Claire Saffitz Chocolate Chip Cookies
What makes the best chocolate chip cookies? In Claire’s opinion, it’s a chewy edge, soft and chewy center, puddles of chocolate (in this case, dark and milk), a healthy amount of salt, and, crucially, lots of butterscotch-y flavor from the interplay of vanilla, brown sugar, and brown butter. That might sound like a lot, but it all comes together easily in a couple of bowls, no stand mixer required. The hardest part is definitely waiting for the dough to chill in the fridge before baking.
Ingredients
2 sticks unsalted butter cut into tablespoons
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons heavy cream, half-and-half, or whole milk
2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, cold from the refrigerator
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate bits or (5 ounces bittersweet chocolate disks, half coarsely chopped, 5 ounces of milk chocolate disks, half coarsely chopped)
Directions
Using a skillet, brown 1 stick of butter over medium heat.
Transfer browned butter to a large bowl. Let cool for a few minutes then add the remaining stick of butter. Whisk well until mixture is smooth. Whisk in the cream.
Add both sugars and whisk until smooth. Then add in the eggs and vanilla; whisk some more!
In a separate bowl, sift flour and baking soda then add the 2 teaspoons of salt.
Stir dry ingredients then once well combined, carefully add to wet ingredients. Fold in flour mixture then whisk batter until you don’t see any bits of flour.
Fold in chocolate chips. Chill dough for 15- 20 minutes. Then remove from fridge and portion out the dough for 2nd round of chilling. Using an ice cream scooper, scoop the dough (1 scoop = 1 cookie). Place on a lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 12 -24 hours.
Once you’re ready to bake cookies, take another lined baking sheet and add 4-6 cookies per sheet.
Bake at 350 until golden for about 18-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
First, let cool for 5 minutes on the pan. This cookies MUST set before they can be moved to a wire rack. Then after another 5 minutes on a wire rack, enjoy.