Hugs and Cookies' Chocolate Chip Cookies

Hugs and Cookies' Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 25, 2016, modified from Hugs and Cookies

This is one of the recipes where I consciously substituted ¼ cup of turbinado sugar for the granulated sugar and hence may be one of the reasons I ranked this in the “GREAT” category because I liked that sweet crunch.

But it also had the crisp edges and chewy middles I looked for in a good/great chocolate chip cookie. In addition, it was delicious.

The original recipe from Hugs & Cookies suggests preheating your oven to 425 degrees then lowering the temp to 375 when you put your cookies in to bake. The purpose is to set the cookies at high heat before they can spread too much. I tried it for the first baking sheet of cookies I put into the oven but even lowering it to 375 immediately after tended to brown my chocolate chips more than I wanted, probably because the oven was so hot to begin with. So I compromised by actually putting the cookies in at 360 degrees while my oven was still preheating to 375. It was at a high enough heat that the cookies could bake before spreading too much, it wasn’t so hot that my chocolate chips burned and by putting it in while the oven still had 15 degrees to heat, the oven was still actively heating. You know whenever you open your oven door, the heat escapes and the temp lowers. I’d rather put the cookies in while the oven is in active heating mode so when it stops at the proper temperature, my cookies are already safely in the oven.

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks (6 ounces) unsalted butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or 1/4 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup turbinado sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups chocolate chips

1. Cream butter and both sugars together until well blended. Add vanilla, egg and yolk and mix until combined. 
2. Add flour, salt and baking soda just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and freeze or chill for several hours or overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets. Place in preheated oven and immediately reduce temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake 9 minutes or until edges are brown and middles are no longer raw. (Alternatively, you can do what I did and preheat oven to 375 degrees. When oven is at 360 degrees, place cookies in oven to bake and continue preheating to 375. Let bake at 375 for several minutes to set then reduce temp to 360 and finish baking.) Let cool on baking sheets for several minutes then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies from Lisa G Cooks

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 22, 2016 from Lisa G Cooks

I had such high hopes for this cookie based on the picture of it on the original blog Lisa G Cooks. On her blog, it looked exactly like how I liked my cookies: chubby, pretty much the same shape as when the dough ball was scooped and looked super chewy and moist. That picture is why I decided to try her recipe in the first place.

Alas, mine didn’t look like hers at all. For one thing, they spread. They didn’t spread thin but they definitely didn’t stay like a round dough ball. Bummer. At 8 minutes, which is how long the recipe said to bake them for, they were spread-out raw dough. I’m not kidding. So I baked them a little longer, like a more traditional recipe and they came out like a more traditional cookie instead of a barely-baked cooked dough ball.

However, once I got past the optical expectations (which weren’t met), I was almost surprised by how much I liked the taste of this cookie. I won’t go into a bunch of rapturous descriptions but I will say, in the group of recipes I tested, this goes into the “GREAT” category. I think it was the pronounced caramelization of the brown sugar flavor that won me over. Whatever it was was delicious.

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup butter
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; beat until just incorporated.
2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add gradually to butter-sugar mixture, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
3. Add chocolate chips. Portion into golf-ball-size dough balls and cover; chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space dough balls on baking sheets. Bake for 8 minutes (or longer), until the edges have started to brown. Remove from oven and leave the cookies on the baking sheet to cool for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling racks to cool completely.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies from Lovely Little Kitchen

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies - made May 21, 2016 from Lovely Little Kitchen

We now get firmly into the "GREAT" category of chocolate chip cookie recipes that I've tried. What put this recipe in the Great category is this cookie delivered on several of my key chocolate chip cookie categories: it stayed thick, it looked good, it had crisp edges when freshly baked and just barely lukewarm and it was chewy.

The cream cheese gave it a smooth texture, not only in appearance but also in texture. It was chewy but more creamy than chewy, probably also from the cream cheese. But don’t worry if you don’t like cream cheese (I typically don’t); you can’t taste the cream cheese in this one. It plays more of a role with the texture than the taste.

If you want to impress your friends and family with a “professional” looking cookie, this would be a good, I mean great, choice.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Heat butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until melted. Continue cooking until milk solids turn light brown and a nutty fragrance emerges. Set aside to cool slightly before refrigerating until a soft solid.
2. Cream cooled browned butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and mix until incorporated.
3. Add egg, egg yolk and vanilla until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and cornstarch.
5. With mixer on low speed, gradually add the flour until just incorporated. Add chocolate chips and mix,
6. Scoop 1/4 cup of dough and pat into a thick disc, about 1/2-inch thick. Repeat with remaining dough, cover, and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and space cookies evenly. Bake 11-13 minutes or until edges are golden brown and middles no longer look raw. Cool briefly on baking sheets then move to wire rack to cool completely.

Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies from Modern Honey

Copycat Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough June 4, 2016, modified from Modern Honey

I was of two minds about this cookie and whether I would put it in the “Good” or “Great” category. If I followed the directions as is, it would end up in the Good bucket. If, after learning from my mistakes in following the recipe as is and rated it based on my modifications, it would still be in the “GOOD” column but closer to “GREAT” than before. So maybe “Really Good”? In any case, it’s probably a good segue from the GOOD to the GREAT classification as straddling both.

If you’re from New York, chances are high that you know all about Levain Bakery. Heck, I’m not from New York and even I’ve heard of them. Probably because I keep up with all things cookies. Levain is known for humongous, delicious cookies and since I tried a copycat version of their chocolate cookie, I searched out a copycat of their chocolate chip cookie. I found two that I tried but let’s stick to this one for now.

The original recipe advocates making large cookies (of course) and baking at a high temp of 410 degrees to set the cookies quickly and keep them thick. What this particular recipe taught me is, with my oven (and bear in mind, all ovens are different), 410 degrees is too hot for cookies. Not only did it burn the chocolate, but by the time the middles were just barely past the raw stage and I could take them out, the outer ring of the cookie was almost dry. So I wasn’t very happy about that.

That was the first sheet of cookies. For the next sheet, I lowered the temp to 375 degrees. Yes, they spread a bit more but it was worth it not to have dry edges while the middles got to an appropriate stage of gooey-but-not-raw. There was still some burning around the edges of the chocolate chunks but nothing too serious and they didn’t taste burnt, they just looked a little dark chocolate when they’re not dark chocolate. But I must say, these took a really good picture when the chocolate chunks were still melty-warm.

1 cup cold butter, cut into tablespoons
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar (or 1/4 cup granulated sugar + 1/4 cup turbinado sugar)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornstarch
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate chunks (I used Trader Joe's milk chocolate Pound Plus bar)

1. In large mixing bowl, cream together cold butter and sugars for 4 minutes or until creamy and well combined.
2. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one.
3. Stir in flours, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
4. Portion into large balls, cover and chill in refrigerator or freezer for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 410 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and space 4 large dough balls on each sheet. Place in oven and immediately lower temp to 375 degrees.
6. Bake for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let cool on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

"All-Time Favorite" Chocolate Chip Cookies from Gimme Some Oven

"All-Time Favorite" Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 20, 2016 from Gimme Some Oven

The third recipe in the "GOOD" category. This version of the chocolate chip cookie from Gimme Some Oven looked so picture perfect – an almost even doneness but you could tell it wasn’t overbaked and wouldn’t be dry. If chocolate chip cookies could model, this would strut down the runway. At least it would when Gimme Some Oven made them. Mine weren’t as picturesque.

I didn’t overbake them but they did brown a bit more than the original. I couldn’t help it. When I tried for the pale golden even look Gimme Some Oven got, the cookies were still too raw in the middle so I had to bake them a wee bit longer. 

They tasted good and if I wasn’t actively comparing them to so many other recipes, they’d probably be great. But I will have to put them in the good category. 

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (or more) chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add egg and vanilla, and mix until combined, about 1 minute.
2. Add in the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt, and beat on medium-low speed until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips by hand until just combined.
3. Use a large cookie scoop (equivalent to 3 tablespoons) or a spoon to shape the dough into balls, cover, and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space the frozen dough balls on baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes until the edges are just set. The centers may look slightly undercooked. Cool cookies on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. 

Cake Boss Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cake Boss Chocolate Chip Cookies - made dough May 6, 2016, adapted from Key Ingredient

Another chocolate chip cookie recipe in the "Good" category. My bar is so high for chocolate chip cookies that the odds are really, really low of finding another standout one. Sadly, this one didn’t beat those odds. It was still a good cookie and had I been earlier in my chocolate chip cookie baking career, it might’ve gotten higher marks.

The edges browned and crisped up obligingly, the middles were chewy and this was a very tasty cookie. But this still spread too much for my taste and it didn’t stand out amongst the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of recipes I’ve tried over the years for chocolate chip cookies. I baked it from frozen dough but it still spread rather flat-ish. I baked at a higher temp on the convection setting in an attempt to “freeze” the cookie to a certain thickness before it spread too much. That only very partially worked. Still flatter than I would’ve liked.

The taste was good but it didn’t stand out for me. Although, when I brought these into work, I did get positive feedback from one of my coworkers in the form of, “did you bring in those M&M cookies? OMG, I had it for breakfast.” Accompanied by a reverent tone I reserve when speaking of cookie butter. So someone liked these a lot.

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups semisweet or milk chocolate chips or chunks
3/4 cup M&M baking bits

1. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Cream butter and sugars together in the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment until thoroughly combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until incorporated. 
3. Add dry ingredients, in three batches, mixing until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Add chocolate chips or chunks and M&M baking bits. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover, and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Evenly space frozen dough balls on baking sheets. Bake 13-15 minutes, turning midway through baking time, or until just golden brown at the edges and middles are no longer shiny or raw. Remove from oven, let cool for a few minutes then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Copycat Mrs Fields Cookies with Caramel-Filled Chocolate Chips

Copycat Mrs Fields Cookies - made dough April 16, 2016 from Averie Cooks

First up in the "Good" category

There was a period in my adolescence when I would’ve sold my soul – or at least rented it out – for the recipe of the real Mrs. Fields’ cookies. I loved those things. It was the first time in my early memory where I remember you could buy a cookie at the mall and they were delicious. Prior to Mrs. Fields’, if you wanted a “homemade” cookie, you made it at home.  I spent years trying to recreate those cookies and despaired of ever coming up with a thick, chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. The recipe on the Nestle Tollhouse package just couldn’t cut it. Even now, years later when I have no less than 4 go-to recipes for my “perfect” chocolate chip cookie, any new ones that claim to be a knock off of the Mrs. Fields’ cookie catches my eye.

I had read Debbi Fields’ autobiography and scored through all the cooking magazines that talked about the tips she sparingly gave about how to make her cookies. Besides the usual yada yada about using the freshest ingredients (who doesn’t do that? No, don’t tell me), I remember her talking about the key was to bake at a low temperature. That always seemed counterintuitive to me because a lower baking temperature just gives the cookie more time to spread. You don’t want that. But this copycat recipe advocated the same thing so I thought maybe I was just wrong.

I did all the usual, mix it with cold butter, don’t overmix, portion and freeze the dough balls, preheat the oven fully on the convection setting and bake from frozen dough. I did 2 test batches, one baked at the recommended 300 degrees F and one at the usual 350 degrees F, both on the convection setting. Now here’s the thing: the cookies baked at the lower temp spread out more and flattened. The next baking sheet of frozen dough balls, still from the same batch of cookie dough, baked at the higher temp, spread less and baked thicker. Intuitive, right? Consider my head scratched because I don’t know how Mrs. Fields did it but I can’t replicate it.

No matter. It was one good lesson learned that it's still better to bake at a higher temperature (at least 350 degrees) if you don't want flat cookies. These were good cookies and turned out well but they didn’t knock any one of my top 4 favorites from their elevated perch. One last note, for the chocolate chips, I used the “Delightfuls” which were slightly larger than normal chips filled with caramel. I thought they would be the mini version of the caramel-filled Hershey kisses with flowy caramel. Nope. Actually, if you didn’t know the chips were filled with caramel, you would never have guessed. They just seemed like normal chocolate chips. There didn’t seem to be enough caramel inside the chips to make an impression. Just a note in case you think the Delightfuls are worth the extra $$s instead of a bag of  regular chocolate chips. Nah, they’re unfortunately not as Delightful as expected. It didn’t detract from the goodness of the cookie but my higher hopes for gooey, melt-y caramel chocolate goodness were dashed.

1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" cubes
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet or milk chocolate chips

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together to form a grainy paste, 4-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
2. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on medium-low speed until just combined.
3. Add the flour, baking soda and salt; beat on low speed until just combined. Do not overmix. Add chocolate chips.
4. Scoop into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
5. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and evenly space frozen dough balls. Bake 15-16 minutes or until edges are brown and tops no longer look raw. Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.