The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Ingredients

1 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour*
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups (12 oz.) chocolate chips or chunks
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans optional

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and both types of sugar using the paddle attachment of your stand mixer if you have one. Cream but do not beat until fluffy, we don’t want to beat in air. Add eggs and vanilla and mix to combine. Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add it to the butter-sugar mixture and beat on low speed until flour is incorporated. Scrape mixing bowl to ensure flour is evenly distributed in the dough. Stir in chocolate and, if using, nuts. You may need to do this with a wooden spoon.

2. Tightly cover the bowl and chill dough for at least 3 hours or overnight.* Before baking, allow dough to stand at room temperature for about 45 minutes until it is soft enough to shape into balls.

3. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C) and line baking tray with parchment paper. Roll dough into balls of about 1 ¼ inches (3 cm) in diameter (slightly smaller than golf balls). Place dough balls on baking tray, leaving plenty of room for the cookies to spread.

4. Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. They should be golden brown and crispy on the edges, no longer shiny but still quite soft in the middles. Do not overbake! Take cookies out of the oven and allow them to cool on the baking tray for 2 minutes before transferring them with a spatula to cooling racks. The cookies firm and set as they cool.
5. Store cooled cookies tightly covered at room temperature for up to one week or for up to three months in the freezer.

Recipe Notes

*If you want to bake the cookies immediately, add an extra ¼ cup of flour, for a total of 2 ¾ cups of flour. OR freeze cookie dough balls for 20 minutes before baking.