Are your chocolate chip cookies too flat, too cakey, not chewy or crisp enough? Whatever the issue, this post will troubleshoot all your baking dilemmas!
I started thinking about the perfect care package when my older son left for college
several years ago.
In my quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, I was suddenly compelled to try
recipes that claimed to be “the best” chocolate chip cookie ever. Ingredients like
cornstarch or an extra egg yolk were dubbed essential add-ins to achieve the perfect
texture.
Techniques like banging the cookie sheet halfway through baking promised
the coveted craggy texture.
I baked batch after batch. Were my family members being discerning taste testers
simply because they did not want this endeavor to end? Perhaps, but they, like many
of us, have clear views as to what makes “the best” chocolate chip cookie.
So, what did I learn in this process?
Quite simply, there is no “perfect” cookie, because people define perfection in so
many ways: chewy, cakey, flat, puffy, nuts/no nuts, not too sweet, loaded with chips
(or chunks—be they milk, semi or dark chocolate), etc. I know several people who
like chocolate chip cookies with no chocolate chips. Clearly the cookie needs to be
renamed in this case!
In that spirit, the following insight and tips will help you achieve the chocolate chip cookie that is perfect for YOU.
Picture a beautiful platter piled high with a half dozen or so scrumptious varieties of
cookies. Which is always the first to disappear? The chocolate chip cookies.
It never fails.
For that reason, I always make more of this variety than any other,
even during the holidays when sand tarts, snickerdoodles, snowballs, gingerbread,
lemon bars, and sugar cookies, to name a few, have their fair share of devotees.
Plus, chocolate chip cookies freeze well, can be made with readily available
ingredients, and, when squeezed around a scoop of ice cream, make a pretty
awesome chipwich.
Bakers have tried all sorts of tricks in their quest to achieve the perfect
chocolate cookie: powdered milk, a box of pudding, cream of tartar, sour cream, cornstarch, etc.
My family leans towards a chocolate chip cookie with a chewy but tender center and lightly crisp edges. In that spirit, the following recipe falls squarely into that camp, but after much
experimentation, I’ve created what amounts to a crash course in chocolate chip cookie baking.
The following explains the simple science behind why a cookie is the way it is, so
you’ll be on the right track towards achieving your perfect cookie.
So, get your cold glass of milk ready…
The variables:
I’ve adjusted the amount of butter (and used melted, softened, salted, and unsalted butter). I’ve changed the ratio of brown to granulated sugar, incorporated various quantities of flour, gone with and without cornstarch, varied the amount of egg whites and yolks, changed the oven temperature, used dark and light baking sheets, and tested non-stick, greased, parchment- and Silpat-lined baking sheets.
I’ve refrigerated the dough for a short time, overnight, several days, or not at all. I’ve started with refrigerator cold cookie sheet, baked frozen cookie dough balls, and banged the cookie sheet on the counter midway through baking.
Think of it as chemistry and a puzzle, and use the following reactions to experiment and piece together the perfect chocolate chip cookie for you:
- Oven temp: Cooler oven = flatter cookies; hotter oven = more compact cookies. The slower the cookie bakes, the more it has time to spread.
- The baking sheet: If you want your cookies to spread less, avoid non-stick or greased baking sheets; I prefer parchment to a Silpat but there are some who love Silpat. The latter two grip the dough and help prevent spreading.
- Dark versus light coated cookie sheet: A dark sheet will mimic an oven temperature of up to 25℉ hotter than a light one. (It’s why some brownie boxes instruct to bake at 325℉ instead of 350℉ when using a dark pan.) Keep this in mind as you read through other details on why temperature matters. Then, if needed, you can make an adjustment to oven temp or a switch in cookie sheet.
- Ratio of brown and white sugar: More granulated sugar results in a thinner, crisper cookie, while a higher ratio of brown sugar produces a moister, softer cookie. You can keep the same total amount of sugar but change the ratios if you’d like to enhance any of these features.
- Butter vs. shortening: Using butter instead of shortening creates a more flavorful, tender cookie at the cost of more spreading. Shortening creates a taller, puffier cookie. (Some compromise by going half and half. However, we have more ways to control the spread. Stay tuned.)
- To melt or soften? Melted butter tends to produce a denser, chewier cookie while creamed, room temperature butter leads to a slightly cakier cookie. (All other things being equal, the difference is minor; more details coming.)
- Salted or unsalted butter? You can use what you like and have on hand. If using salted and the recipe calls for unsalted, reduce the added salt in the recipe by ¼ teaspoon per stick (8 tablespoons) of butter. Similarly, add ¼ teaspoon salt for each stick of butter if the recipe calls for salted butter and you are using unsalted.
- The eggs: If you’d like a chewier cookie and are using a traditional recipe that calls for two eggs, use one large egg plus the yolk of one large egg instead. Why? Eggs are stabilizers. Meaning? They moisten, bind, and provide structure. The yolk contributes fat while reducing water, making a cookie denser, fudgier, and chewier. Egg whites are predominantly protein, so they provide structure. They also hold more air and contribute more water, encouraging steam and gluten formation, which creates a cakier cookie with a little more rise.
- The flour: All-purpose is the practical go-to. Using bread flour leads to chewier cookies while cake flour results in softer cookies. (But we don’t want to be overly high maintenance, right?) That said, incorporating a small amount of cornstarch (a teaspoon or two per cup of flour) into the all-purpose flour will mimic cake flour and help with softness and thickness.
- Need gluten-free cookies? My best success has come by replacing 25% of
your favorite cup-for-cup gluten-free flour blend (I most often use King
Arthur Flour’s Measure for Measure) with super fine almond flour. - The leaveners: Recipes that include baking powder have more rise but will brown less and
have a smoother appearance. Cookies that use only baking soda tend to have
that characteristically craggy appearance. - Less overall flour = lacier cookies; more flour = doughier cookies.
- Accuracy in measurement: To ensure proper measuring of flour and other ingredients, a kitchen scale is indispensable. It makes quicker work of mixing up the batter too.
- No kitchen scale? For more accurate measuring, fluff up the flour, spoon it into the measuring cup, and then level off with the straight edge of a knife.
- How long to beat chocolate chip cookie dough? I grew up thinking I could let that
stand mixer beat for several minutes. But as it turns out, less mixing means less air is incorporated into the batter, which leads to a craggier appearance and better overall texture. Less beating also means less gluten development, which translates to a more tender crumb. - The chocolate chips: I really love a mixture of chips, like chunks, dark, semi-sweet, and milk
chocolate, for superior texture and flavor. I do like to go heavy, making sure that
the chocolate is evenly dispersed throughout. But this is truly dictated by personal
preference. (See “pro tips” below.)
Pro tips:
- If rolling the dough into balls with your hands, it is helpful to refrigerate the batter for about 30 or so minutes first so that it’s not too sticky. Once the dough is firmer, very lightly wetting your hands will further prevent sticking.
- Have some extra chips or chunks on hand and very lightly press
a few into the hot cookies just as they come out of the oven. You can fill in any
empty-looking spots, and this technique gives the cookies a fancy bakery-like
appearance. - Alternatively, for a slightly more integrated look, you can instead press a few extra chips (or chunks if you prefer) into any vacant spots on the cookies before baking, as I did below.
- Along those lines, a dusting of flaky sea salt over the cookies as they
come out of the oven is heavenly for those who enjoy a salty-sweet cookie.
What is the best oven temperature for baking chocolate chip cookies?
- In the following and similar traditional chocolate chip cookie recipes, I found that baking chilled cookie dough in a 350°F oven until the edges are lightly golden achieves a cookie that’s still soft and chewy in the center.
- If you’d like a flatter cookie, try reducing the oven temperature to 325°F.
- If you’re baking an extra large, bakery size cookie, you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 25℉ to prevent overly dark bottoms. Note this is especially true when using a dark colored baking sheet.
- Those who prefer a more puffed-up cookie might like to experiment with a temp of 375°F. Remember that higher temperatures can lead to fully cooked edges with underdone centers. In this case, a light colored baking sheet will be a helpful tool, as it will slow the browning process.
As mentioned, refrigerating the dough prior to baking will create less spread. The above-pictured dough balls are ready to be covered and refrigerated. I space them out further before baking. You cold refrigerate the bowl of batter, but then you will need to let the dough soften again to easily scoop it, which reverses some of the benefit.
Does banging the baking sheet on the counter mid-bake create a better cookie?
Some recipes claim that dropping the cookie sheet on the counter (carefully, from about four inches above the counter) once the cookies have evenly spread but are not yet done will create that coveted craggy texture. In the batch pictured below, I did this for half of the cookies.
You can see a subtle waviness around the edges of some of the cookies; they were the “dropped” cookies. And while it does look sort of appealing, the taste was the same and any difference in texture was imperceptible. Note, even though I was careful, one cookie flopped over on itself.
Following are extra details on some of the points mentioned above…
Should I soften or melt the butter?
I have made chocolate chip cookies with both softened butter and melted butter. (Tip: when melting, melt ⅔ to ¾ of the way and then allow to sit on the counter for a few minutes. This ensures that the butter will not be too hot and any unmelted butter will be plenty soft enough to blend easily.)
The science behind which method is “better” has to do with the amount of air that gets whipped in during the creaming process. When the butter is liquid, less air gets whipped in, resulting in a chewier cookie, which many people adore.
That said, I have run side-by-side batches with all elements the same except for the butter (room temp vs. melted) and the results were nearly indiscernible to a variety of taste testers. The batter with
melted butter is smoother looking, however, and slightly easier to roll (less sticky) after the initial chill time.
I think the primary textural difference occurs, not because the butter was melted, but because the batter was refrigerated. When the batter is refrigerated for an extended time, which most melted butter recipes call for, the flour absorbs the liquid ingredients. If a recipe calling for softened butter is refrigerated, the dough will be similarly hydrated, which leads to a denser, chewier consistency.
How to prevent a chocolate chip cookie from spreading?
Ultimately, the key factor in less spreading/more thickness and better overall
appearance is to chill, chill, chill. Cold dough = less spreading.
Ideally, that means overnight in the fridge, several hours in a pinch. No warm cookie sheets either.
Light colored cookie sheets are preferred to dark, although dark works—just
reduce the cooking time by a minute or so and expect an ever so slightly more
puffed-up cookie. (Note that if you would happen to increase your oven temp
to 375℉ to achieve a higher rise, the effects of a dark sheet will be
more pronounced. Check early to avoid overcooking and burned bottoms.)
As mentioned, cooling the baking sheets in between batches is helpful if you don’t want subsequent batches to lose their structure. And while we’re keeping things chilly, returning the dough to the fridge
while the current batch is baking is helpful, especially if you haven’t chilled the
dough overnight. (Keep reading for more on this.)
Why should I chill chocolate chip cookie dough batter?
Though 1-3 hours of refrigeration is helpful, the most noticeable difference comes after 24 hours. The
cookies spread less, have a bakery quality look to them, and, interestingly, still
spread less after returning to room temperature on the counter. (From a science
perspective, this connects with the moisture distribution mentioned above; the longer the batter rests, the more the liquid components are absorbed by the dry ingredients—and they don’t leak back out, so
to speak, even when the temperature rises.)
Giving the dough time to chill in the fridge has an added benefit: improved
flavor. Twenty-four hours is ideal, but as little as an hour will help. And as
mentioned above, they can be held for two to three days.
After 48 hours of refrigeration, the cookies do brown slightly more, likely due to a
bit more moisture loss over time—but they’re still quite good. Helpful hint: Make certain to
always cover the cookie dough tightly during refrigeration to prevent it from drying out.
But here’s the deal. If you refrigerate the dough overnight, it will be too firm to
scoop into balls. It will need to rest on the counter for 15-20 minutes. So, I like to
refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes or up to an hour—just long enough to
firm it slightly—and then roll it into balls.
Then, I refrigerate the dough balls on a well wrapped baking sheet or in an airtight container. Again, you may refrigerate the batter in the bowl; you will simply need to let it sit
until scoopable. At that point, you can keep the balls in the fridge until they are
ready to place on the baking sheet and go in the oven.
Is it best to drop, roll, or scoop the chocolate chip cookie dough?
I’ve been using the word “balls” and “roll,” but there’s nuance here. I’ve rolled, dropped, and
scooped and have learned a few things in that department.
My favorite way is to roll the cookies into balls. This method produces the thickest, best shaped cookie. Dough that has been scooped with an ice cream scoop and is compressed in the
process—but not further compressed by hand rolling into compact balls—works well too. These cookies have good thickness and a craggy look.
Some recipes recommend rolling a ball that is more like a cylinder. (See photos above.) The claim is that this will produce a thicker cookie with less spread. As you will see by my side-by-side comparison, there is very little difference.
Tip when rolling: Keep in mind that too much rolling of the dough can overwork it, leading to tougher cookies. (This sometimes happens when kids are having lots of fun rolling!)
Of course, you may have reason to prefer the traditional drop technique: Dropping the dough allows for a more natural spread during baking, which means a thinner cookie and a less uniform look. As a plus, less manipulation of the dough, as with rolling, can yield a more tender cookie.
Tip for those with a kitchen scale: If you’d like complete uniformity in size, place your bowl on a kitchen scale, tare it, and then remove the same amount of dough for each cookie. To determine your desired weight, divide the total grams of dough by your desired yield.
Can you freeze chocolate chip cookie dough?
Yes! The dough freezes very well. I recommend rolling or scooping the dough and freezing on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once frozen, you can transfer the dough balls to an airtight container or zip-tip bag for up to three months.
Can you bake frozen chocolate chip cookie dough balls?
Yes again. You’ll simply need to add another 1-3 minutes, depending on size of the cookie and how firmly the dough is frozen when it goes into the oven.
The key takeaways:
The above information will vary slightly based on the cookie recipe you are starting with, but it will allow you to troubleshoot your recipe. Your perfect cookie – chewy and thick, cakey and tall, or crisp and flat – is within reach!
All these differences are likely not deal breakers, mind you. A good cookie recipe is a good cookie recipe, and for thicker or flatter, nobody will likely turn their noses up on any of them!
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