This is one of my favorite recipes for big, flat chocolate chunk cookies. The recipe was inspired by some giant, floppy, chocolate filled cookies I used to buy in Chicago. I was never able to replicate those cookies exactly, but I came up with this recipe while trying.
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To Make Big Flat Chocolate Chunk or Chip Cookies
The process for making these is simple. You melt the butter and let it cool, then beat it with the sugars as usual. Next, beat in egg and vanilla, then add a mixture of flour, baking powder and salt. The dough should be light textured and soft. Chilling briefly makes it easier to scoop. You can then scoop and bake or chill the scooped balls of dough. I almost always scoop the dough balls, chill, then bake later.
Cake Flour in Chocolate Chip Cookies
Since posting this recipe I've made a few modifications. The recipe use to call for cake flour, but I've modified it to be made with cake, pastry or all-purpose. You can use any kind of flour so long as the weight is 180 grams. The only way to get an accurate measurement for the flour is to weigh it. The picture above was made with cake flour, while the picture below was made with Bob's Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour. The texture of the cookies will change slightly depending on which type of flour you use.
Big Flat Chocolate Chunk Cookie Tips
- For this recipe you really need a scale. You can get by without one, but the cookies won't be exactly the same since I measured by weight.
- Flour -- You can use 180 grams of cake flour, pastry flour, all-purpose flour or a mix of the two.
- The recipe calls for 1 ½ eggs or 1 egg plus 2 tablespoons. The best way to measure is to just beat two eggs and then weigh out 70 grams total of egg. You'll have about 25 grams left (half an egg) for another recipe. You can also use 1 egg plus 1 yolk, but it will change the texture slightly.
- I've increased the amount of chips to 1 ⅓ cups. Use as many chips as you want.
- To speed up the butter melting and cooling process, melt about ¾ of the stick of butter (6 T.) then add 2 tablespoons of cold butter to the hot melted butter. Alternatively, just melt the butter using one of the lower settings on your microwave.
After making them many times and comparing them with the popular pan banging Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies, I'd still pick Big Flat Chocolate Chunk Cookies as the favorite.
Recipe
Big Flat Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled (114 grams)
- ⅔ cup light brown sugar or mix together light and dark (140 grams)
- ½ cup granulated sugar, scant (90 grams)
- 1 large egg (50 grams)
- 2 tablespoons lightly beaten egg (20 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups cake flour or 180 grams of all-purpose or pastry flour (180 grams)
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 1 ⅓ cups bittersweet chocolate chips or 4-6 oz chopped dark chocolate
- Optional -- macadamia nuts caramel chips, chopped milk chocolate
Instructions
- Beat melted butter and both sugars with an electric mixer for 1 minute. Add egg and beat again for 30 seconds. Let rest for 5 minutes, then beat again for another minute. Beat in the vanilla.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda and salt, then add the flour mixture and stir to form a soft dough. Stir in the chocolate. Dough should be fairly soft at this point.
- Chill dough for about 10 minutes or just until it is firm enough to scoop. Scoop about ¼ cup batter for each cookie onto a couple of foil lined plates or a baking tray (8-10 total). Cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for two hours or until dough blobs are firm enough so that you can shape them into neater rounds. When they are firm, shape them into neater balls and press down slightly so you have discs. For best results chill overnight, or go ahead and bake.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Arrange cookies 3 inches apart on the sheet. Put in the oven.
- Put the cookies in the 375 degree oven, then close door and reduce heat to 325 degrees F.
- Bake cookies for about 15 to 18 minutes, checking at 10 and rotating the pan.
- If using milk chocolate, pull from oven and immediately stick milk chocolate pieces into the hot cookies.
- Let cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.
Sue says
Made these again. This time I used King Arthur Pastry Flour and Lamd o’Lakes butter. They are still excellent. Such a unique texture.
Anna says
Hope your family enjoys them!!
Katrina says
Okay, I made a double batch and the dough is chillin'.
Katrina says
I've made these at least twice. Perfect ccc's. These are the kind my dad would love. I was going to go home this week. Put it off until May, but I will have to make these for him then. Heck, the men around here would like them. I'm not too busy today, hmmmm? I'll have to make them again. Sometimes I just need to make a ccc to feel like myself. 😉
Anna says
Hooray! Glad the recipe worked for you.
Sue says
Oh my goodness! They are so good! They have an entirely unique texture that is wonderful. When I took them out of the oven I was concerned that they were too flat but they're not. They're really special.
I used cake flour and Lurpak butter. It's my favorite European butter.
Thank you Anna! So much to try something new, unique and wonderfully tasty.
Tried to give this five stars but my device is fighting me.
Sue says
I'm very intrigued! I'm not going to be able to make them for awhile but when I do I'll let you know. They sound wonderful!
Anna says
Angie, did you make them smaller? Just wondering. I haven't attempted to make them normal size (though I might try it today). I may try dividing one of the chilled dough sections in half. I've been making very large ones (8 per batch) and slightly smaller (10 per batch).
Thanks for trying the recipe! Also, after making these again with the whole wheat pastry flour I've decided I prefer with with cake flour or regular pastry flour (Bob's sells it in a pink bag).
Angie says
These were amazing!
Of course, my family was suspicious since they were not the regular Tollhouse cookie I usually make. They very timidly ate one cookie and before you knew it they had one in each hand!!! Thanks for encouraging me to bake outside the box!
d says
That's a bold statement! Your favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe right now? Of course I have to try these!!
Katrina says
The only thing I don't have is dark brown sugar. They look great. I'll see if I can give them a try. And then taste one. And then dream of eating them all. 😉
Anna says
You are sweet to say all those nice things, and I'm glad you found the ratios interesting. I sometimes feel like we are all too tied with the idea that we have to use whole eggs, when what I've found is that altering the amounts of egg often affects the cookie. So I used 70 grams of eggs and tried to stick with weights. I have a feeling the cookie will get mixed results because people will use volume measurements or the type of brown sugar will be different (too dry, too wet, too brown, etc). So I'm curious to see how these work for others! They're on the sweet side, but not quite as sweet as the New York Times crinkled chocolate chunk cookies (the banging method). I've made them five or six times already.
amanda says
I have come across a lot of "ultimate" and "best" chocolate chip cookie recipes. This recipe took me by surprise. Kudos to you for being so creative and stepping out of the standard "cookie box." I didn't think there was another riff to take on the chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you really did it! Thanks for all of the creative effort--from the cake flour to the baking temperature. They look delicious!