How to make Chocolate Chip Cookies

This new method of preparing my favorite chocolate chip cookies has saved me so much time.  I first thought of this when I was eating a delicious yet over-priced cookie at Paradise Bakery.  I noticed a small halo of a square in the center and thought, “there is no way they are painstakingly forming their dough into balls each day.”  Actually they don’t even make the cookie dough on site, it is flown in.  A few weeks ago my hand was starting to get tired after using my little ice cream scoop to form dough balls.  I kept thinking, there has got to be an easier way to form the chocolate chip cookie dough – and here is what I came up with.Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 4 sticks (2 cups) butter at room temperature
• 1 ½ cups brown sugar
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 5 cups all purpose flour*
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips*

Step 1 on How to make chocolate chip cookies:

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, one at a time and continue to mix well.  Add 2 teaspoons high quality vanilla and mix well.  In a separate bowl, whisk together 5 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons baking soda and 2 teaspoons salt.  On low speed, add this dry mixture to the wet ingredients one cup at time, scraping the sides of the bowl as you go.  Add the chocolate and mix gently.

Step 2 on How to make chocolate chip cookies

Use a spatula to spread the dough on a jelly roll pan that is lined with either plastic wrap or a silicon baking liner.  Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight until the dough becomes firm.  Remove the large block of cookie dough from the pan and place on a cutting board.  Make long cuts to form small one inch cubes of dough.  At this point you can put the small cubes in the freezer for future use.  You can also keep 12-16 dough cubes close together and cover tightly with saran wrap.  This leads to less freezer burn than the previous method.  These cookie dough “bricks” are so convenient.  I make lots of dough at a time and store stacks of the cookie dough bricks in my freezer.

Step 3 on How to make chocolate chip cookies

Bake at 375 for 8-12 minutes.  Turn the tray once during baking.  Be sure not to overcrowd the pan with cookies.  I bake them until there are few golden brown spots on the edges and leave the cookies on the baking sheet for another ten minutes.  Transfer to a cooking rack.

Kitchen notes:

*for high altitude increase the amount of flour to 5 ½ cups.

**you can use any mixture of chocolate; i prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips and bitter-sweet chocolate chips.  You may want a milder flavor with milk chocolate chips and semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Now that you know how to make chocolate chip cookies, here is a photo tutorial on to the SUPER SIMPLE way to form your dough and freeze dough for easy cookies.  I used to make them as outlined in a previous post, but now I prefer to cut my dough into shapes instead of rolling them into balls.  I really hope you will try this!

Use a spatula to spread the cookie dough across a jelly roll pan, about once inch thick.  Cover and place in the refrigerator for a few hours or at least overnight.

Carefully remove the large sheet of chilled cookie dough and place it on a cutting board.  Cut with a heavy duty knife into one inch cubes.

At this point you can bake the dough or place the cubes of dough into ziploc bags to store in the freezer.  This is great if you only want to bake a few cookies at a time. The only problem with having them in a bag like this is that they are more likely to get freezer burnt.

I prefer to keep a small bunch of dough together and wrap it tightly in two layers of saran wrap.  This allows for less air to get to the dough and cause it to spoil.  Chocolate chip cookie dough can last for up to two months in the freezer.

Wrapping the chocolate chip cookie dough “brick” in saran wrap.

I stack the sheets of cookie dough so they store nicely in the freezer.

When ready to bake preheat the oven to 375F and place the cookie dough cubes on the baking sheet with plenty of spacing between.  Bake at 375F for 8-12 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges.  Turn once during the baking.  All the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

Here is how the cookies looked after baking.  Try really hard to get even square shapes.  If they are rectangular the cookies will be oval-shaped. I love the chunky cookie shape.

Summary of all the steps to making chocolate chip cookies, the easy way.  Enjoy!