Our Chef’s Best Recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies

What Makes This Recipe Special? A few things make this recipe unique and give these chocolate chip cookies a fudgy texture and excellent chew. The use of brown sugar is the first factor. Brown sugar gives them a caramel note. The molasses in brown sugar absorbs moisture from the air, helping keep the cookies moist. We slightly melt the butter. This step adds to the caramel-like texture as well. We also add the vanilla in the early stages of mixing; this allows the fat to fully absorb the flavor and enhances the cookies’ vanilla’s richness.

The type of flour you use is also significant. The protein content of Panhandle Milling’s All-Purpose Flour is ideal for cookies and pastries. The flour gives cookies just the right amount of body and holding power without being tough. At the end of the recipe, we’ve shared some of our favorite bakeshop chocolate chip cookie variations, as well as some tips for freezing cookie dough to bake later.

Texas Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, slightly melted
2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. high-quality vanilla
2 eggs
3 ¼ cups Panhandle Milling Organic All-Purpose Flour
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips
4 oz. Milk chocolate chunks

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until very smooth, about 2 minutes.
• Add the eggs one at a time and mix well between additions. Add the flour, salt, and baking powder and mix 1-2 minutes, just until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and chunks.​
• Scoop by rounded Tablespoon onto an ungreased cookie sheet or cookie sheet lined with parchment paper about 2 inches apart.
• Bake 10-13 minutes and cool on the baking sheet 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Frozen Cookie Dough

Form into balls using cookie scooper and freeze on a nonstick parchment-lined baking sheet. Freeze solid, about an hour. Dump the cookie dough balls into a gallon-sized freezer bag and store it in the freezer. To bake, pull from freezer desired amount of cookie dough balls. Place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake from frozen at 375° for 15 minutes, or warm to room temperature and bake as directed above.

Variations

Chocolate Orange Cookies: Add 2 Tbsp. orange zest to batter at the same time you add the vanilla.

Mixed Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies: Add 1 cup coarsely chopped nuts of your choice (hazelnuts, almonds, pistachios, pecans, or walnuts) at the same time you add the chocolate chips.

Trust Issues: Add 1 cup of raisins. These are incredibly fun to make for people who hate raisins. They will forever have “trust issues” when you bake for them. All the rest of the raisin loving people will think you’re fantastic.