’m finally getting around to sharing it. This is one of my favorite recipes to date — I hope you like them too.
My favorite chocolate chip cookies have always been the ones that are fall-apart soft. The ones that make you pause and ask yourself: “are these slightly under-baked?” These cookies are that soft — but they’re not under-baked, unless you want them to be, of course.
The secret to these soft pillows of batter and chocolate lies in the sugar. I cut out all the white, granulated sugar and only used brown sugar. White sugar adds the crisp to baked goods; brown sugar adds softness to cookies. It has something to do with the molasses. I don’t know the science behind it, but that’s how it works. I had the crazy idea to take the crisping agent out and IT WORKED. It left me with the softest chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever tasted.
Two important tips for making these the best ever:
Use a hand mixer:
Creaming the butter and sugar together is such an important step for getting the best cookies. This is how you add air into your cookies, making them nice and fluffy. I use hand mixer to get the best results and I cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes. This ensures a nice amount of air without the batter collapsing.
Chill the batter:
Because there’s no white sugar in these cookies, they have less structure than other recipes. The dough is a bit sticky once you’ve combined everything. Chilling the dough not only makes it easier to work with when forming into balls, but it also protects the dough from overspreading in the oven. I wait to preheat the oven until after I’ve made the dough; I stick it in the fridge while I wait for the oven to preheat, which is about 15 minutes for most ovens (even if it beeps before that!)
RECIPE:
1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 C. BROWN SUGAR
1 egg
4 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour (I always use Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Baking flour to make these gluten free, but regular all purpose flour works just the same!)
All of the chocolate chips
DIRECTIONS:
Combine softened butter (leave at room temperature for about 30 minutes) and brown sugar into a large bowl. Cream together using a hand mixer for five minutes.
Once light and fluffy, add the egg (preferably at room temp, set out with the butter for 30 minutes) and vanilla. Beat until fully combined.
Combine salt, baking soda, baking powder and flour in a separate bowl.
Slowly add flour mixture into the wet ingredients. I use a spatula or wooden spoon to hand mix the ingredients together.
Fold in chocolate chips. I don’t measure these, I add in however much chocolate looks desirable (usually a lot).
The mixture will be sticky. Place dough in the fridge to chill.
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Giving the oven about 15 minutes to warm up and giving the dough sufficient time to chill.
Prep a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Once the oven is preheated, form dough into balls and place on the prepared cookies sheet. Leave room between the cookies – the chilling helps them from spreading too much, but they will still spread quite a bit! I typically make larger cookies (about 2 tbsp of dough) and this recipe yields 15-16 of that size.
Place in pre-heated oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the sides and tops become structured.
Let cool and enjoy!
Kelliemarie Mash 