If you’re in the mood to try a new and very good chocolate chip cookie recipe, I have one to recommend. It's the "Vanilla-Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies" recipe from the back of the McCormick brand vanilla extract box.
With 3 ¼ cups of flour, the original recipe makes a bunch, but Fuzz and I scaled it down a bit and added a few twists for a Sunday afternoon snack. I also included some metric weights for those of you who measure with a scale, so I hope those come in handy.
Fuzz made these cookies herself and was very pleased with herself when they came out picture perfect. With lots of folds and wrinkles, the cookies are close to what you’d find at a bakery. Next time we might play around with types of flour and swap out some of the all-purpose for a little wheat, but other than that I'd do everything the same. Here's the recipe as we made it and here's the original version. We made ours slightly larger so the cook time is also a little longer.
Recipe
Fuzz's Half-Batch Vanilla-Rich Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (205 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 10 ½ tablespoons unsalted butter (150 grams)
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (125 grams)
- ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar (105 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cup extra dark chocolate chips
- 1 cup walnuts toasted and chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Have ready two ungreased baking sheets.
- Mix flour, baking soda and salt in medium bowl. Set aside. Beat butter and sugars in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Gradually stir in flour mixture on low speed until well mixed. Stir in chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Drop by rounded tablespoons about 2 inches apart onto the baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on baking sheets 1 minute. Remove to wire racks; cool completely.
Anna
Hope you like the cookies!
BTW, I've never seen a recipe that specifies salted butter, so if a recipe says "butter", I just assume it's salted. If it's says "butter or margarine" than I'm positive it's salted. But really, you can use whatever you want. Some people don't like as much salt in baked goods anyway.
Kristin
Thanks Anna! That makes perfect sense. The recipe on the McCormick site doesn't specify the type of butter, which it should. I think what threw me off was that the original recipe has more baking soda than salt, but yours has more salt than baking soda. I didn't even think about the salted butter option, so thanks for clarifying!
Anna
Hi Kristin,
That's a great question! The original recipe called for salted butter, but since I used unsalted, I increased the salt to 3/4 teaspoon. If you think about the proportions of the basic Toll House recipe which usually has 1 teaspoon of salt, 2 1/4 cups flour, etc. etc., it's not that much. And 3/4 turned out to be just right for my tastes -- not salty tasting at all. However, everybody's different. If you are really sensitive to salt and just don't need much in baking, you can cut it. But I used 3/4 tsp and unsalted butter and though the balance was good. I also used a ton of chocolate chips, so the salt offsets some of the sweetness.
Kristin
Hi Anna! I love your site and often use it as a resource when I'm looking for a particular type of recipe (chewy brownies, crunchy chocolate chip cookies, etc.).
I was just about to make these cookies and noticed that the salt called for in the halved recipe was 3/4 tsp salt, which seemed like a lot in proportion to the other ingredients. I checked it against the original recipe and it was the same 3/4 tsp. Should it be the same amount or should the salt be halved also?
Sue
I finally gave in and made some CCC's, and chose this recipe. It's very good and I'm glad I made them. I used regular semi-sweet chocolate chips. I only had dark brown sugar so used that and I'm sure the flavor was different because of that but the texture of the cookies is really good and I'm glad I made them! Now that I've read the update I wish I would have made twelve and frozen the rest of the dough for another day. We have a lot of cookies for the two of us to eat! Thanks for the weights Anna! They came together really quick easy because of that!
Louise
Thanks for the update. Few cc cookies taste good on Day 2. I recently made one and now have to scour my notes to see which it was. It might have been one using alternative flours. 🙁
Anna
Okay, here's a little update. The dough bakes up nicely after being chilled for 24 hours, but it was just as good baked immediately. The cookies are okay on Day 2, but not great. But frankly, a butter-based chocolate chip cookie that tastes good on Day 2 is elusive. I still loved this recipe.
I made a batch for myself using King Arthur Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour and walnuts tossed in butter (ie, Shirley Corriher's toasting method) and can't wait to bake the dough.
Katrina
MMm. I've seen/heard of those. Great job, Fuzz. Definitely makes me want a ccc!
Lisa@ButteryBooks
Those look delicious! I do prefer the extra dark chocolate chips.
Erin
Awesome job Fuzz! I can't wait to bake these with Sam when we move!
Robin
Fuzz you did a fabulous job! I'd totally buy these yummy jems at any bakery for sure :} I'm baking these to take to work; my friends @ work will luv 'em too~we're nurses & we flip out for yummy cookies!!
Anna
Hi Louise,
We baked a little over a dozen and ate 6. I'll see how the others taste today. We also saved half the dough and plan on baking it up this morning for Emma's teacher. I'll let you all know if the refrigerated dough tastes or bakes up any nicer than the dough we baked immediately.
Louise
Fuzz did a great job on the cc cookies. Did you make enough to see how long these keep?
Anna
Sue, semi-sweet would be fine. I've just been buying the "extra dark" chips, the one in the bright red bag, so I specified extra dark.
Lisa Ernst
Beautiful! These look perfect and I love to actually taste the vanilla in my cookies.
Holiday Baker Man
So perfect!
snooky doodle
I m in the mood for Chocolate chip cookies 🙂
Katy
I just clipped this recipe from BHG not but 10 minutes ago! Glad to see a review -- Thanks!
Sue
They're picture perfect! Good job Fuzz! I've been absolutely craving CCC's for the past two weeks. Maybe I'll give in and make these. 😉 Hmmm, I only have semi-sweet chocolate chips right now.
Gloria
I love the shape!!! Once my new kitchen counters are fully in (1/2 are in, and 1/2 were cut wrong 🙁 ) I will get to start baking again..these look like they will be at the top of the list!