We are chocolate chip cookie lovers in our house, so I just had to try the America’s Test Kitchen recipe. They are crunchy around the edges, chewy in the middle and loaded with chocolate chips. It’s just what you want in a chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Did you know that October is National Cookie Month? WAHOO! I do love cookies. I’ll try to post a few this month for sure. I already have a few in mind, pumpkin spice, Mexican chocolate, sugar, pumpkin whoopies, pumpkin chocolate chip, ok I need to do more than just pumpkin. I can’t help it!!!
This ATK chocolate chip cookie recipe is one of two recipes that my husband will eat. He is a picky cookie eater. He loves the Nestle Toll House recipe from the store. Lame, I know, and a recipe that a friend of his made in college. Luckily over the years, I’ve converted him to our chocolate chip pudding cookies too.
Ingredients for ATK’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
The ingredients needed for these cookies are your typical cc cookie ingredients. No surprises. Here is what you will need:
- Flour: just regular all purpose flour is great
- Baking Soda: acts as a leavening agent to give the cookies some rise
- Salt: enhances all the flavors
- Butter: I prefer to use unsalted butter to control the amount of salt in the recipe.
- Brown Sugar: adds sweetness and depth of flavor
- Sugar: just granulated white sugar
- Egg: You’ll need one egg and another egg yolk to give the cookies structure and to help bind them.
- Vanilla: adds flavor
- Chocolate Chips: I’ve tried a few different chocolate chips and semi-sweet is my favorite. Milk chocolate is just too sweet with the sweetness of the cookie dough.
All the details for measurements can be found in the recipe card down below.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
Here are the basic steps for making this recipe. The complete instructions can be found in the recipe card down at the end of the post.
- Prep: Preheat the oven and move one oven rack to the upper position and the other to the lower middle position. Line two baking sheets with parchment or use cooking spray.
- Dry Ingredients: Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Wet Ingredients: Mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Then beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.
- Combine: Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined.
- Stir: Add the chocolate chips and give everything one final stir with a wooden spoon
- If like nuts in your cookies, you could add some chopped pecans or walnuts at this point too.
- Scoop: Using a cookie scoop, create dough balls and roll them into balls
- Form: Holding the ball with fingertips of both hands pull the dough in half into equal portions, rotate 90 degrees and stick back together so that the jagged edges are sticking up.
- Bake: Place the dough on the pan and bake cookies until light golden brown, 15-18 min, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom rack half way through the baking time.
- Cool: Allow the cookies to cool on a wire rack before digging in, but a warm cc cookie with a tall glass of milk is what dreams are made of.
How Do You Soften Cookies That Have Gotten Hard?
Place cookies in an airtight plastic bag. Add a slice of bread to the bag of cookies and re-seal the bag. The moisture from the bread will soften the cookies without changing the flavor.
Do Cookies Need To Be Refrigerated?
Do not refrigerate cookies unless they contain a cream or custard filling. Refrigerating cookies will cause them to go stale and lose their chewy texture much more quickly.
Can Chocolate Cookie Dough Be Frozen?
Chocolate chip cookie dough can be frozen for up to 3 months. Form dough into a ball, and freeze in an airtight container.
Or, drop dough by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Freeze for 2 hours.
When frozen, transfer the frozen cookie dough to heavy duty freezer bags.
This chocolate chip cookie recipe is phenomenal and it’s a regular on our cookie rotation. I’ve never been led astray with an America’s Test Kitchen recipe, and this is one is no exception! Chocolate chip cookies all day, everyday!!
America’s Test Kitchen Chocolate Chip Cookies
Description
Ingredients
Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe By ATK
- 2 Cups Flour, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 12 Tablespoons Butter, 1 1/2 sticks, unsalted, melted and cooled until just warm
- 1 Cup Brown Sugar, packed
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1 Egg, large, plus 1 Egg Yolk
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 1-1 1/2 Cups Baking Chips, semi sweet chocolate, see note
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325 and adjust racks to upper and lower middle positions.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment or spray with nonstick spray.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.2 Cups Flour, 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda, 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.12 Tablespoons Butter, 1 Cup Brown Sugar, 1/2 Cup Sugar
- Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.1 Egg, 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined.
- Stir in chips to taste.1-1 1/2 Cups Baking Chips
- Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball.
- Holding the ball with fingertips of both hands pull the dough in half, rotate 90 degrees and stick back together so that the jagged edges are sticking up. (obviously in the picture I did not do that this time)
- Bake until light golden brown, 15-18 min, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom rack half way through the baking time.
Notes
Nutrition
Recommended Products
Fran
This is an excellent recipe! Thank you!
I have never gotten a yield of 36 cookies using a 1/4 cup measure. I prefer smaller cookies and use a black handle scoop which is 1.5 oz and my max yield is 30 cookies. Any thoughts?
Sweet Basil
Hi there! It has been so long since I’ve made this recipe. I’d have to try it again and pay close attention to my scoop size. I prefer my cookies a little smaller too. I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Heather
I wanted to compliment you on the recipe instructions! I love that you had the amounts included in each step! Thank you thank you thank you!!
Sweet Basil
Yay! Thank you so much Heather! That is a new feature we have been trying and we haven’t received nothing but positive feedback.
Stephanie Mardell
I haven’t made them yet but doesn’t the ATK brown the butter first ?
Sweet Basil
Not in this particular recipe, but I have seen them do it in others. So yum!
April Sullivan
I disagree on the dark brown – we prefer the deeper flavor! This is my all time favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. I find that if I swap the cookies at 8 mins they turn out perfectly.
Sweet Basil
Thank you so much for the feedback April and for the tip!
Deb
You have the info about freezing the dough I was looking for, thank you! I’m wondering though, do you bake the frozen cookies at the same temperature? How much extra time do you use, or do you thaw them first? Are you finding the results from frozen are the same as when the dough is fresh? Thanks for your help!
Sweet Basil
Hey Deb! So glad this post was helpful! You have a couple of different options for baking them. You could place them on a baking sheet and let them come thaw in the refrigerator overnight and then bake them just as the instructions say. The other option is to bake them from frozen. You will bake them at the same temperature but just add an extra minute or two to the bake time. I don’t notice a difference personally between fresh dough and dough that has been frozen.
Susan Russo
Do you use dark or light brown sugar in the chocolate chip cookie recipe?
Sweet Basil
light brown sugar.
jared and megan
I like those two recipes as well. But, my absolute favorite have to be the recipe on the back of the crisco butter sticks box. And I am a chocolate chip cookie snob too. They are my favorites and I am picky! So you have to try the crisco butter stick recipe and let me know what you think.
Spectacular Six
ATK cookies are our very favorite cookies! I play around with different additions, and we love, love love Heath bits with some chopped pecans. Superb!