i'm always running late, hence why i picked the dorm closest to all my classes in college. i'm also usually late to the chocolate chip cookie party. thomas keller published his chocolate chip cookie recipe in 2009, and it took me until 2015 to try them out. sarah kieffer’s chocolate chip cookies blew up mid 2017 (but it took me til 2019 to make them), and alison roman’s (heather from the future checking in and big oof we don't support her anymore!!) chocolate chip shortbread were everywhere last winter. the recipe for tara o'brady's chocolate chip cookies got published in 2015, and i’m talking about them 3 years later. so i’ll probably make those other cookies in a few years, and then wax on about them then. i look forward to it.
i used to be solidly loyal to the chocolate chip cookies from joanne chang and flour bakery. they revolutionized my chocolate chip cookie game, and i think chopping the chocolate + chilling the dough overnight makes such a huge difference. but they weren’t the chewy/crispy texture queens i wanted them to be, and came out cake-y no matter how much i tried to tinker with them.
these chocolate chip cookies incorporate those takeaways from joanne chang, albeit with that elusive texture. but as much as i like these and the fact that i don’t have to get the butter to room temp, who knows what else is out there in ccc land?! may there forever be chocolate chip cookie experimentation.
do you want to hear about the struggles when i first made these? (the sadistic part of you is like yessss). the spring on my beloved cookie scoop finally bailed after countless amounts of cookie dough, and it's no longer in commission despite an attempt to shove it back in with pliers. not a huge deal, even though cookie scoops make baking cookies 39042x faster. i tried to distract myself from that casualty by playing around with my artificial lights, but the lighting was super harsh and washed out the colors, so i gave up. ack.
and YET. in spite of these semi-unrelated trials, tara o'brady's chocolate chunk cookies are good. good no matter if you decide that 1 ½ T or 3 T sized cookies are your jam. the mouthfeel, super chewy and slightly crispy, is a+ when the cookies are cooled (i won't judge if you devour allll the warm cookies, i have no self control either). and they're gorgeous in that rumply, golden brown, big pools of chocolate kind of way. so gorgeous that the cover pic on this post has been my laptop screensaver since i took the pic.
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 3 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar firmly packed
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 ounces semisweet and/or bittersweet chocolate chopped
- flaky salt to finish
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Melt the butter in a large saucepan over the lowest heat possible, stirring occasionally. Make sure that the butter does not sizzle or bubble. Cool slightly.
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In a bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
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Whisk the sugars into the butter (it might not come together all the way, and that’s fine). Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until just combined. Stir in the vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients until barely blended. Stir in the chocolate until all of the ingredients are just combined. Refrigerate the dough overnight if you have time (highly recommended!).
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Roll the dough into balls, about 3 tablespoons each, and arrange them on 2 parchment lined baking sheets, leaving 3” between each cookie.
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Sprinkle each cookie with sea salt and bake at 360F until the tops are cracked and lightly golden, 10-12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes, the move to a wire rack to cool completely.
From Tara O’Brady’s Seven Spoons.
I like using a combination of milk and dark chocolate so that you get caramelly and bitter notes, but your choice!
Abbe@This is How I Cook says
It's time for bed and I have no cookies to go with my milk. Alas, I will have to comfort myself with these glorious photos and keep a tissue by my pillow to catch the drool!
Ashika | Gardening Foodie says
Totally loving this chocolate chunk recipe and wish I had a few of these to go with my coffee right now 🙂
Kinga says
Great <3
Rosemary Campbell says
My daughter loves cookies. I always make different types of cookies for her and her friends. Tomorrow is her birth day . And I want to make this chocolate cookie for her friends. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Divine says
It's 11:10pm and I remembered this recipe fwd to me from a mom's group. The cookie was amazing I begged the mom to give me the recipe.... Looking at it - I do have all ingredients! Now its a choice between making a noisy ruckus at my kitchen around midnight or turn off this laptop, drink a glass of water and get to sleep....
Carolyn Ko says
I refrigerated my dough for 6 hours before I used a cookie scoop but it was difficult to scoop the dough because it was so hard. They did not spread to look like the cookies in the picture.
What am I doing wrong?
Heather says
if the dough is hard to scoop, i'd recommend letting it warm up slightly at room temperature until it's manageable (this will also help the cookies spread more when they bake). the point of the chilling is mostly to let the flavors meld and flour hydrate, so it's fine if the dough isn't super cold when it goes into the oven!
Susan says
One of the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever made. And I have been making cookies for too many years. Thank you. Can I substitute some pastry flour for the AP flour?