I am always so grateful when a friend passes along a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. In this case, it was my neighbor, who told me these were her family's favorite bakery-style chewy chocolate chip cookies. The recipe was originally published in The Raleigh News & Observer and attributed to David Fowle of The Wilmoore Café. While the café has long since changed ownership, the cookie recipe has lived on in the kitchens of many Raleigh families.
Chewy Chocolate Chip with Craggy Tops
These are everything I love in a chocolate chip cookie and hope you love them too. They're about average thickness, chewy, buttery, and packed with chocolate. The edges are crisp while the centers stay soft, and the long creaming time gives them those beautiful craggy tops and plenty of texture.
The Master Recipe
The recipe is similar to a few professional bakery formulas I've come across over the years -- somewhere around 3 cups of flour, both baking soda and powder, and a good amount of both brown and granulated sugar. I suspect it belongs to a family of classic bakery recipes that pastry chefs have adapted to their own tastes. Every bakery seems to put its own spin on it by using different combinations of flour instead of all-purpose, slightly different leavening agents and different baking temps and times.
What Makes These Cookies Special
As for what makes this recipe different, there are a few things. The dough is chilled, there is a creaming time of at least 5 minutes, and the cookies are baked at a low temperature (300°F) for 16 to 20 minutes. I think the overnight chill and the generous five-minute creaming period is what gives these cookies their wonderfully chewy texture and rich flavor. As for the low and slow bake, I've baked them at 300°F, 350°F, and even 375°F in my toaster oven. I kind of prefer them baked at a higher heat with bigger crevices and more browning, but the lower heat cookies are good too.
The recipe is one I know you'll want to play with just like pastry chefs and other home bakers have done. I have experimented with the amount of flour and sugar, but kept coming back to these ratios. But other fun things you can change are using half bread/half cake, incorporating a little milk powder and/or cornstarch for more chew (not that the cookies need it) and using different types of chocolate. Or you may realize the recipe doesn't need changing at all!
Cookie Yield
This recipe gives you about 60 ounces of cookie dough. If you portion the dough into generous 3-ounce bakery-style cookies, you'll get about 20 cookies. The original recipe uses slightly smaller 2½-ounce portions, which yields a few more.
A Few Baking Notes
- The cookies pictured here were made with Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour.
- Chill the dough overnight, but don't hesitate to bake up a test cookie or two right away. Chilling enhances the flavor and texture, but the cookies taste great when baked right away, too.
- Cream the butter and sugars for a full 5 minutes. European style butter (Plugra) works beautifully in these!
- For even more flavor you can add the tiniest pinch of cinnamon.
- Try using vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract for a richer vanilla flavor.
- For the best bakery-style cookies, use large chocolate chips. A combination of Ghirardelli Bittersweet Chips and Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips works well.
- Red, white, and blue M&M's are completely optional, but they're fun for summer holidays.
Recipe
David Fowle's Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, plus another 1 tablespoon (390 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt, add an extra pinch if using unsalted butter
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened (Plugra works well) (228 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 1 ¼ cups packed brown sugar, organic light if you have (260 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract paste
- 2 large eggs
- 1 pound great quality chocolate chips
Instructions
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set side.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat softened butter and sugar until very lightly and fluffy -- about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla.
- Add one egg and beat on medium just until blended, then add second egg and beat just until blended.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until incorporated. Mix in the chocolate chips.
- Using a quarter cup measure or a large scoop, scoop out 2 ½ oz balls of dough. Arrange on dinner plates if you plan to chill the balls (recommended) or scoop direction onto parchment lined baking sheets.
- Cover the dough balls and chill for 24 hours.
- Preheat oven to 300°F. Have ready two rimmed baking sheets (ungreased). Alternatively, you can bake the cookies at a higher temp like 375F or 350F. I have baked these at all different temperatures in my toaster oven.
- Arrange the cookies at least 3 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 16 to 20 minutes at 300 or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack or if using parchment, just slide the parchment onto the cool counter.
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