Adapted from an old Gourmet Magazine recipe ( chocolate chip cookie recipe by Carla Rollins), these are large, slightly flat, have chewy centers and crispy edges. Chilling the dough will give you a slightly thicker and in my opinion, better cookie, but you may also bake the cookies right away. Because I make these all the time for myself and friends, I’ve learned a few things over the way and have put a lot of notes in the recipe itself. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or problems. It’s always interesting to read the reviews on the original Gourmet recipes because some people think the cookies are awful and others say they are the best cookies ever. I’m in the latter group, obviously!
Gourmet Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Giant, chewy, chocolate chip cookies
Author: Cookie Madness
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 14
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons (4 oz) unsalted butter, melted and completely cool
- 3/4 cups packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 tablespoon of beaten egg**
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoons salt
- 1 1/2 cups (6.8 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cup extra dark chocolate chips, use more or less as desired
Instructions
- Beat together butter and both sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed for 2-3 minutes. The mixture will become pale and a bit lighter.
- Add egg to butter mixture, beating with mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Beat in vanilla, baking soda and salt.
- By hand, stir in flour until just blended; stir in chocolate chips.
- Using a VERY generously heaping tablespoon measure, scoop up 14 mounds of dough and arrange on a foil lined plate. Chill until firm (recommended) or bake immediately.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or for crisper edges and softer centers, 375F. Have ready two ungreased or foil lined cookie sheets. You can line them with parchment if you want, but they the cookies will spread less if you use regular foil or just leave the cookie sheets ungreased.
- Arrange dough mounds about 2 ½ inches apart on cookie sheets (7 to a sheet).
- Press down centers just slightly. Bake 1 sheet at a time on center rack for about 12-15 minutes or until edges are browned. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet for about 3 minutes, then transfer cookies to a rack to cool completely.
Notes
I’ve made these dozens of times and consistently, the cookies are a large, flat (but not too thin) and chewy. Here are a few things I’ve noted over the years.
— The amount of egg is strange, but the end result is worth it! You could probably get away with using a jumbo size egg or possibly and extra large, but I typically have large eggs so I use an egg and an extra tablespoons.
— Cookies made with chilled dough have a slightly better texture and bake up thicker. I like to bake a few right away, then keep the rest of the dough mounds in a heavy duty zipper bag in the refrigerator or freezer to be baked as needed. You’ll probably have to increase the baking time if you are baking cookies that are chilled through and through.
— For crispier edges, bake the cookies at 375 F. and adjust the baking time. A higher temp should give you paler centers and darker edges.
— Using bleached flour sometimes results in a slightly fatter cookie. I prefer unbleached in these, though.
— If you add the sugar to the butter while it is still hot, the hot butter may melt the sugar and you may get shiny cookies (this has happened to me on occasion). If you do add the sugar to the butter while it’s hot, the dough will probably require some more chilling.
— The amount of chocolate chips seems really high, but if you like chocolate you should be happy with the results. Even though the dough seems packed with chips, the cookies spread in the oven and the ratio of chips to dough seems pretty reasonable. Also, since these cookies are sweet, I use extra dark (Guittard) chips to offset the sweetness a little. Toasted nuts are always a good addition, too.
–It might be tempting to use chunks of chocolate instead of chips, but if you do that, be double sure to chill the dough. Sometimes chunks of chocolate, depending on the brand, cause more spreading than chips.
