Chris and Colin’s Homemade Cookies
Written by Colin
Shh.. you’ve found our secret recipe. On one of our first trips to New York City, Chris and I took a go at the Instagram-famous Levain Chocolate Chip Cookie. To me, there’s nothing better than a good chocolate chip cookie, and I knew we had to make something just as good at home.
Chris had baked cookies at home before, but we knew we could level up from the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag (no hate for Toll House). We employed Chris’s knowledge of baking and the scientific method and my (equally important) taste testing skills to eventually pull the perfect cookie out of the oven.
Below, you’ll find the steps to make our favorite homemade chocolate chip cookie. With a few changes like supplementing bread flour, using cold butter, and the extra bit of vanilla that we all use anyway, we’re giving you a literal taste of my favorite dessert.
Don’t forget the sea salt.
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
2 sticks butter, cold and cut into small cubes
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs (cold from fridge)
2 cups chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Flaky sea salt
Recipe
Note: This dough needs to be chilled for at least 3 hours. Make ahead.
Combine dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda) in a bowl. Whisk generously. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream sugars and butter. Begin on a low setting until sugar and butter is combined, then turn to high until butter and sugar mixture is fluffy and you cannot feel the granules of sugar between your fingers.
Tip: if you do not have a strong stand mixer, soften the butter by leaving it out in advance, or microwaving it in 5-8 second intervals. Do not melt the butter. You may need to chill your dough longer for the butter to firm back up.
Add vanilla extract and mix on medium to combine. Scrape down bowl with a spatula.
Add cold eggs. Mix on medium until eggs are combined. Do not over mix.
Add dry ingredients from Step #1 and mix on low until combined.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Add chocolate chips and walnuts.
Manually stir until combined.
Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for 3-6 hours.
Baking
Preheat your oven to 400°F.
Remove the dough from the fridge and use a kitchen scale to weigh 2oz pieces of dough. Roll the 2oz pieces into balls with your hands and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Tip: You can freeze these dough balls in a gallon size zip-loc bag for a few months (we aren’t sure how many - they always get eaten pretty quickly).
Bake immediately for 10 minutes for a soft, gooey, slightly underdone cookie.
Tip: The cookies should be tall and fluffy. The top of the cookie should just be beginning to brown. If the cookies “melt”, the dough was not chilled for long enough, or the butter was too soft when it was initially mixed into the dough.
Remove the cookies from the baking tray immediately.
Top the cookies with sea salt and serve warm.