Secrets to the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

The hubs asked for chocolate chip cookies and now he is asleep  so lucky you because I took the time to document my latest baking adventure.

Since moving I still haven't found my recipes so I decided to use the one on the back of the Hershey's chocolate chip bag that claimed to have, "The Perfect Chocolate Chip Recipe" ok, Hershey, let's see what you got!

The recipe calls for

2 1/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks of butter)

3/4 granulated sugar

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 large eggs

1 12 ounce bag of chocolate chips

Regardless of the recipe you use, I feel like there are a few tricks to upgrade any chocolate chip cookie recipe to ensure they turn out fantastic.

1) Make sure before you begin that you have all your ingredients or good substitutes and seperate your flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl, mix it together so when it's time to add to your wet ingredients, you don't need to slow down to put it together.

2) Set your pan in the refrigerator and turn the oven on to preheat at 375

1) Adding a mixture of brown sugar and regular sugar really does make your final cookie moist and light all at the same time so it's worth it to at least try once

2) The recipe calls for room temperature butter but this was an unexpected bake and I wasn't waiting around so I popped both of those sticks into my kitchenaid and mixed them until creamy then added my sugars, vanilla and eggs, mixed for a few, scraped the sides and then mixed again. If you whip too much it could mess with the cookies I believe so creamy but not puffy, honestly they might look a little lumpy but that also could have been because I used cold butter to begin with. Either way, scrape the bottom as well or your dough will not be fully mixed.

3) Slowly add your flour mixture into the wet, if it's in your kitchenaid I like to have it on and blending slowly so I can just keep pouring it in. Once in. Turn it off and scrape down the sides of the bowl and don't miss the bottom for an even mix. Mix one more time for good measure and then drop your chocolate chips in and mix a bit more and use a spatula or spoon to mix once more to make sure the chocolate chips are spreading evenly through

4) Take your cold pan out of the refrigerator, put a sheet of parchment paper on it and use cooking spray for easy removal of your cookies.

5) Use a small spoon and take a heaping scoop of dough into your hand to shape and drop each on to the pan. Continue to scoop the same size until you have evenly gotten about nine on the pan, they won't spread too much if you did this right.

6) Once the oven is preheated pop those cookies in the oven and set the timer for the lowest recommended time. The recipe says between 8-12 minutes. So check at 8 minutes to see how your hot your oven is running and adjust accordingly.

7) While you are waiting, if you're fancy start dropping dough on more pans or if you only have one currently, cover your dough and put it in the fridge to help keep the butter firm enough to not spread while your cookies are baking. These steps take a bit more time and care but the end result will have people begging you to make them cookies. Or you will eat them until your stomach is sore. Sometimes both.

8) You don't want to see any shiny parts of the cookie, it means they aren't fully cooked through but once you see a tiny bit of color and no shine take them out of the oven and let them start cooking on the pan for 10 minutes and then move them to a cooking rack afterwards

9) Repeat until dough is gone or wrap up what you don't want to cook just yet and put in an airtight container to cook another day or freeze until ready.