Today's recipe is an older one that somehow got lost in the shuffle. It's a good chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I'm not sure how it fell off the radar. Maybe because I don't always have both light and dark brown sugar on hand? The recipe calls for both types of sugar and that's partially what makes the cookies special.
Along with having both light and dark brown sugar, the recipe calls for less butter than most chocolate chip cookie recipes and an extra egg yolk. The lower ratio of butter to sugar, flour and egg makes these a little chewier than others, and they always come out kind of puffy. If you don't like flat chocolate chip cookies, this would be a good recipe to try. I also think these work best as slightly larger cookies. If you want small cookies, maybe try the Donna Kelce recipe or the Bon Appetit Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Chill The Dough
This dough really improves with age. If you make a batch of dough and bake the cookies 4 days later, they will be a lot browner and have more depth of flavor. That's the case with most chocolate chip cookie dough, but particularly this one.
The original recipe is from The Boston Herald, where it was shared by Lee Napoli. If you don't need a large batch of chocolate chip cookies, you can halve the recipe.
Works Well With Good Chocolate
Since the dough is not as buttery as some others, you can stuff it with a lot of chocolate chips or use fine quality chocolate, which tends to melt more and infuse oil into the dough. Lindt, Godiva, Callebaut, Valrhona, Guittard and Ghirardelli are all great choices.
Recipe
Light and Dark Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks salted butter (230 grams)
- 1 cup light brown sugar (200 grams)
- ½ cup dark brown sugar (110 grams)
- ¾ cup white granulated sugar (150 grams)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 3 ¼ cups flour, bleached (use a light hand or weigh) (425 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon vanilla or vanilla bean paste
- 3 cups chopped chocolate or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two or three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter and pour into a large bowl. Let cool to slightly warm.
- When the butter cools to slightly warm, add all three sugars (light brown, dark brown and granulated). Mix well. Beat in the egg and yolk. Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda, then add flour mixture to butter mixture and stir until blended. Stir in the vanilla and chopped chocolate or chips.
- Drop by rounded teaspoons onto prepared cookie sheets and bake until nicely browned, about 10 to 12 minutes (time will vary depending on size).
Anna says
Hi Cari,
Actually, that's all I ever do these days. It makes life so much easier when you are ready to bake the cookies. I usually just line a dinner plate with a piece of plastic wrap, use my cookie scoop to scoop out all the portions, fold the plastic over and chill until firm. When the dough balls are firm I transfer them to a freezer bag and keep in the refrigerator for another two days or so before freezing. I rarely bake all my cookies at once, so we always have a freezer full of little dough balls. For refrigeration time, it varies. These cookies just get better and better as the dough ages. You can refrigerate for a few hours or up to a week.
Cari says
Hi Anna,
This may be a silly question, but it's something I've always wondered -- if I want to chill the dough before baking the cookies, can I scoop the dough into balls before I refrigerate it? It just seems easier to do it when the dough is room temperature, but I don't know if it makes a difference to the way the cookies bake. Also, is there a minimum amount of time you would recommend chilling the dough? Thank you!
Sonya says
Sounds yummy!!!
Sue says
I used to always keep both kinds of brown sugar around but lately I seem to only keep light brown in the pantry, The next time I have both I will try to remember this recipe. I like that the cookies improve as the dough ages because I hardly ever make an entire batch of cookies at once with just two of us here to eat them.