Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies have been deceptively hard for us to get just right. In theory, these cookies should be really easy – after all, it’s just a standard cookie batter with chocolate chips added, right? What we’ve learned is that although this cookie is simple, success comes down to quality of ingredients, taking your time, and a close eye on the oven.

A few reasons why we love this specific recipe:

• Perfectly thin while being deliciously gooey
• We believe it’s all about the butter – after all, it calls for a cup of it. We recommend using X or something similar to get a richer, creamier taste of your cookie. It’s subtle but we promise it’s worth it
• These cookies will come out perfectly thin yet gooey. If you prefer chunky chocolate chip cookies then we suggest you find a different recipe but
• We’re big on brown sugar so this recipe doesn’t call for any white. I think it adds a richer taste that feels cozy and warm.
• What I love about this recipe is that it’s super simple, doesn’t take long and comes out great. Technically, we’ve laid out the instructions step by step for the best version of this cookie but if you really in a pinch with a time, you can honestly throw all of the ingredients into the bowl, give it a good mix and start rolling your dough balls so they get baking faster and it should still come out great.

Nuts or no nuts?

What’s your preference? I love both but if I had to choose  chocolate chip cookies without nuts, but I will say, when we added pecans to half of this batch, I absolutely loved it. The nuttiness was subtle, added some crunch, and a little more nutrition perhaps so the cookie felt a bit less guilty but the 

Tips When Making Chocolate Chip Cookies

A few things we’ve learned from trial and error that might save you some time and help you make a successful batch of chocolate chip cookies:

• Baking Soda: Make sure your baking soda is not expired. We used old BS the first time or two and noticed our cookies didn’t ‘rise’ properly. Once we got new BS, it fixed the problem immediately. Not sure if that was 100% the reason but it worked for us.
• Almond Flour: Almond flour is 100% optional—not required but if you’re looking for extra softness with your cookies, then we highly recommend. The thing about almond flour is it’s tricky to work with and get right. Sometimes too much AF can leave the recipe too moist and fall apart too easily. It also adds a little extra ‘nuttiness’ to the overall flavor so if you’re not a nut lover, you might want to skip this step.
• Vanilla Extract: This is another basic thing to check, but make sure your vanilla extract is not expired either. We had some old VE laying around–like really old that gave an early test batch an under taste of alcohol that we personally didn’t like so it was time to replace and fixed that instantly.

How to Store Chocolate Chip Cookies

This recipe calls for about 25-30 larger cookies and 30-45 smaller cookies (depending on how big or small you like to roll your batter). Noting this because if you’d like to store a portion of this cookie batter you can easily do so by two wrapping the batter in saran wrap or a scooping into a Ziplock bag, seal, and store away easily.

Prep: 15 minutes

Bake: 25-30 minutes

Serves: 35-40 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter, unsalted
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp of hot water
• 1 tsp of sea salt
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Prepare your cookie sheets. We used two cookie sheets with nonstick silpats and rotated the sheets in/out of the oven since we only had two sheets.
3. In a medium-large bowl, mix together the softened butter and brown sugar until creamy.
4. Mix in both eggs (we crack ours directly in the same bowl) and mix well.
5. Add vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt, and mix well.
6. Slowly fold in the all purpose flour and almond flour. Be careful not to over mix the batter at this point. You do not want the batter overly whipped. It should look slightly ‘goopy’ since the almond flour is incorporated, which is not as binding as all purpose flour.
7. Incorporate all chocolate chips into the batter and fold a few times.
8. If you’re deciding to add nuts to your batter, we suggest chopping the nuts (to your desired bite size preference) and folding into the batter last.
9. When your batter is all mixed up, grab a spoon or small ice cream scoop and begin scooping batter onto your sheets. The batter should be very sticky, a bit gooey in consistency and not malleable (to roll in balls) so once you scoop the batter, plan on placing directly onto the cookie sheet.