Secrets for Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

cookies - cooling on paper shopping bag

Secrets for Soft (and Delicious) Chocolate Chip Cookies

Apparently it has been too long since I baked chocolate chip cookies. My husband has been getting requests for them (from teenage boys believe it or not) and I haven't done much baking since Valentine's Day. Today was a lovely day to spend in the kitchen. The sunlight was streaming in, and it was a nice enough day to hang laundry on the line so I figured cracking the window above the sink a bit would also be appropriate. The smell of cookies baking, the sounds of birds chirping, and the warm sunshine was fabulous. A friend messaged me asking how my day was going and when I told them I was baking cookies, they asked for some and then reminded me that I had promised to share the recipe and my secrets for softness. Well, I am officially going on record and sharing all of my secrets right here, right now - enjoy!

batter - ready for placement on cookie sheets

May your paths be abundantly filled with lemons, sugar, sunshine, and sweet cookies that are also soft!
~Crystal

Before I give you a list of ingredients or tell you to pre-heat your oven, I must tell you that the secret to soft cookies lies not in the ingredients, but in the handling. So please, read this first:

* Do not use hard butter or room temperature butter - use butter that has been microwaved and is approximately 92% liquid and the remaining 8% in very soft and mushy

* Use ONLY butter - real (made from cows milk go figure) butter. Salted or unsalted doesn't matter.

* Bake for only 10 minutes. Don't second guess this ... they may not look done, but do not over bake them.

* Don't scrimp on the chocolate chips ... because chocolate is amazing!

* Cool your cookies on a paper shopping bag (more specific instructions will follow) instead of cooling them on a rack or on the baking sheet. This will pull some excess grease away from the cookie eliminating some hardness.

* Store your cookies in an airtight container or zip lock style plastic bag.

Alright - those are essentially the 'secrets' and here's the nitty gritty of it all:

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar (I like dark)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups flour (I like unbleached)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-3 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

2) Start at the top of the list (with the butter) and add the ingredients together. Stir thoroughly after each ingredient is added.

3) Using 2 table spoons, place your dough on the cookie sheet (I like an airbake cookie sheet - ungreased) and do not roll, form, or worry about any of that. Just 'plop' them on there. I can only fit 9 cookies on a sheet, but of course the size of your 'plop' is going to determine that.

4) Bake on the center rack (this may mean for optimal cookie goodness that you can only bake 1 sheet at a time) for 10 minutes. Set a timer ... 10 minutes means, 10 minutes!

repurposed Folgers coffee container

5) Remove from oven promptly and allow to 'rest' for 1 minute before using a spatula to move from the cookie sheet to a grocery bag for drying/cooling.
note**** I cut the bottom and handles off my grocery bag, and then slit the bag down the side so it opens to about the length of 2 cookie sheets and then I lay it out on my counter top. It's a little messy when you clean up the mess and there will be some grease on the counter top, but pulling the grease away from the cookies helps keep them soft and moist.

6) After fully cooled, place cookies in an air tight container. I keep my Folgers coffee containers, they are plastic with a tight fitting cover and they work fabulously. Resist the urge to keep your cookies in a cookie jar that is not air tight - they'll get dried out and lose some softness

7) Enjoy and Share!