August 4 is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day…let’s celebrate!
One of the best memories I have as a child is arriving at my grandma’s house in Normal Heights, San Diego, and being greeted by hugs and the aroma of freshly baked something… usually bread and definitely cookies – chocolate chip cookies. So, from as far back as I have memories, cookies have been a part of them.
I was pretty young when I started cooking on my own, experimenting in the kitchen with bread, brownies, fried chicken, or meatloaf, but chocolate chip cookies really anchored me. I kept returning to old recipes and making and remaking them to get them just right for what I loved best…a good crispy bite into a softer, meltier center – not too thin. Not too thick. Not cakey or too crispy and wafery. I baked and baked and ate a lot (ask my sisters) of delicious raw cookie dough – I may or may not be eating a fresh batch of dough as I’m writing this blog!
Well, when I was about 11 years old, my mom would join these crafter boutiques and sell her handmade pins, hair bows, aprons, and pot holders…and I would make cookies and sell them. I even made fortune cookies from scratch and sold those too – yes, with little personal messages in them – That’s a post for another day.
I had big dreams of taking my tweaked recipe – a sort of hybrid of Toll House and Betty Crocker’s recipes. I made dozens and dozens of cookies, bagged, and sold them in little orders and big orders at the boutiques and church and to the neighbors. Business was booming. Then…right when my little entrepreneurial spirit was kicking in, another cookie gal came on the scene and changed everything.
Literally and without exaggeration, I can say that tasting this cookie and seeing this store made me think about my life in a way I never had before – a Mrs. Fields’ cookie store came to our town. Debbie Fields was only 10 years older than me when she started her company and I felt this pang of wishing I have been born 15 years earlier so I could have been the one to bring a cookie to market. Oh, well.
Honestly, I loved those Mrs. Fields’ cookies. I added that flavor and texture profile of her delicious cookies to my own list and kept tweaking my recipe to continue to get an even better cookie. I wouldn’t be the next Mrs. Fields’, I wouldn’t even start a cookie company…but I do have what I think today is about the best chocolate chip cookie recipe you could want…and I do have a true story about how I got here to share.
Oh, and one more thing…when we got married my grandmother gave me her cookie jar. Sigh. I opened that gift the day of our wedding before we even left for our honeymoon and I couldn’t wait to get back and fill it with my first batch from our new little apartment kitchen. That’s my grandma there in the photo below smiling over me and my mixer as I make lots of messes and yummy treats in my kitchen. I never did start my own cookie company, but the summer of 2009 I started a culinary arts cooking camp for kids. Two summers and over 200 hundred campers later, my grandma, Wilma Mae Garrett, went home, but not before I taught many, many young people to make cookies and memories in their own kitchens.
This may not be Grandma’s recipe, but it was grandma’s love and inspiration that brought this recipe over the decades and through many kitchens into these words you’re reading and hopefully to the home you’ll be baking in soon today. Thanks for asking for the recipe, Molly. I hope you enjoyed the story.
Dedicated to Wilma Mae Garrett, September 21, 1912 – June 10, 2011
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 3½ C all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1¼ C unsalted butter – room temperature (2 1/2 sticks)
- 1½ C light brown sugar
- 1 C granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla – use really good vanilla, honestly this makes a big difference. Do not use imitation vanilla.
- 1 12oz bag semisweet chocolate chunks or chips (I prefer the chunks – Trader Joe's are my favorite)
- 1 C chopped pecans (optional) I didn't used to add pecans, they're not in my original original recipe, but I really like them now, so I usually add them
- 1 C sugar for rolling (optional) Ok, this is another, optional step and it really guilds the lily (see note below)
Instructions
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Take the butter and eggs out of the fridge and bring to room temp while you're reviewing the recipe and gathering your ingredients. NOTE: I only use really good quality butter and vanilla. It makes a difference. If you use salted butter, decrease the salt to 3/4 tsp. Low quality butter has a higher water content. It will really alter the dynamics of this recipe. Use the best quality you can find. Do not melt the butter. Do not use cold butter.
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Cream sugar and butter in a mixing bowl
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Add eggs and vanilla and stir to combine
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Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl then add a 1/2 cup at a time to the wet ingredients.
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Stir until just combined – do not overmix or cookies will be too cakey.
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Add chocolate chips and stir to combine
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Stir in pecans if you want
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Scoop with 3/4 oz dough scoop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets. If you don't have parchment paper that's ok. Don't grease the pan. Just scrape it clean after each batch.
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OPTIONAL – instead of just plopping the cookie dough, once you scoop it, roll it lightly – don't compact the dough – in sugar then place on baking sheet
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Refrigerate dough scoops for 20 minutes before baking
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Bake at 375° for 12-15 minutes. Ovens vary. Watch and don't let them get too brown. For a cakier cookie, lower the temp to 350. Don't over cook or they will be dried out inside. This recipe will give you a crispy outside and a chewy inside.
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Weird but essential tip: When you bring the baked cookies fresh from the oven, drop the cookie sheet lightly on your countertop – from about 4" up. I did this on accident once because the hotpad had a hole in it (ouch!!), but that happy accident became great tip! What happens is that it collapses the dough quickly and keeps the center a bit more soft. So cool! Speaking of cool…
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Let the cookies cool down a bit….if you can wait! LOL! enjoy!!!
Recipe Notes
I’d love to hear from you! Did you try the recipe? Share your thoughts and comments and tips for others. If you make them post a photo on Instagram or Facebook and tag me in your photo and use my hashtag #JGRBlog
My cookies are excellent! Thank you for the recipe. I was out of flour. because of the coronavirus the stores were out flour too. I went to two stores and finally borrowed some form my neighbors. It was well worth it. Thank you
Great! I’m so glad the recipe worked out for you!