Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (KA Recipe of the Year (See Tip 1)

5 from 6 votes

Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies (KA Recipe of the Year (See Tip 1)

Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies is King Arthur Baking's 2024 Recipe of the Year. Unlike other chocolate chip cookie recipes, this year's winner is unconventional in ingredients and technique. These deviations produce an extraordinary cookie worthy of the recipe of the year designation.

Prep Time30

Cook Time18

Resting in Refrigerator1

Total Time1 48

Course: Cookies

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 210kcal

Author: Chula King

Ingredients

426 grams (2 cups, 15 ounces) light brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons fine sea salt (See Tip 2)
226 grams (8 ounces, 2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
116 grams (½ cup, 4 ounces) whole milk
330 grams (2 ¼ cups, 11.64 ounces) bread flour, divided (See Tip 3)
2 large eggs, cold from the refrigerator
1 Tablespoon (14 grams, 0.5 ounces) vanilla extract
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
340 grams (2 cups, 8.46 ounces) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate bars, coarsely chopped (See Tip 4)
170 grams (1 ½ cups, 6 ounces) toasted chopped pecans, Optional (See Tip 5)

Instructions

Whisk together the light brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Continue cooking, swirling the pan, until the butter is a dark golden brown and brown bits start collecting at the bottom of the pan, 5 to 7 minutes.
Once the butter is browned, immediately pour it over the brown sugar mixture. Whisk to thoroughly combine.
In the same saucepan as was used to brown the butter, combine ½ cup of milk with 3 tablespoons of the bread flour to make the tangzhong starter. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring with a wire whisk or silicone spatula, until thickened and paste-like, 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove from the heat and transfer the tangzhong starter to the bowl with the sugar/butter mixture. Whisk to combine.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.
Whisk the remaining flour with the baking powder and baking soda. Add to the sugar/butter mixture. Whisk to combine into a smooth dough.
Place the bowl, uncovered, in the refrigerator for 15 minutes to cool.
After 15 minutes, add the chopped chocolate and, if desired, the optional pecans. Stir to combine.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, up to 72 hours.
Remove the dough from the refrigerator about an hour before baking the cookies. (See Tip 6)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large-rimmed baking sheet with a silicone liner or parchment paper. Set aside.
For supersized cookies, scoop the dough into 80-gram portions; for smaller cookies, scoop the dough into 40-gram portions. For consistently shaped cookies, roll each piece of dough into a smooth ball before baking (See Tips 7 and 8)
Bake the supersized cookies for 18 to 22 minutes; bake the smaller cookies for 15 to 18 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the oven. Allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet for 15 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. (See Tip 9)
Yield: 18 supersized cookies or 36 smaller cookies. (See Tip 10)

Video

Notes

If you decide to make these cookies, I highly recommend reading the recipe on the King Arthur site. I also recommend viewing the King Arthur video showing how these cookies are made.
You can use regular table salt instead of fine sea salt in this recipe.
The King Arthur site regularly uses 4 ¼ ounces of flour for one cup. I consistently use Julia Child's recommendation that one cup of flour is 5 ounces. Therefore, for this recipe, I included grams and ounces. The 2 ¼ cups is based on one cup equaling 5 ounces. I highly recommend weighing your ingredients for this recipe and all baking recipes.
The King Arthur recipe prefers chopped chocolate wafers or chopped chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips. I used two 4-ounce bars of Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate and one 4-ounce bar of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate because that's what I had on hand. The chocolate wafers are not the melting wafers.
The King Arthur recipe does not call for adding pecans or any nuts. I should have followed the recipe and not included the pecans because they didn't add to the cookie. Therefore, adding pecans or any nuts is optional.
When the cookie dough comes out of the refrigerator, it's hard as a rock. I let the dough sit at room temperature for about an hour so that it was somewhat manageable.
I used a scone and muffin scoop for the supersized cookies for 80-gram portions. I used a jumbo cookie scoop for 40-gram portions for the smaller cookies.
I used a half-sheet pan for the cookies. I placed five dough portions on the sheet pan for the supersized cookies. I placed eight dough portions on the sheet pan for the smaller cookies.
If the cookies are not as perfectly round as you would like, place a cookie cutter that is larger than the cookie over the hot cookie as soon as it comes out of the oven. Then, using circular motions, round out the cookie.
With this recipe, you can bake as many of the cookies as you will be eating. Form the remaining dough into balls and freeze for up to three months in an airtight freezer-safe container.

Nutrition