This post may contain affiliate links, which means we may receive a small commission when you make a purchase at NO additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting our site in this way!
Looking for the perfect chocolate chip cookies recipe tips? Look no further!
I’m ashamed to say I just made my first batch of Christmas cookies with the kids this year, so I was determined to make them my best chocolate chip cookies ever! For that, I was determined to do two things:
1. Use quality ingredients
2. Scour Google for recipe tips!
The first was easy: I got organic flour and chocolate chips for next to NOTHING at Whole Foods last month. The second was a little more difficult, but I eventually found some great tips that led to, what I think were, our best chocolate chip cookies ever…so I wanted to pass the tips on to you:
1. Mix in Chocolate Chips before the flour
I found out that over-mixing the dough equals tough cookies, so after creaming your butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla together, switch to the paddle attachment and slowly mix the chocolate chips into the batter before adding the flour. Then add the flour in until just incorporated. This will allow your chocolate chips to be evenly distributed without over beating your batter!
2. Use a small ice cream scoop to form your cookies
A key to perfectly baked cookies is uniformity in size. Use a small ice cream/sorbet scoop (or melon baller) to scoop your batter and put onto the cookie sheets so they bake evenly. This will also prevent your from handling them too much (another no-no in cookie baking I’ve come to learn).
3. Leave plenty of space in between your cookies
I baked only a dozen cookies on each tray this time around. Normally, I try to shove as many cookies as possible on the tray to get it done faster, but that keeps them from cooking and forming properly. You also want to leave the cookies on the tray for a few minutes after bringing them out of the oven before transferring them to the cooling rack so they set properly.
4. Refrigerate your cookie dough balls before baking
I used to stick my bowl of dough in the fridge before scooping it out, but this time I scooped into balls and put on a plate in the fridge for about 10 minutes before baking. I think it helped them keep their shape better in the end.
I also love this image from ThePerfectChocolateChipCookie.com: it shows examples of different kinds of chocolate chip cookies and what went wrong with each.
Image from ThePerfectChocolateChipCookie.com
Do you have any great cookie baking tips? If so, I’d love for you to share them below! After all, I still have more cookies to bake!
