Jaay Dunlap posted a chocolate chip cookie recipe in November 2006 on JustBaking.net that sounded good enough I wanted to try it, and, man alive, am I glad I did!I’ve made these before, but never when I had the chance to get some shots of the process. The recipe is simple, and includes the same stuff that most any other recipe has. There’s sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, flour, salt and chocolate chips (or chunks in this case). Oh, I can’t forget the butter… There’s definitely butter in these puppies.
What is different is the proportions of the ingredients. This recipe calls for a 2:1 ratio of brown to white sugar. I want to try making this with all Turbinado sugar to see how that works, too.Another major difference is that I’d always read to cream the butter, usually at room temperature, with the sugars. This recipe instead calls for using melted butter. (The formal recipe is listed at the bottom of this entry).
After the sugars and butter are mixed, an egg and a yolk are added, along with one tablespoon of vanilla, and all that’s blended together. To that, already-sifted flour, salt and baking soda are added.
The chocolate chips or chunks have to be stirred in by hand, so they don’t get all broken up by the mixer. Next time I do these, I’m going to pre-chunk chocolate; I’ll get a bar I think will go well and chunk it myself with a hammer! That way, I can try a variety of chocolates out instead of just getting the packages available (if you do this, just make sure to use chocolate that’s not too sweet).
Here’s yet another difference I found in making these cookies… Each cookie is made with a whole quarter cup of batter.I got a scoop at Sur La Table last month to use for the cookies. The scoop didn’t have a liquid measure listed on it, so one of the women working there took me back into their teaching kitchen, and we filled it with water, than measured, and it was exactly one fourth of a cup… Perfect!
With the size of these cookies, I only put about eight on a cookie sheet; they need some room to spread out, but they stay pretty well together and come out looking great.
The cookies take a while to bake, being as large as they are, but I tried taking them out when they seemed just slightly underdone, as carryover seems to finish them well. They took about 15 minutes in my oven, using a Hearthkit. The Hearthkit really helped the cookies come out very evenly baked, and the convection setting on the oven does a really great job with baking.
Now, everyone makes great chocolate chip cookies, I know. A coworker said his wife’s were the best ever… until yesterday. I took a bunch into the office, and no one came back telling me their cookies were better. The coworker that bragged on his wife even took one home to her, and they both agreed these are better.
The differences in proportions of ingredients, the use of melted butter, and the sheer size of these cookies are what make these so good. The result is a cookie with a slightly crunchy exterior and a chewy interior, with loads of chocolate. And they stay that way for several days, which is a feat unto itself!
Everyone’s entitled to like their family’s traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe (though I bet a lot of those were just copied from the Tollhouse package!). These cookies, though, are so good you could sell them. Trust me on this; I have!
Recipe:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (for pure convection, adjust accordingly; I used 310 F on convection). Grease cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper or use a Silpat (which is what I did).
Sift the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside.
Mix the sugars and butter just until thoroughly mixed, then add egg, yolk and vanilla and mix until creamy. Add the sifted ingredients and mix until just blended.
Stir in the chocolate chips/chunks, then drop dough 1/4 cup at a time on a cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart, and bake for 15-17 minutes. Leave them on the cookie sheet to cool a bit when removed from the oven (this is important… they fall apart if you move them too quickly). Once they cool a few minutes, remove the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Or eat them right away, with milk!
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[...] Chocolate Chunk Cookies from Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread [...]
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oh man! i’ve been searching and searching, and i’ve finally found it! ok, so i live at high altitude (5280, denver!) and made a few adjustments. For the high altitude readers, you may want to publish this addendum…
i used 2 1/2 c flour
1/2 t baking soda
1 cup salted, melted butter
2 eggs
baked at 350 for 14 mins
they came out almost as perfectly as you described using these adjustments for high altitude. i will play though and see if there’s a more perfect combo…this one is pretty damn good. best cookies i’ve made to date, and i’ve made a lot of cookies!!! thank you!!!!!
Thank you sooo much, I did it exactly the way you did and now this is The chocolate chip cookie recipe for me.
Lindsey, great adjustments, and I will add it to the above.
Sharonda, I’m glad you found the cookies as good as I think they are!
I made these and they’re truly fantastic! The recipes is absolutely perfect. I added dried cranberries to mine, and they were perfect. Thanks so much for sharing!
Is it okay to use regular butter instead of unsalted?
Susan,
You can use regular butter… Just hold back on the salt a bit. Let me know how they turn out!
I made these yesterday. I omitted the salted and used salted butter instead. They tasted fantastic and looked great. The only thing I would like to figure out how to fix with mine is the fact that they very quickly (within several hours) became pretty crispy throughout. No softness at all. I did not think I over-baked them as they looked fine and I am a crazy “don’t over-bake your cookies” fiend. But next time I will try taking them out even earlier. I loved the taste. I am not giving up! Thanks!
My kids have a gluten allergy and I substituted the wheat flour for our own gluten free flour mix and……huge hit! Thanks! I can’t wait to share this with my friends! (or maybe I’ll tease them once they’ve tried them:)lol
[...] M&M Cookies adapted from Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread [...]
[...] Rocky Road Cookies from Bucky’s Barbecue and Bread [...]
Hi. I’ve made these before following the exact recipe and had good results. However, I’m wondering what improvements I could make. Looking through some of the comments, do you recommend now using only bread flour or a mix of bread and all-purpose? Also, do you recommend refrigerating the dough before baking?
One final question–do you think I could half the entire recipe and it would turn out ok?
Gideon,
If you want the cookies to be thicker, try bread flour. I’ve found I like half all purpose, half bread flour. But it’s personal taste. I still haven’t tried refrigerating, but it’s worth a test. I’ve heard both that it helps and that it makes no difference.
You could probably cut it in half, but I’d figure out the weights, then do half the recipe by weight.
So, I made these cookies yesterday and today they are fantastic ! Don’t get me wrong they were yesterday too, but at the in between point where they’d cooled on the counter for a few hours they were quite hard
but today ? wonderful, best cookie I’ve had in a long time. Thanks so much for the new recipe !
I made these yesterday and the batter was a bit runny. I think it’s because the melted butter was a little too warm when I mixed it in with the sugars. Next time (and yes there will be a next time because they were FABULOUS!) I’ll let the butter cool a bit before mixing it in, and I’ll try using half bread flour and half all-purpose. I also found that after I cooled the batter in the fridge for a bit (probably 15-20 minutes while I waited for a batch to cook so I could use the same cookie sheet) it was easier to scoop and put on the cookie sheet and THOSE cookies came out softer, chewier, and not as flat as the first batch. Thanks for the recipe!
Lala,
Before doing too much at once, I’d recommend changing only one thing at a time. Melted butter isn’t melted anymore if it’s room temp.
So I’d recommend the mix of all purpose and bread flour, or even all bread flour, with everything else the same. That will show you if the type of flour will make enough difference. As you said, they’re still good, even if they’re a bit runnier than you want.
I think using the melted butter as is changes how the sugars interact somehow, which makes the cookies better, IMO.
Let me know how the net ones turn out.
I made these tonight, used Charles Chocolate bars (got ‘em cheap) for the choc bits, added some roasted pecans and 1/4 cup of golden raisins. Turned out nicely! Thanks for posting the recipe.
Valerie,
I’m glad you liked the cookies. I’m not a fan of raisins, but the rest sounds great to me. It’s really a simple recipe that’s easy to modify to your own liking, I think.
I made these cookies this evening, and boy are they good. It’s unanimous that these are the new favorite. I got 22 cookies out of the batch, I made them slightly smaller than 1/4 cup and cooked mine for about 12 minutes instead, and I know with my family they will be gone soon. I’m going to have to double it next time!
Just made these decadent babies. Delicious overload. Just enough chocolate chips for my fiance, a few too many for me, but that didn’t stop me from eating three in a row without pausing much for consideration of breathing. This one is a keeper. Did I mention they are delicious?
Alicia,
I’m glad you liked them. I think they’re great, obviously, and keep going back to all Turbinado sugar.
3 in a row, in full size, is quite a feat!
Love this recipe!! Thank you very much!
[...] http://www.joythebaker.com/blog/2009/05/root-beer-float-cake/ http://livefireonline.com/2007/10/18/jaays-best-ever-chocolate-chip-cookies/ [...]
Made them today and they were just fantastic right out of the oven. But after a few hours they became a bit too hard and crispy (and I certainly didn’t over-bake them). What adjustments would you recommend for next time so that they turn out a bit softer?
Apart from that the recipe is SPLENDIFEROUS! One of the best I’ve come across =)