Description
This recipe for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies delivers perfectly soft and chewy cookies with a lightly crisp edge. Featuring a buttery dough with a balanced sweetness from both brown and granulated sugars, and the classic addition of semisweet chocolate chips, these cookies are sprinkled with coarse sea salt for an irresistible flavor contrast. Simple to make and loved by all, these cookies are ideal for any occasion.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, barely melted but not too hot
- ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 large egg
Main Add-ins
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (half chips and half chunks optional)
- Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat Oven: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper to ensure cookies don’t stick and bake evenly.
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. Set this dry mixture aside for later.
- Cream Wet Ingredients: In a large bowl, beat the barely melted butter with light brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Then, beat in the egg just until combined to keep the batter moist and tender.
- Combine Mixtures: Gradually add the dry flour mixture into the wet ingredients, folding gently just until combined to avoid overmixing. Stir in the semisweet chocolate chips evenly throughout the dough.
- Scoop Cookies: Using a large cookie scoop (about 2 rounded tablespoons), drop cookie dough balls about 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. This spacing helps cookies spread and bake uniformly.
- Bake Cookies: Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. Cookies will appear lightly browned around the edges but slightly underdone in the center – this ensures a soft, chewy texture.
- Finish and Cool: Remove cookies from the oven and immediately sprinkle each with a small pinch of coarse sea salt to enhance flavor. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 10 minutes to finish setting before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- You can use a medium cookie scoop for slightly smaller cookies; adjust baking time accordingly.
- Butter should be barely melted but not hot to prevent cooking the egg prematurely.
- Apple cider vinegar adds a subtle tang and helps with leavening for a tender crumb.
- Sprinkling sea salt on top balances the sweetness and intensifies the chocolate flavor.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet before moving to prevent breakage.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 200 kcal
- Sugar: 15 g
- Sodium: 120 mg
- Fat: 10 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 27 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
