I don't know much about football, but thanks to Donna Kelce's Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe I know all about the name of a player and am a big fan of his mom. Shout out to Donna Kelce for sharing her chocolate chip cookie recipe on The Today Show. I expected it to be good. But not only are the cookies tasty, they're different! The recipe has a few twists to it.
Why It's Different
Mrs. Kelce's recipe has a lower ratio of eggs than usual plus a combination of cake and all-purpose flours. She also puts cinnamon in the recipe, which is something I started doing years ago after using it in Laura Bush's cookies. So I made these pretty much as written but with half the cinnamon. Also, I only used 2 teaspoons of water which I believe is the correct amount. The recipe says 2 tablespoons, but it just seems like too much. Plus the 2 teaspoons worked perfectly.
Flavor and Texture
The cookies are sweet! They're flat and chewy with lot of little bubbles (thank to the 4 minutes of creaming) and a nice array of flavors. Donna Kelce's recipe calls for optional pecans. Since the cookies are on the sweet side, they are on an excellent choice, as are salted macadamia nuts. This is a recipe I plan on keeping.
Deep Thoughts
Make these for yourself, your family or anybody you like. They don't have to be famous football players. Remember what Chance the Rapper says -- Everybody is somebody's everything. True words. Think about this when you're reading about all these famous people doing spectacular things and trying to figure out where you fit in the universe.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Tips
- Melt the butter in the microwave using a low setting so that it doesn't separate. You can also melt part of it, then chop up the rest and add it to the melted butter to speed up cooling.
- Use a stand mixer if you have one. Four minutes is a long creaming time, but it dissolves the sugar and helps it caramelize faster in the oven, meaning more flavor and a better texture. It also adds air to the dough. In this case, there's already baking powder, so you get extra air and the cookies rise fast and flatten out, which makes them chewy and good. The only drawback is they have a tendency to be misshapen. Some of the tastiest cookies are.
- These cookies look better (and spread more evenly) when made as small cookies.
- You don't have to use a full teaspoon of cinnamon.
- I don't think you need 2 tablespoons of water either (as mentioned).
- Use good vanilla because these cookies call for a full tablespoon and you can taste it.
- If you want to make a half batch and need to halve 1 egg and 1 yolk, just use 1 egg and remove 17 grams of the white. No scale? Just try to eyeball half the white and remove it. But I like this scale a lot. Some of the cheaper ones are good, too. This one's just easy to clean and has a large display.
- If you don't have cake or pastry flour, you can make your own 1 cup of cake flour by removing 2 tablespoons from 1 cup of all-purpose and adding in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
Recipe
Donna Kelce’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 sticks unsalted butter (aka sweet cream butter) (342 grams)
- 1 ½ cups packed light brown sugar (300 grams)
- 1 cup white sugar (200 grams)
- 1 large egg (48 grams without shell)
- 1 large egg yolk (18 grams without shell)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking soda plus 2 teaspoons hot water (I use teaspoons, not tablespoons)
- 2 cups all purpose flour (280 grams)
- 1 cup cake or pastry flour (120 grams)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon I'd go with ½ teaspoon or even less
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt (Morton kosher)
- 2 cups chips (1 cup each Ghirardelli white and milk chocolate
- Optional: 1 cup pecans
Instructions
- Melt butter lightly in the microwave using one of the lower power settings or do it on high and stir every 20 seconds. Pour into a mixing bowl or the bowl of stand mixer. Let cool for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Add brown and white sugar to the melted butter and beat with an electric mixer for 4 minutes. This is a long time, so it helps to have a stand mixer. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add egg, then yolk., Add vanilla and mix for 30 seconds.
- Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add to the mixture.
- Whisk together both of the flours, the baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- Add flour mixture gradually, scraping down sides of the bowl. Add all chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and stir until blended.
- If you can, chill for at least 3 hours. Note: I scooped the dough balls onto a plastic wrap-lined plate, covered and chilled the preformed dough balls. I also baked some cookies immediately.
- Before baking, let the dough come to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Drop dough (or just arrange the dough balls) on un ungreased baking pan spacing at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake small cookies for 10 minutes. Bake larger cookies for 13 to 15 minutes or however long it takes for the cookies to appear set.
Darlene
Thank you so much for your opinion! I do agree it's always best to make a recipe the first time as written so if you make it again with a little change, you can compare the taste to the original version.
Anna
I'm back to say I made the Travis Kelce's mom's cookies with the cake flour substitute just to see how it would work. The cookies are still good! They're maybe a little stiffer, but have the same appearance. For the cake flour, I measured 1 cup all purpose, took out 2 tablespoons and replaced with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. With weights that would be 16 grams of cornstarch plus 114 grams of all-purpose.
Anna
Hmm, everybody's cookies are going to be different anyway based on what brands of flour they use, how they measure, whether it's bleached or unbleached etc. To get close to the recipe, it's best to use the type of flour called for. But it doesn't mean that you won't get good cookies by using one flour as long as you use the same amount by weight. Maybe with the holidays coming you could find a spot in the freezer for some cake flour. Just empty it into a freezer bag and stash it away, then in the next few months you can try some cakes and cookies that call for it.
Also, I don't think the old homemade cake flour substitute of replacing 2 tablespoons of all-purpose with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch would give you the same cookie, either. It might make a good cookie, but not the same because that's a lot of cornstarch.
Darlene
Anna, I'd love your opinion if it's critical to use cake or pastry flour (in addition to AP flour). I hate to buy another flour just for this recipe. Ever since you first posted it years ago, my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe has been Lee Napoli's Chocolate Chip Cookies (which I believe you later re-named LIGHT AND DARK BROWN SUGAR CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES). They're wonderful!
Anna
Yay! Glad you tried Mrs. Kelce's cookies. I froze ours and am looking forward to making more.
Sue
These turned out great!
I made a couple of larger ones and a couple of smaller ones. I agree that the smaller ones are better but the larger ones had a unique texture I think due to the longer baking time. They had this kind of crispy, sandy, chewy texture. Maybe I over baked them? They were interesting enough that I would do it on purpose. The smaller ones have a smoother, crispy, chewy texture.
I included the nuts and I’m glad I did.
They puffed up quite a bit when baking and I was concerned I had done something wrong but then they slump down into themselves when they cool.
This was a fun recipe. It’s a little different and I’m glad I tried it.
Now I’m wondering how they’ll keep? I’ll probably freeze the dough balls and bake the rest sometime when I need more cookies.
Sue
I cant wait to make these! I’ve been wanting to bake something but I’ve been unable to settle on what. Lots of good ideas but a lot of indecisiveness.