If you crave chewy, soft homemade chocolate chip cookies but yours tend to come out of the oven hard and crunchy, there are a few tips to keep in mind the next time you bake chocolate chip cookies. Making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies at home is possible.
The first tip for making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies is to use more flour in your cookies than the recipe calls for. If your recipes says to use 2 ¼ cups of flour, use 2 ½ cups instead. The added flour helps the cookies to keep from spreading so thin in the oven once the butter, sugar and chocolate chips in the oven begin to melt.
My second tip for making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies is to use all vegetable shortening in place of half of the butter. With the worry about the effect of trans fat on health, shortening is not a desirable ingredient to use often, but it will really make a difference when it comes to making soft and chewing chocolate chip cookies. Shortening melts at a higher temperature than butter so the cookies will not spread and thin out as quickly. Most chocolate chip cookies call for 1 cup of butter (always use butter and not margarine because margarine melts too quickly) so use a ½ cup of butter and a ½ cup of shortening.
One very important tip for making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies is to keep the ingredients cold. Don’t let the eggs sit on the counter while you mix the dry ingredients. Use them straight from the refrigerator. Of course, the butter will have to sit out to soften but keep an eye on it. Cutting it into thirds will speed softening time. Keep the chocolate chips in the freezer so that they are extremely cold when it is time to bake the cookies.
Speaking of chocolate chips, do not use too many when making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies. Using about 2/3 of a 12 oz bag is enough. Too many chocolate chips or nuts causes the batter to spread (thus thinning the cooking and creating a crunchy instead of chewy cookie) while it is baking.
The last tip to remember when making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies is to put the batter into the refrigerator before baking. The batter should be cold when the cookies are put onto the pan and into the oven. Do not handle the batter. A cold spoon is best to use for dipping small amounts of batter from the bowl and placing them onto the pan. Do not roll the cookies into a ball. While you are waiting for the cookies in the oven to bake, be sure to put the batter back into the refrigerator so that it stays cold.
Making soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies is easy when you use the tips in this article. No more hard and crunchy cookies will come out of your oven when what you really want is a batch of soft cookies.
