Soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies using melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar and an egg that will guarantee the best chewy cookies! I have shared the lessons I learned about melted butter vs softened butter in cookies so you can make your first batch like a pro.
Around my birthday month (Feb) I began an unexplainable craving for chewy chocolate chip cookies and it only got intensified with each day. I would go to bed but won't sleep until I watch back-to-back chocolate chip cookie recipe videos on Youtube and then go one to endless scrolling of cookie pictures on Pinterest every single night. I knew that I have to feed my cravings so that I can sleep peacefully.😏
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Being a self-proclaimed perfectionist, I was determined to try a recipe only after I am 100% convinced that it is what I want and it is what will be the best. Not an easy task with a zillion cookie recipes on the web claiming to be the best. Thankfully, there is enough and more research done by scholars and scientists on "Chocolate Chip Cookies" so it was not hard to settle on the most important choice - melted butter or softened butter!
I know you are here just for the recipe but if you want to understand the science behind the cookie dough recipes then do check these links.
If you are the nerdy type or want to know in detail all about chocolate chip cookies, then do read this article by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt in Serious Eats. For an easy read and simple but not extensive, you may read this article by Sally in Sally's Baking Addiction.
I still want to share the most important facts I learnt about cookies so you know your rights and options😛 First thing, there is no one perfect ultimate cookie recipe because the perfect chocolate chip cookie is the one you love the best. period. It can be light and crunchy, thin and crisp, or soft and chewy - the ingredients will almost be the same but the method will differ based on what type you want.
Melted butter vs softened butter in cookies
Melted butter vs softened butter in chocolate chip cookies is the million-dollar question. So, what happens if you use melted butter in cookies? Does melted butter make cookies chewy? Yes, using melted butter in cookies gives the best chewy texture and softened butter gives the soft and cakey texture. For crunch and crispiness, you bake the cookies at a lower temp for a longer time.
There is no right or wrong way of making cookies. You choose the method based on your personal preferences. What kind of cookies you want to eat, serve, or gift will determine what method you need to adopt. These are chewy cookies with melted butter that are crisp at the edges and soft and chewy in the middle.
Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Butter: You may use salted or unsalted. If using salted butter, then add less salt than called for.
- Brown sugar: Light or dark will work.
- White sugar: use granulated
- Egg: use a large one
- Vanilla extract: You may use any other flavour of your choice
- Flour: All-purpose flour aka plain flour or maida
- Cornflour: This gives the cookies a soft consistency and helps keep the cookies stay thick so do not skip it.
- Baking soda: Baking soda cannot be replaced with baking powder. They are two different things and react differently.
- Salt: Adjust if using salted butter
- Chocolate chips: use your favourite - semi-sweet, dark, milk etc.
How to freeze cookie dough?
- Chill the cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Place the solid and cold cookie dough balls into a freezer-friendly bag or box.
- Add a label with the date and other details to remember and place the bag in the freezer. You may freeze cookie dough for up to 3 months.
- You don't have to thaw them before baking. Bake them for a minute or two longer than required.
Bake a Test Batch Cookies
The idea of crunchy vs. crisp vs. chewy is due somewhat to each person's own personal perception. Besides, all ovens bake somewhat differently. The baking time and temperature work for my oven, and yield cookies that deem as chewy. To nail down baking time for your oven, test bake 3 or 4 cookies and check if you prefer. This may seem like an extra task and energy-consuming letting your hot oven sit empty while cookies are cooling. But this would be just a one-time thing and could save you from wasting an entire batch of cookies.
Do check my brown butter chocolate walnut cookies recipe!
📖 Recipe
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies with Melted Butter
Ingredients
- 100 grams unsalted butter melted and slightly cooled
- ¾ cup brown sugar 150gms
- ¼ cup white sugar 52gms
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 to 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1¼ cup all-purpose flour 180gms
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
Prepare the Cookie Dough
- Whisk the flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Take a larger bowl and whisk the melted butter, and brown and white sugar together until no lumps remain.
- Whisk in the egg and the vanilla extract until the batter falls off the whisk like a ribbon when you lift your whisk up.
- Use a spatula and gradually stir the flour mixture into the wet mixture until combined with no traces of dry flour but do not overmix!
- Fold in the chocolate chunks making sure they are distributed all through. It would be hard to get them to stick but do your best to combine them.
- Cover the dough and chill in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours
Divide the dough
- Remove and divide the dough into 15 to 17 smooth balls using an ice cream scoop or 2 to 3 tablespoons of the dough for each cookie.
- Roll them lightly between your palms to a smooth ball and place them on a greased plate and refrigerate until hardened. Chilling is mandatory and I highly recommend chilling the rolled cookie dough balls overnight for better flavour and colour. At this point, you may freeze the dough balls.
Bake the cookies
- Preheat the oven to anywhere between 160°c to 180°c.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper or foil (you may need two trays depending on your oven size)
- Place the cookie dough balls on a lined baking sheet making sure there is space between each cookie and the edges of the pan so that the cookies can spread evenly.
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 13 minutes but watch them after 8 mins and remove as soon as you see golden spots and brown edges. Cookies will continue to cook while cooling.
Cool and store
- Let them cool for 10 mins on the baking sheet and then move them to the wire rack to cool completely.
- Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week but I bet you will eat them all in a day or two.
Don't have enough chocolate chips? No worries! You can add chopped-up favourite nuts, mnms, sprinkles, seeds, etc. This recipe can be the base and you can go wild with your imagination of what can go into it! Involve your kids and make the experience joyful for them too!
Did you make this recipe? Let me know!