Believe it or not, there is only one chocolate chip cookie recipe on this blog. It’s my favorite one to bake and eat, the Jacques Torres one shared by many, many other bloggers as well. I’ve posted it as a cookie cake as too, and I love busting out the bread flour and sea salt for those special cookies. There have been a lot of other great chocolate chip varieties the past four years – nutella-filled everything cookies, s’mores cookies, trail mix cookies, cookies and cream cookies – but only one chocolate chip cookie recipe in its truest form. So today I’m offering you an alternative to Jacques. If you read enough baking blogs you’ll know that the secret ingredient to making super soft cookies is cornstarch, so I decided to try one out and I’m here to say that yes, it works!
The main reason I was willing to bust out of my CCC shell was I had the task of creating an ice cream sandwich bar a few weeks ago for a dinner party. I decided to offer a number of different kinds of cookies and ice creams (more recipes to come next week!) and knew that I wanted the cookies to be super soft. Nothing is worse than struggling with an ice cream sandwich because you can’t get through the cookies in one beautiful bite! These cookies fit the bill perfectly – they baked up nice and fluffy and round, were full of rich buttery flavors, and were very soft and doughy, but still firm enough to stand up to a scoop of ice cream. I made mine miniature so people were more likely to try more than one combination of ice cream sandwich, and I thought they looked adorable perched atop my little milk cup, dontcha think?
I know a lot of people go crazyyyy for doughy cookies and love their cookies soft and as underbaked as sanitarily possible. I myself fell in love with the doughy Levain cookies, but usually I prefer my chocolate chip cookies with a slight crunch and more of a chewy factor. This new recipe was really yummy, and the cornstarch definitely did the trick in keeping them soft, but it won’t be my new go-to just because I don’t loooove soft cookies. I did appreciate how easy they were to throw together – definitely fewer steps than the Jacques Torres recipe – and I would certainly turn to this recipe for making a quick recipe to please a big crowd. They were perfect for ice cream sandwiches and make a great addition to my repertoire of cookies in my recipe index!
Super Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction
Yield: 40 small cookies
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions:
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture in and beat until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips with a rubber spatula by hand. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Once the cookie dough is properly chilled, allow it to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll balls of dough about 1 tbsp each and place 2" apart on a parchment paper or Silpat-lined cookie sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes until cookies just start to brown around the edges. (They will look slightly underbaked, but this ensures they stay soft!) Allow the cookies to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Soft cookies are the best! Also, I really love that shot of the cookie on the milk glass. :0)
Love waking up to your blog posts! Can’t wait to give this a try!
Wow – they’re the best cookies I ever tried. My BF loves them and I got many compliments from his collegues at work, family, friends!!!
Great breakfast or snack. I will often be with me to work and when I go to conferences.