The Countertop Oven Class

Grant Crilly is the Executive Director and cofounder of ChefSteps. Grant is a classically trained chef and, prior to ChefSteps, he worked on the award-winning cookbook series Modernist Cuisine and cooked at various restaurants, including L’Astrance in Paris, Busaba in Mumbai, and Mistral Kitchen in Seattle.

Grant Crilly

Fine-mesh strainer

Digital scale

1/2 Sheet pan(s)

Parchment paper

Breville Bakery Chef™ Stand Mixer

Breville Joule® Oven Air Fryer Pro

Bowl scraper

Silicone spatula

#10 Portion scoop

Baking/Cooling rack(s)

5-inch Ring mold

Cake flour

Bread flour

Unsalted butter

Granulated sugar

Brown sugar

Vanilla extract

Baking soda

Kosher salt

Egg(s)

60% bittersweet chocolate chips

Flake sea salt

Chocolate: You can use other kinds of chocolate in this recipe—any high-quality chocolate within the range of 38% to 75% cacao will work. And you can use wafers, chips, callets, chunks, or pistoles. We love these <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0028S6URO?tag=chefsteps02-20">58% bittersweet chocolate pistoles</a>, but since they’re only sold in bulk, we call for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ghirardelli-Chocolate-Bittersweet-Baking-Chips/dp/B00JVSSHX4?tag=chefsteps02-20&th=1">chips</a> instead.

Flake sea salt: We like to sprinkle the cookies with a bit of flake sea salt as soon as they come out of the oven. The large flakes stick to the cookie’s soft center and offer a nice, savory counterpoint to the sweetness of the cookie. Optional, but recommended!

Before we begin

We already had a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/chocolate-chip-cookies">chocolate chip cookie recipe</a> before we did a deep dive into our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-ultimate-guide-to-chocolate-chip-cookies-behold-the-cookie-calculator">parametric analysis</a> that produced this ultimate average chocolate chip cookie recipe. And that’s not all! We’ve also got a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/gluten-free-chocolate-chip-cookies">gluten-free version</a> and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/american-drop-cookie-four-plant-based-recipes">a plant-based one</a> (that also happens to be gluten-free).

Want more cookies? Check out our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-guide-to-chocolate-chip-cookies">Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies</a> and our whole <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/classes/cookies">American Drop Cookie Class</a>, with tons of other cookie recipes. 
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The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies have made the impossible, possible. Tender, moist, and tasty cookies made without gluten, grains, eggs, or butter. How’d we do it?!

Plant-Based, Gluten-Free, and Grain-Free Cookies That Are Impossibly Delicious

Chocolate Chip Cookies: A Parametric Analysis

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Delicious gluten-free cookies really do exist. Here’s how to make them.

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies for everyone!

Sift cake flour and bread flour through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl or onto a sheet of parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift flours

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine softened butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, baking soda, and salt. Mix on medium speed, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl and paddle as needed, until mixture is pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Cream butter and sugars

Creaming the butter and sugar before adding eggs and flour is a standard operating procedure for cookie dough. It helps form a homogenous, emulsified dough that won’t spread too much or split during baking, and it’s particularly important for cookie recipes with a lot of sugar, like <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/snickerdoodle-drop-cookies">snickerdoodles</a>.

However, we’ve found that with this chocolate chip cookie recipe, creaming the butter and sugar before mixing in the other ingredients isn’t 100% required if you’re willing to roll the dice a little on consistency. That’s because you can use other methods to control the spread—forming the portioned dough into perfect balls, chilling the portions thoroughly before baking, and using a ring mold to re-form the cookies into perfect rounds as soon as they come out of the oven.

That said, even with a dump-and-mix approach, you still have to add the butter to the mixer bowl first, followed by the rest of the ingredients (except for the chocolate, which gets mixed in at the very end), to ensure that the dough comes together properly.

Here’s how to do it:

Add softened butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, followed by granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, baking soda, sifted cake and bread flours, vanilla extract, and eggs. Mix on low speed, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl and paddle as needed, until no visible streaks of butter or dry flour remain, about 2 minutes.

Add chocolate, increase speed to medium, and continue mixing until chocolate is evenly distributed throughout dough, about 1 minute longer.

Proceed to portioning and shaping cookie dough in Step 5.

Need cookies fast? Skip creaming and start mixing!

With mixer running on medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, waiting until first egg is fully incorporated into dough before adding the second. Stop mixer to scrape down bowl and paddle attachment as needed to ensure eggs are well incorporated. Once the second egg has been incorporated, continue mixing on medium speed until mixture is homogenous, about 30 seconds longer.

Mix in eggs

Reduce mixer speed to low, add reserved sifted flour mixture and chocolate, and continue mixing until a homogenous dough forms with no visible dry flour remaining, about 1 minute. Stop mixer and detach bowl.

Finish dough

Line a 1/2 sheet pan with parchment paper.

Using a #10 scoop, divide dough into 16 equal portions (about 100 g each), placing each portion on prepared sheet pan.

Roll each portion of dough between your hands into a smooth ball and return to sheet pan. To minimize mess, you can lightly spray your hands with nonstick cooking spray or wear gloves when rolling portions.

Wrap sheet pan tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until dough is completely chilled, at least 2 hours and up to 12 hours. The ideal resting time for the dough is 4 hours.

Once chilled, you can proceed to baking in Step 6, or transfer portions to 1-gallon freezer ziplock-style bags and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 6 months.

NOTE: If you don’t have a #10 portion scoop, portion cookie dough into 100 g portions and then form them into balls by rolling them between your hands.

Portion and rest cookie dough

One way to control the spread of cookie dough during baking to produce consistently sized cookies is by shaping the portions of dough into spheres before resting. The spherical shape (compared with the hemisphere you get with a portion scoop) prevents the dough from spreading too far, too fast, so you get a taller, chewier cookie with crisp edges. As a side benefit, the tops of the cookies bake up shinier—the warmth from your hands melts the butter on the surface of each portion slightly, creating a coating that allows the sugar to fully dissolve in a thin layer on the exterior.
 
Resting cookie dough before baking allows gluten to relax, which keeps the final cookies tender. Resting also allows the flour in the dough to fully hydrate, which helps the cookies keep their shape during baking. Read more about the importance of resting cookie dough in our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-guide-to-chocolate-chip-cookies">Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies</a>.
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Roll and rest cookie dough to control spread.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to [f 350] with fan on if using convection oven, or [f 375] if using a conventional oven.

Divide chilled dough portions between parchment paper-lined 1/2 sheet pans, spacing portions 3 inches apart, with no more than 6 portions per sheet pan. If baking all 16 cookies, you will need 3 sheet pans. If not baking all 16 cookies, transfer extra portions of cookie dough to a 1-gallon freezer ziplock-style bag and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Bake cookies one sheet pan at a time (keeping remaining sheet pans refrigerated), rotating pan once halfway through cooking, until edges of cookies are light golden brown and have begun to set and centers are still very soft, 12 to 16 minutes.

Transfer sheet pan to wire cooling rack and immediately sprinkle surface of cookies with sea salt (if using). For perfectly round cookies, use a 5-inch ring mold to reshape them while they’re still warm and malleable.

Repeat baking process with remaining dough portions, baking one sheet pan at a time.

Bake and shape cookies

One of the trickier parts of baking cookies is knowing when to pull them out of the oven. They need to be removed when they’re almost done, because like steaks and roasts, they experience <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/carryover-cooking-why-you-should-let-meat-rest">carryover cooking</a>.

The key is to pull cookies just when the edges are just browned and set, but the centers are still molten—the “medium-rare” of the cookie world. As a cookie rests outside the oven, its internal temperature will continue to rise for about 5 minutes—the edges will continue to darken, and the center will set.
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Carryover Cooking: Why You Should Let Meat Rest

Cookies and carryover cooking

Because of the way heat is distributed in home ovens—most ovens produce heat from the bottom, and it’s distributed with convection currents throughout the interior—we recommend baking these cookies one batch at a time for the best, most consistent results. Using multiple sheet pans introduces issues with heat shielding and obstruction of convection currents, leading to uneven results.

However, if you need to bake two pans of cookies at the same time in order to speed up the process or produce big batches of cookies, you can ameliorate some of that inconsistency by rotating the pans and extending the baking time slightly.

Here’s how to do it:

Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions and preheat oven to [f 350] with fan on if using convection oven, or [f 375] if using a conventional oven.

Bake, rotating pans 180 degrees and flipping positions of top and bottom sheet pans racks once halfway through cooking, until edges of cookies are light golden brown and have begun to set and centers are still very soft, about 14 minutes.

Baking in batches: not recommended but can be done.

Let cookies cool on sheet pan until cool enough to handle and bottoms are fully set, about 15 minutes.

Serve cookies with a glass of cold milk.

Chocolate chip cookies are at their best the day they are baked, but they can be stored for up to 4 days. If making chocolate chip cookies in advance, allow cookies to cool to room temperature, transfer to a parchment-lined airtight container, and store at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Cool and serve

When we first developed the Ultimate Average Chocolate Chip Cookie, we had no idea it would be so good. After we fell in love with its simplicity and consistency, we thought we were done.

However, since we tested so many cookies for this recipe, we started coming up with ways to use leftover cookies.

The Katsu Cookie: Raw cookie dough “breaded” in its own cookie crumbs. No egg wash needed.
The Kraggle Cookie: Raw dough portions rolled in baked cookie chunks for a new kind treat. 
 Zombie Cookie: Totally born again, 100% dough by weight mixed with 50% leftover baked cookies.

It’s a monster! Make a freaky ultimate average cookie!

Step 1: Gather your goodies
Gather all the ingredients, tools, and equipment needed to make the cookies.

Measure all the ingredients in appropriate bowls. Sift the flours together after you have measured them. 

Make sure the butter is soft. Ideally, set out the butter the night before you intend to bake and let it sit at room temperature. If you forget, soften the butter in a microwave at 50% power, in 20-second increments, taking care to not melt the butter.

Step 2: Cream the butter and sugars together
Add the soft butter to the bowl of a stand mixer, followed by the cane sugar and soft brown sugar. After a minute or so, turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl and paddle with a flexible bowl scraper or silicone spatula. Add the baking soda and mix again. Scrape again. Add the salt and mix. Scrape again. Add the vanilla extract and mix again. 

You are aiming for an evenly mixed dough. This is why you want to scrape down the bowl—especially the bottom—before mixing again. Once all the ingredients have been added, mix the ingredients until they are fully combined, about 2 minutes. You don’t want the mix to be super fluffy, just enough to make sure all the ingredients have disappeared into the dough.

Step 3: Mix in the eggs
With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs, one at a time, until each is incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl and paddle. Mix again until there are no visible egg streaks, about 30 seconds.

Step 4: Chips vs. pistoles vs. chunks
We prefer pistoles (which are thin flat chips) to chunks or chips. Chunks tend to disperse unpredictably and chips tend to be ... well tiny and boring. 

BUT, pistoles find a way to laminate into the dough, like butter into a croissant, or butter into pie crust or butter in ... well, you get it. Look at the picture!

Step 5: Add in the flours and chocolate
With the mixer running on low, add the sifted flours and the chocolate pistoles. Mix until everything has come together. Do not overmix. 

Remove the paddle and bowl from the mixer. Make sure to use a bowl scraper to flip and fold the dough near the bottom of the bowl. Scrape and fold until the dough is thoroughly mixed, with no visible streaks of individual ingredients.

Step 6: Portion the cookies and let them rest
Using a #10 scoop as a guide, portion out 100-gram balls of cookie dough. Space them evenly on the prepared half-sheet trays. You should have 15 cookies total. 

(Portioning the cookie dough when it first comes out of the stand mixer makes it easier for you to have uniformly delicious cookies. The resting bulk dough out of the refrigerator is tough to scoop. You might lose chunks of cookie dough. You don&#39;t want that.) 

Put the sheet pans in the refrigerator to rest for at least 2 hours. The ideal resting time is 4 hours.

Step 7: Get ready to bake
Preheat the oven to [f 350 ] on the convection setting. (If you do not have a convection oven, increase your baking time as needed). 

Line 3 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and set them aside.

Step 8: Bake the cookies
After the dough has rested in the refrigerator, put the trays of cookie dough on the counter and let them rest for an hour before baking. It’s time to wake up the cookies from their nap and warm up before you bake them. 

Position a rack in the center of the oven. Put the sheet pan in the middle of that rack. 

For optimum results, bake one pan of cookies at a time. 

(However, if you are going to bake 2 pans at once, put a rack in the upper third of the oven and another in the bottom third of the oven. Put the sheet pan that is going to be on the bottom rack onto another sheet pan. The double sheet pan will prevent the cookies on the bottom rack from turning too brown, since traditional ovens bake from the bottom.) 

After 5 minutes of baking, rotate the pan 180° on the oven rack. Keep the pan in the middle of the rack. 

(If you are baking 2 sheet pans of cookies at a time, trade the 2 pans and rotate them 180° from where they have been baking. Be sure to put the pan on the bottom rack onto that waiting second sheet pan.) 

Bake until the edges are a light golden brown, starting to set, and the middle of the cookie looks a touch soft, about 12 minutes. (If you are using a traditional oven, this will probably take about 14 minutes.) 

Sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top of each cookie as soon as the tray comes out of the oven.

Step 9: Cool the cookies
Let the cookies cool on the pan. Put the pan on a wire cooling rack, so air can flow beneath the pan as well as around it. 

Allow the cookies to cool until they are cool enough for you to pick one up and eat it, about 15 minutes.

Butter

Sugar

58% bittersweet chocolate pistoles

The original recipe

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look into the development process.

BTS: Developing the ultimate average chocolate chip cookie.

Chocolate chip cookies are best enjoyed the day they’re baked, but they can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Chocolate chip cookie dough can be prepared through Step 5, and portions can be divided between 1-gallon freezer zip-lock style bags and refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for up to 6 months.

If freezing cookie dough, thaw portions in refrigerator for at least 1 hour before baking as directed.

Make-ahead and storage

There is no reason this recipe should work, but it does. It’s the perfect blend of chewy, crispy, buttery, chocolatey goodness—it’s the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. It’s also the average chocolate chip cookie. What does that mean?After baking, testing, and analyzing the <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/the-ultimate-guide-to-chocolate-chip-cookies-behold-the-cookie-calculator">10 best chocolate chip cookie recipes in the world for our parametric analysis</a>, we wondered what would happen if we averaged all the baker’s percentages for all the ingredients in these recipes to make a perfectly average cookie formula. The result? The best chocolate chip cookies we’ve ever made. This is the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. Or should we say—the Ultimate Average Chocolate Chip Cookie. EDITORS’ NOTE: We’ve updated this recipe to make the step instructions clearer, swapped out hard-to-find chocolate pistoles for chips, and added a tip for a simplified “dump-and-mix” cookie dough method. We have also given a range for the bake time, based on feedback from commenters, to account for variance in home ovens. If you prefer to use the original recipe, we’ve included it as a tip at the end of the recipe before the make-ahead and storage instructions.

The Ultimate Average Chocolate Chip Cookie