Forget Everything You Know About Chocolate Chip Cookies. Then Bake This One.

As someone who takes cookie baking very seriously, I’ve seen my fair share of chocolate chip cookie recipes. Some bakers swear by using melted butter, some broil their cookies, and some even recommend aging your cookie dough before baking it. It seems like every baker has their own unique way of preparing the dough, each claiming their recipe is the best. And after trying what feels like a million different recipes in search of my favorite, I thought I had seen every technique imaginable — that was until I came across Fox in the Snow’s recipe.

Fox in the Snow Cafe is a beloved bakery and coffee shop in Columbus, Ohio, serving an array of delicious baked goods out of three different locations. Their chocolate chip cookie — which is very large and deep golden-brown — has a unique technique that I had never seen used in a cookie recipe before. It calls for cold butter and has you wait until the very end to add the eggs, a technique dubbed the reverse creaming method. I was eager to see if the method would result in a superior chocolate chip cookie, so I baked a batch to find out.

Get the recipe: Fox in the Snow’s Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie

Unlike most cookie recipes which call for using softened butter, this recipe starts with cold butter that’s cut into cubes to prevent the butter from aerating. The first step has you mix it in a stand mixer just until it’s broken down — not until it’s fluffy. After that you add white and brown sugars and mix just until combined, taking care not to over-mix so you’re not accidentally creaming them. Next, you’ll gradually add the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda) and mix until the mixture looks crumbly. Add in your chocolate chips and mix to combine. At this point the dough will look very dry — almost like a streusel topping. It was unlike any other cookie dough I’ve ever worked with.

Once you have your crumbly, chocolate chip-studded mixture, you’ll add your wet ingredients to transform it into something that looks more like traditional cookie dough. In a separate bowl combine eggs and vanilla extract, then slowly add that to the flour and butter mixture while the mixer is running on low speed. The dough will come together after a few seconds of mixing and form a cohesive mass.

To bake the cookies, portion them out into half-cup balls (yes, half a cup of dough) and freeze them until solid. Once frozen, place them onto parchment-lined sheet trays, sprinkle with flaky salt, and bake until golden.

These cookies are extremely good. They are crisp on the top, crunchy on the bottom, and have a gooey, perfectly soft interior. The chocolate melts and creates little pockets of molten chocolate, and the dough remains slightly under-baked in the most delicious way possible. They remind me a bit of Levain’s famous chocolate chip cookies, prized for their gooey, decadent centers. I loved how salty the dough was, and the additional flaky salt on top only heightened that. It perfectly balanced the sweetness and brought out the flavor of the chocolate.

If you’re a fan of soft, gooey-in-the-center chocolate chip cookies, these are for you. These cookies are as decadent as chocolate chip cookies get, and I personally loved them. But if you prefer flat and crispy chocolate chip cookies, I wouldn’t recommend them. I’m also not exactly sure how the reverse creaming method affected the cookie’s texture, but regardless, the results were delicious.

Before you head into the kitchen to make these cookies, a few tips.

1. Make sure to use unsalted butter. Because this recipe is already rather salty, make sure to start with unsalted butter so you don’t accidentally overdo it.

2. Start with very cold butter. This is one of the main details that makes this recipe so unique, so make sure to keep your butter in the fridge until you’re ready to use it.

3. Use a measuring cup to portion out the dough. The recipe calls for using half a cup of dough for each portion, which will feel like a lot but is one of the defining characteristics of these cookies. To make sure you’re using enough, go ahead and use a measuring cup to portion out the dough.

4. Let your cookies cool completely. Because these cookies are so large, the centers remain soft and gooey, so it’s important you let them cool completely before you try to transfer them.

Have you ever made Fox in the Snow’s salted chocolate chip cookies? Tell us in the comments below.