Food Stylist-Approved Chocolate Chip Cookies

In my career working in bakeries, fine-dining restaurants, and on set as a food stylist, I’ve made, eaten, and been enraptured by my fair share of cookies. And while I enjoy and appreciate a wide range of sweets, it’s hard to beat a well-made chocolate chip cookie.

After years of tweaking and tinkering, I’ve created what I consider to be the perfect chocolate chip cookie (bold claim, I know). They’re crispy along the perimeter, yet still soft and chewy in the center; they’re packed with chocolate; they have the ideal salty-sweet balance; and they taste as good as they look. Making baker-approved chocolate chip cookies does take a bit more time and attention to detail, but the payoff is well worth it. Here’s what you need to know before embarking on your chocolate chip cookie adventure.

I learned about aging cookie dough when I worked as a baker. I will never forget an employer getting upset about a batch of dough not having rested for two days. At the time I thought it was an overreaction, but I can now see why the concern was justified.

Resting the dough in the fridge for a couple of days helps hydrate the dry ingredients and makes sure the butter is firm. Why does this matter? Properly hydrated cookie dough will brown beautifully, which will give the cookies a rich, caramel-y flavor. A rest will also help create the different texture zones — that crispy ring around the edges and the soft, yielding center — that are one of the hallmarks of a next-level chocolate chip cookie. The firm butter that’s created after a thorough chill will help your cookies keep their shape as they bake.

In this recipe I call for partially melting the butter in the microwave, which might feel a little persnickety, but has a purpose. In restaurants and bakeries, you often temper the butter, which means heating it slowly and carefully until it’s smooth but not fully melted. To make this recipe, you don’t need to use the microwave. Over a stovetop works, too. The bottom line? Don’t melt it all the way.

I call for two kinds of flour in this recipe: bread flour and all-purpose flour. The bread flour, which is higher in gluten than all-purpose flour, will also help give the cookie a nice chew. Combining it with all-purpose flour will make sure it’s also tender, but not too tender.

These cookies are baked at 325°F for six minutes, then 350°F for six minutes. Why? Starting off with a lower temperature gives the cookie a chance to spread, and the higher temperature expedites the browning process.  

I don’t have any science behind the mix of chocolate I use in this recipe. Calling for the two different chocolates comes from a place of pure indulgence. If you’re going to dedicate a couple of days to chocolate chip cookies, I feel like you should go all out. I’m a big fan of Vahlrona dark chocolate feves (small chocolate disks) because they have a deep, rich flavor and melt like a dream. I add in some high-quality dark chocolate chips for a different look and texture. You can play around with the right chocolate mix for you. Try chocolate chips and a roughly chopped chocolate bar, for example.

After the dough is portioned, I press more chocolate into the top of each dough ball. Those bits will melt beautifully on the top of the cookies as they bake, creating the chocolate puddle look you see at many high-end cookie shops.

You might have heard about pan-banging cookies, a technique where you rap the cookie sheet on the counter midway through baking. It deflates the cookie slightly, which creates wrinkles on top of the treat. Those wrinkles look fun and also add an interesting textural variation and give the centers a pleasantly dense quality. (P.S.: This technique is also a great way to create super-fudgy brownies.)

Looks are important in bakery and restaurant cooking, but the visual stakes are even higher when you’re a food stylist. I’ve made tons of cookies for photos shoots, including some for Kitchn, and during that time I’ve picked up lots of tricks. One trick I use here is placing a large metal biscuit or cookie cutter over the cookies mid-bake and moving it in a circular motion. (This is a case when a picture is worth a thousand words, so see the photo above.) As the soft cookie gently rattles against the cookie cutter the edges smooth out, giving it a perfectly round, photo-shoot-worthy look. Add a sprinkling of flaky salt (another food stylist trick, that also happens to taste great, too) and these cookies are definitely ready for their close-up.