I think these just might be the best chocolate chip cookies in the whole wide world. Try them and let me know.
My friend Jessika is amazing. And just like her, her Chocolate Chip Cookies are, too. Seriously. Last time we spent the weekend at their house she was baking up a storm, on our account, complete with these chocolate chip cookies.
What can be so amazing about chocolate chip cookies, you ask? I wanted to know, too. I kept eating them. And eating them. Even though I’d had a meal right before we came, those cookies kept drawing me across the room. What in the world was the secret?!
She said it was because she reduced the eggs and butter in a regular cookie recipe.
Say what? That defied logic. Less butter and egg should make them dry, right? Not the crunchy yet chewy decadence I was overindulging in.
I was skeptical. Until I made them at home. And oh my word. These are, indeed, amazing. Seriously.
These are the best cookies ever.
And…. as FishPapa points out, they’re cheaper to make since you’re using less butter and egg. Booyah. Double win. Make these today.
Keep in mind that you must measure flour correctly. Don’t be dunking your measuring cup into the bin! That compacts the flour and gives you too much. Instead, aerate the bin with a whisk and then spoon flour into your cup. Don’t pack it. Just scrape the top with a knife.
If you measure flour “the wrong way”, the dough will be too dry. Trust me. And read the comments of folks who really didn’t listen to me.
Also, the dough will need you to do a bit of forming. Form the dough into balls with your hands, that helps it hold together and makes your finished cookies nice and round and beautiful.
Of special note, I’m all out of vanilla extract these days and until I can bribe someone to shop at Costco for me, I am making do without. Since I wanted to make sure that I could mimic the texture of Jessika’s cookies, I didn’t want to leave out anything. So, I used a teaspoon rum for the extract.
You can make your own vanilla extract with rum or vodka, something I’ve been meaning to do since I ran out of the last batch of homemade vanilla. Using rum in these cookies assured me the chemical properties of using extract, but without the vanilla flavor. The cookies taste like butterscotch, so I’m going with rum from now on!
Cooking Baking Tools to Help You
After years of fiddling with inadequate baking tools, I finally settled on some gadgets that really make the process easier for me.
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Recipe: Jessika’s Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon rum (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
- 2 1/4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two to three baking sheets with parch- ment paper or silicone baking mats.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugars with an electric mixer. Scrape down the sides and add the egg and rum (or vanilla extract). Blend well until incorporated.
- Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and chips. Mix with the electric mixer until well blended. The dough will not be one big blob. You will need to make the dough stick together with your hands.
- Form the mixture into walnut-sized balls and place about 2-inches apart on the prepared trays. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown and crackled. Cool on a rack. Cookies will firm up as they cool.
- To freeze: store cooled cookies in an airtight container in the freezer for two to three months — if they last that long!
Preparation time: 10 minute(s)
Cooking time:12 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 2 1/2 dozen cookies
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I think Walmart sells Watkins vanilla now…or at least they did in Virginia. I love that stuff. Haven’t run out of it in 13 years of marriage thanks to the Great Aunt Cass, but I think I’m on my last bottle.
Our Walmart only had the Watkins imitation vanilla. Boo. I’m going to make my own, but for now I’ll have to go to Costco.
I will make them today!
Okay, I read this post last night, got up off the couch and forty-five minutes later was eating these cookies. And yes, they are most likely the most amazing chocolate chip cookies in the world. They are chewy and not flat like my usual recipe. I only baked one dozen and froze dough balls with the rest (for future “must eat fresh baked cookie” moments). Since there are only two people at home limiting us to one dozen, which were devoured in fifteen minutes, was probably a smart idea.
Yes, limiting is a very good idea. I think I ate three for breakfast one day!
I think I need to make these for my son – he LOVES chocolate chip cookies! What cookie scoop do you use (the link isn’t working properly)? I need a new one but haven’t been able to find the perfect one.
Thanks for letting me know. I fixed the link. This is the one I use: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HNKE7RC/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00HNKE7RC&linkCode=as2&tag=oflwtf-20&linkId=T7GAZLXEJ2UW45ZQ (affiliate link)
I read your posts when your family stopped eating sugar. I quit sugar about three months ago, and I’ve learned so much that there is no going back for me.
But I’ll file this recipe away for when I have to take a cookie platter somewhere at Christmas. : )
Ha! Yes. After a month in Europe eating cookies and pastries every day — feeling great and losing SIX pounds — I’m really trying to figure out the sugar thing. Again.
Everyone always tells me I make the best chocolate chip cookies…and THIS is basically my recipe exactly… except with a 1/2 a cup less butter! I’m going to try them. I make them with 1 cup butter and they are terrific. I’d love it if I could half the butter and have the same result! Thanks Jessica and Jessika!!
Rum in the chocolate chip cookies?! You have my attention! I will definitely try reducing the butter and egg. Lately I’ve been experimenting with gluten free flours and non-cane sugars for a family member who needs it. Not easy to do.
Ha! It’s only a teaspoon. It’s not really different than using an extract. 🙂
I only have regular chocolate chips on hand. Do you think this would make a big difference?
I don’t think it will make a big difference, but I haven’t tested it with regular.
We mixed these up and they were crumbly. I added another egg to make them a consistency that we could scoop. Not sure what we did wrong. But they taste yummy! 🙂
How do you measure your flour? This is a common discrepancy in recipes. It’s more accurate if you aerate the flour bin with a whack and then spoon flour into your cup and scrape the top with a knife. If you’re digging your measuring cup into the bin, you’ll get too much flour. Sticklers for flour measurement use a scale instead of a measuring cup.
I just made these. I found the dough dry and pretty hard to roll into balls. They also took a long time to bake-20 minutes. I may have made them too big because I was tired of trying to roll them. I got two dozen and 3 cookies. The end result was that they didn’t melt much in the oven. The outside was crispy and the inside was chewy, almost undercooked. I actually liked the texture and the flavor was good, and I did eat too many 🙂 However, I don’t think I will make these again because I found the dough too dry to work with.
I didn’t have that trouble. And I’ve made three batches this week! I’m guessing that it may be one of two things: how soft your butter is and how you measure your flour. If you dig your cup into the flour bin, you’re going to have too much flour. The more accurate way (aside from weighing it on a scale) is to aerate the flour with a whisk and then spoon it into your measuring cup. Too much flour would make these hard to form, but mine formed balls pretty easily and I could have just used a scooper, too, since the dough stuck together well. Did you use an electric mixer?
Anyway, hope that helps in case you want to give it another go.
I made the cookies again yesterday. They did come out really good and lived up to their name!!
As we discussed via email, the whole wheat flour I used made a difference. I cut out a 1/4 cup of flour which brought it down to 2 cups. The other thing I did different was the way I mixed the batter. I used my handheld electric mixer to cream the butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla. But when I added the dry ingredients, I mixed it in by hand, and kneaded in the flour a little at a time.
Besides too much flour, what I think happened is that my electric mixer is not strong enough to blend in the flour which created a very crumbly and poorly mixed dough the first time.
Thanks for your help and a great recipe!
I also use WW flour, so thanks for the tip!
Ok, for the baking challenged- is this salted or unsalted butter?
BTW- I can’t wait to here your thoughts on eating/weight loss in France. I lived there in college for 6 months..and gained 6 lbs. The bread and cheese is to die for, but I must be the only person who gained weight in France, despite walking a lot.
I only buy salted.
As for France, I think part of it was eating on a regimented schedule. Going to be writing a post about it soon.
So my go-to recipe has always been the Tollhouse recipe on the back of the bag of chocolate chips. For some reason they turn out pretty flat, and I blamed it on my oven since others seem to have no problem with it. I noticed this recipe is exactly the same except for three things: this recipe has 1) half the butter, 2) half the eggs, and 3) a slightly lower temp for longer time. I gave it a go, using regular size chocolate chips. At first I was hesitant because the dough was so crumbly in the bowl that I couldn’t use my usual cookie scoop. Instead I scooped it and rounded it with my hands, which seemed to melt the butter enough to stick the dough together nicely. WOW. The cookies came out nice and thick, with perfect texture and flavor. I’ve already changed my recipe card to match this. I will never make any other chocolate chip cookies ever again!!!
Exactly! I formed the balls with my hands and that did it.
Just baked and enjoyed these cookies 😉 they r delicious! Didn’t have any trouble with the dough at all! Thanks for the recipe!
Great. I started to worry when a few people reported trouble. I think that flour can be so tricky if we don’t measure the same way.
Made these last night, and my 5 year old’s exclaimed “Mom, when can we make these again?” That’s a success in my book!
These cookies are really good! I subtracted two tablespoons of flour because of the crumbly dough problem cited by a commenter. Thanks for the recipe.
I just made this, and they were crumbly. The taste was good though.
They shouldn’t be crumbly. However, a common mistake happens when folks use too much flour. There can be a big discrepancy in measurements unless you weigh the flour exact. I have a post coming up on this later this week. There’s some discussion above about this.
I have to say, I was a bit skeptical about making these – how could they possibly turn out well??? But I was intrigued enough to try. Made them exactly as directed (except adding a little extra vanilla) and they were perfect! I took them to share with my small group and was asked for the recipe by everyone.
One of my friends (who is an excellent cook/baker) told me that her young son asked after I left, “Mom, when are you going to learn to bake cookies like Ms. Rebekah?” She laughed and told him “Never!”
I Love love love these cookies. And the fact that they save $$ and calories is a Win/Win.
Isn’t that amazing?! Love it!
We made these last week and hubby requested cinnamon & nuts in attempt to replicate Double Tree Hotel cookies. I used all whole wheat flour (hard wheat mixed with soft wheat to create an all purpose flour) and spooned the flour into the measuring cup, but still got crumbly dough that had to really be formed and pressed into balls. Today we made these again using all whole wheat, but I only used 2 cups and the dough was so much easier to work with. We also added 1/4 tsp cinnamon and used regular choc. chips but reduced to 1/2 cup so we could add 1/2 cup nuts.
Yes, that’s what another tester said about making it with whole wheat flour. 2 cups ww
So did the nuts/cinnamon/regular chips combo come out well? I do love cinnamon, but I don’t think I’ve ever put it in choc chip cookies before. I’m intrigued!
Hi Sandi,
Yes, the cinnamon, nuts, regular chips was really good. Hubby always requests nuts his cookies. I have to agree this recipe produces amazing cookies.
I love nuts in cookies, too. Unfortunately with an allergy in the house, we’re not doing those any more. 🙁
First, YUM. Second— Okay, you told me so. You know that whole thing about measuring flour? Well, next time I’m reading the reviews and I would have taken you seriously on this. I actually thought about it as I mixed the ingredients. Never had trouble with cc cookies before, and that’s with whole wheat flour and wheat germ in place of the nuts. DH questions my disgruntled look in the kitchen and pointed at my cookie “dough.” He said, “well, clearly you aren’t finished.” **rolls eyes** at both of you now. SO—next time, butter even softer and I’ll do the flour the “right” way. I ended up drizzling some coconut oil over the batch to help speed up the rolling of the balls so I wouldn’t pull my hair out. But like I said, I will try these again and then adapt with whole wheat later as I usually do. Tomorrow for work I will call these chocolate chip balls until I can get them to behave. 😉
I told you! 😉 Read the comments re: whole wheat. They did the experimenting for you.
In case anyone is curious, I tried the recipe using coconut oil instead of butter. Not exactly a success or a failure. The cookies are edible, but I won’t make them again this way.
I did spoon the flour into the measuring cup as suggested but still found the dough did not to come together, even when I tried kneading it. (The consistency reminded me of that weird ‘wet’ sand they are selling to kids to make indoor sandcastles.
)Instead of wasting a whole bag of chocolate chips if this wasn’t going to work, I took a 1C scoop of the ‘dough’ and I began adding a few 1/2 T size drops of semisolid coconut oil as I kneaded the dough until it would hold a ball shape. My guess is I added a 1/4C.
Baked at 350 for 12minutes. Cookies barely spread which is always disappointing, but who knows why at this point.
They are very sugary for my tastes.
I may use the remaining ‘dough’ either by pressing it into pie plates for a fluff pie or try using it as the base for a pan of bars. Hate to waste all the ingredients when it doesn’t taste bad, per se.
It was worth a shot!
Coconut oil can be very tricky for cookies. It doesn’t seem to cream with the sugar like butter does and it’s so different at different temperatures. Thanks for letting us know.
I am almost through baking a double batch of these. 1 thing I forgot – I used my fresh eggs and they were mediums. I should have added a third egg to make up for not using large. Halfway through, I added a peewee egg to the rest of the dough. Such an incredible difference!
Can I use a cookie scoop from pampered chef to form the dough?
I use a scoop, but still form the balls a bit with my hands to help them hold together.
If you know a missionary or someone traveling to Honduras*, ask them to bring you some vanilla. The real stuff is made here and sold in all of the grocery stores. I took it as gifts a few summers ago, and everyone has since asked for more, since the price has gone up in the US. Interestingly, it is sold as brown or clear, and the only difference in ingredients is the addition of caramel color to the brown bottle!
*Maybe other countries in Central America also make their own extract?
I just finished brewing two batches of my own. 🙂 Perhaps not as good as Honduran, but very good.
I tried your recipe for Jessika’s Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies! They were delicious, thank you 🙂
Those are my favorites!