The Chocolate Chip Cookies of All Time

They’re the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had.

Cody, while we were talking with friends. IDK where we were. We were probably at a brewery. Why are we always at a brewery?

These are, as the name suggests, THE chocolate chip cookies of all time. You aren’t going to need another recipe. My friend Cody said they’re the best, and we all know that means it’s true. Enjoy ’em, and don’t forget: Keep your butter butter people.

What You’re Going to Need

• 3 Cups all-purpose flour (I recommend King Arthur’s. Stuff’s great)
• 1 Cup raw cane sugar
• 1 Cup brown sugar
• 1 Cup unsalted butter
• 1 Teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1 Heaping Teaspoon sea salt
• 2 Teaspoons vanilla extract (Don’t skimp on this. Get good stuff.)
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 Cup chopped dark chocolate (Something around 60-80% cocoa, depending on preference.)
• 3 Tablespoons flaky salt (You can find this at Publix. IDK what they have up north, Wegmans maybe? Best of luck since I haven’t looked, but you’ll need it for this recipe. Do NOT skip it.)

How To Do It

1. Prepare a baking pan. Either line a traditional pan with parchment paper OR for better results, use a steel baking pan. If you aren’t refrigerating your dough, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. But seriously, refrigerating the dough makes it SO much better. 1*
2. Mix your flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk this all together till it’s combined. Set aside. Make aggressive glances at it if you wish.
3. Soften your butter. This is one of a few situations where a Kitchenaid© stand mixer would be quite useful, as hand-mixing a stick of butter requires biceps that I don’t have.. You don’t want your butter too melted to where it stops being butter, but you want it soft enough to mix in with your sugars. I like to leave mine out till it gets to room temperature, but you’re welcome to try your own method. 2*
4. Cream your softened butter with your sugars until combined. Since brown sugar usually sticks together, I’d recommend whisking together both of your sugars before adding your butter. Once you’re done whisking the sugar and butter together, set aside. 
5. Mix together the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl. Remove the white “eyes” from the eggs if you’re extra. Whisk until combined. 
6. Add your egg and vanilla mixture to your sugar and butter bowl. Whisk till all that stuff is combined. You’ll be left with a sticky mixture that has a consistency like oatmeal. That’s perfect. Blow a kiss to it.
7. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. If you’re privileged, use your Kitchenaid© stand mixer and laugh at everyone else. If you’re like me, use a spatula and/or spoon to mix everything together until you have a proper cookie dough.
8. Add in your rough-chopped chocolate chunks and your chocolate chips. Keep running the stand mixer (or continue your arm workout) until the chocolate is thoroughly incorporated.
9. Cover the lid to your bowl or wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Let sit in a refrigerator for 8-24 hours before baking. (You CAN skip this step, but it does help the overall flavor of the cookies, as well as helps them rise more.) 3*
10. Roll your cookies into 3 ounce balls and place on your baking sheet, or use a cookie scoop. Space them apart on your pan, leaving space equal to the width of your dough balls in between each of your dough balls.
11. Bake your babies for 14 minutes, a little longer if you don’t have a convection oven. If you don’t have a convection oven, I’m sorry for you.
12. IMPORTANT STEP: The key to making the cookies perfectly cooked is to cook them till they are almost done. You’ll know this by seeing them lightly brown. When you see them ever so slightly browning, count off 15-30 seconds and then yank them. Let them rest on the hot pan for 3-5 minutes, then move with a spatula to a wire rack to cool. 4*
13. As soon as you remove them from the oven, hit them with flaky salt to your own preference. The cookie’s exterior layer will crisp up quickly after being removed; do your best Salt Bae impression and top those bad boys with salt.
14. You’re done! Enjoy with a glass of milk, a bowl of ice cream, a brownie, or use them to make an ice cream sandwich!

The Machinations of the Mind of Everett (Notes. These are my notes.)

• 1* I use this one, it’s already nonstick and won’t warp. Additionally, it has better heat transfer than a traditional pan, so you’ll get a more even bake.
• 2* Butter has a lot of stuff in it. When you heat it up, water evaporates, stuff separates, and it becomes something different. Obviously, if you’re cooking with butter you want it to still be, well, butter. To avoid making it not butter, you want to keep it at a reasonable temperature. Below 65 degrees Fahrenheit is the goal. Also, butter is like ~15% water; if you overheat it, you’ll evaporate the water, turning your butter into not butter. That’s no good. Keep your butter together, people.
• 2.5* I’d highly recommend Kerrygold Pure Irish butter. Bring it to room temperature and it will be easy to mix in with your sugar egg and vanilla mixture.
• 3* Fun fact, cold dough doesn’t rise as well in the oven as not cold dough. Hence, when you go to step 10, leave your dough on the counter for 30-45 minutes before you shape-and-bake to get your cookies to rise a little bit more. More rise, more volume, more mmmmmm.
• 4* Every oven is different, so you’ll likely need to adjust these numbers. Additionally, the type of pan will change this as well. Experiment until you find what works perfectly for you! It’s a part of the fun.

Let’s Talk Goals

This recipe has undergone many iterations. In fact, it continues to get reworked as I get feedback and conduct more testing. The goal here was (and still is) to create a cookie recipe that can satisfy. I believe the perfect cookie is one which you can have just one and be completely satisfied. When I share these cookies, a lot of people will tear them in half because they’re quite large, but hey, it’s not my fault they’re WEAK. I jest.

Anyway, this recipe is a conglomerate of various other recipes, knowledge from books I’ve read, and my own testing/preferences. Feel free to change it up for what works for YOU. For instance, my girlfriend prefers a lighter, milkier chocolate, so when I make these for her I’ll choose a lighter chocolate to chop up. Another idea is to mix in cocoa powder to the dough, giving you a more chocolatey double chocolate cookie. Lastly, you can also cook this recipe as a sheet cookie, or cookie cake. The benefit of this is you cut each of your cookies to shape, so you can provide a universal cookie to everyone. I don’t think they present or rise as well, but it doesn’t matter if you’re burying it under ice cream or trying to prevent kids from fighting over the biggest cookie.

Enjoy making these! Feel free to comment on how you did, what questions you may have, or any changes you would make or have made to the recipe!