A few years ago, my husband wanted to make ice cream sandwiches. Wait. Let me rephrase this a bit… my husband always wants to make ice cream sandwiches, but this particular time, he wanted to do it with a big thick chocolate chip cookie. Ya know those cravings that just sit in your mind until you figure out a way to bring them into reality? Well sometimes they work out and sometimes they end in you eating your cookies and ice cream all piled into one big bowl, looking nothing like an ice cream sandwich.
So after that happened, I knew that we needed a really soft chocolate chip cookie that could flex a little during the sandwiching process. Pinch of Yum’s recipe was the first one that I found when I searched “soft chocolate chip cookies” and not only did the cookies work perfectly for the ice cream sandwiches, but it created a batch of cookies that I never had to worry about storing, because they never survive to see the next day. They are wonderful. Soft, thick and they can handle being absolutely stuffed with chocolate chips. Plus, the recipe is not too finicky. You can just toss your butter into the microwave to melt it and make everything in one bowl. They bake up quick and have always turned out the same for me and I have been making them for over 5 years now!
Lets get started…
The first step will be to place 1 stick of butter into a large glass bowl and microwave until it is almost all melted into a liquid form. Set it aside while you gather the rest of the ingredients. You will need 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1/4 cup of tightly packed brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of vanilla, an egg, 1 1/2 or maybe 2 cups of flour (I’ll explain), 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1 cup of chocolate chips or chunks.
You can make this dough by hand or in your stand mixer, but as much as I love my stand mixer, I make these cookies by hand for two reasons: I can whisk them up in two minutes and only have one bowl and one whisk to clean and I can feel the texture of the dough better when I am mixing them by hand. Which ever method you decide on, this is how they come together…
Add the granulated sugar and brown sugar into the melted butter and whisk until they are fully incorporated, creamy and take on a nice pale color. Now add the vanilla extract and egg and whisk until the egg is incorporated. Sprinkle over your salt and baking soda, give it a good whisk and then add 1 1/2 cups of flour. Once the flour is all incorporated into the dough, it is time to decide whether we need that extra flour or not. You want the dough to be easy to pick up and shape into a ball. If it is too wet and sticks to your hands, add a few tablespoons of flour and try again. You don’t want the dough to be dry, but definitely easy to roll up into a ball.
Once the dough is at that point, add your chocolate chips and mix them in by hand.
I usually use a combination of chocolate in these cookies… whatever I have in my pantry. Today, I used some roughly chopped dark chocolate, milk chocolate chips and some semi-sweet mini chips and there may or may not be more than a cup of chocolate going into the bowl this morning (there definitely is)…
Roll your dough into balls and place them onto a baking sheet a few inches apart. You can make them really big or smaller bite-sized cookies. They turn out delicious regardless of their size.
Bake on a middle rack at 350 degrees for 10 minutes…. no more. Now repeat after me: “I promise to remove my cookies from the oven after baking for 10 minutes, even if they still look soft and pale.” Ok… you promised! Now set the baking sheet on a heat proof surface and walk away. Let them cool right on that sheet for as long as you can stand it. 30 minutes is your goal. Sometimes I can make it that long and something I cannot, but just do your best. The worst thing that will happen if you eat them before they have cooled and set up is that they may fall apart, but if you must sample your masterpiece prematurely, take one.
After they have cooled on the baking sheet, you can transfer them to a cooling rack for their bottoms to dry out if you want, but this is optional. IF you happen to have left overs for some reason, they store really well at room temperature in an airtight container for days and days. They even stay soft! When we have company staying over at our house, I make them in advance and know they will be good whenever I need them.
I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we do and keep repeating this recipe over and over. Double it, triple it… put some in the freezer, have one after breakfast or make an ice cream sandwich with them! They won’t let you down….
Super Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 8 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2-2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chocolate chunks or chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Melt butter in a large glass bowl
- Add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of brown sugar and whisk until creamy
- Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and 1 egg and whisk only until combined
- Start by adding 1 1/2 cups of flour, the salt and baking soda and mix until fully incorporated. Add more flour if necessary (see instructions above)
- Incorporate 1 cup of chocolate chips by hand
- Form balls of dough and place onto a baking sheet 2 inches apart
- Bake for 10 minutes and then place the baking sheet on a heat proof surface to cool for 30 minutes before removing the cookies
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature, in the refrigerator or freezer
* Thank you Pinch of Yum for this perfect cookie recipe!
