No Fuss Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Foolproof, delicious, no fuss chocolate chip cookies for when you have the basics in your pantry but you want cookies that are anything but basic. Easy ingredients, easy method equals perfect cookies!

I am the ultimate cookie monster. I am devoted to chocolate chip cookie. They are one of my favorite desserts of all time- if not my favorite! I knew it was high time a basic chocolate chip cookie graced my blog, to go along with these cute kid friendly mini chocolate chip cookies.

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen. When she first published the recipe for these salted chocolate chunk cookies I couldn’t get over how perfect they looked. They’ve been my basic cookie recipe ever since, with a few adjustments I made based on preference like:

-Reducing the amount of chocolate- I love chocolate, but I like a lot of cookie dough surrounding that chocolate.

-Eliminating the turbinado sugar and adding extra white sugar instead, just to make it easier without a third sugar to buy.

-Baking at 350 not 360 (180 not 190). It’s just what I’m used to!

How do I make no fuss chocolate chip cookies?

You start off with your easy ingredients. No need for bread flour or pastry flour, any exotic sugar, no brown butter or any of that business. You just need:

Unsalted Butter (softened- no need to melt)

White Sugar: The original recipe calls for a third sugar in the form of Demerara, but I wanted to keep this as fuss free as possible, and just added a little extra white sugar.

Brown Sugar- I like using a mix of light and dark, but you can definitely go with all light or all brown.

Why do I like using both? Because you get the traditional lighter brown color with light brown sugar, but adding just a hint of dark brown sugar gives a more complex toffee flavor

Using all dark will give these a darker finish, and a really nice toffee like flavour from the extra molasses.

Vanilla: as good an extract as you can find!

Egg: room temperature for easier mixing

Dry ingredients: Flour, baking soda, salt- no need to sift!

Chocolate chips or chunks: I always like baking with chopped up chocolate or chocolate discs, but in my quarantine situation, only had regular chocolate chips sitting around which did more than fine.

How to make easy chocolate chip cookies:

Creaming: You need to cream the butter and sugar together really really well. This means a good five minutes on medium speed with a stand mixer until the mixture is light and fluffy. Keep track of the time! I usually use a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, but ended up making these with one of those old fashioned hand held whisk mixers, and they turned out perfectly.

Adding the egg and vanilla: and mixing until well combined

Adding the dry ingredients: Lowering the speed of the mixer and then mixing in the dry ingredients until just combined. Don’t worry about some flour streaks.

Using a spatula or wooden spoon to mix in the chocolate chips, and any extra flour streaks.

Do I need to chill the dough before baking?

According to the original recipe, no. However, I really hate thin cookies that have spread out too much and I’ve found that chilling the dough is a really good way to prevent this from happening. I like to chill the dough for at least 30 minutes, and turn on my oven to heat once the dough is in the fridge.

If short on time, you can even form the dough into balls and stick them in the freezer to harden before baking.

Storing extra cookie dough:

My method for years and years has been to bake only the amount of cookies that I need at that moment in time, and keep the rest of the dough aside for the next cookie craving.

Cookie dough can be stored for up to 5 days in the fridge. In order to avoid opening the fridge every couple of hours and snacking on raw dough, I usually freeze the cookies individually portioned.

You form the chilled dough into rounded cookie dough balls, place them on a baking sheet into the freezer until they’ve frozen individually at which point you can add them all to a large freezer safe bag together without them sticking to each other. Whenever you need, just reach into your emergency cookie dough stash and bake up fresh cookies to enjoy warm. I firmly believe cookies should ALWAYS be enjoyed warm.

Tips for cookie success:

-Make sure the butter and eggs are at room temperature, so they cream together properly without lumps.

-Weigh your ingredients (especially the flour) if possible, because that gives much more accuracy with the measurements.

-Don’t let cookie dough enter the oven if the dough is too warm and not firm enough, because that’s a recipe for cookies spreading and thin flat cookies. Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes or even overnight to make sue it holds its shape before entering the hot oven.

-Bake in the middle rack of the oven to ensure even cooking on the bottom and top.

-Take out of the oven when golden brown on the outside and still soft on the inside, hey’ll firm up as they cool.

-Use the chocolate you like! If you like milk chocolate, go for it. If you like bittersweet dark chocolate chunks, then you have your answer. My daughter threw some m&m’s on her designated cookies. It all works!

-Enjoy warm with a hot cup of coffee or cold cup of milk.

If you liked this recipe, you might like:

Mini Chocolate Chip Cookies

Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake

Also, check out this article for the perfect coffee to pair your cookies with! My top coffee shops in Bahrain

Did you make this? Tag @everylittlecrumb or hashtag #everylittlecrumb and I’ll share your images!