Actual Best Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve been keeping something secret for way too long. 

I have a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies. I get rave reviews when I make these, and people frequently request the recipe. It’s funny because the secret ingredient is not something I put IN the cookie dough, but rather something I leave out.

I enjoy desserts—especially desserts that feature chocolate—but I do not like things that are overly sweet. Plus, sugar’s inflammatory effects on our bodies are well-documented, impacting organs, joints, skin, mood. It’s one of the few things doctors and nutritionists seem to agree upon, so I try to limit my sugar consumption as much as possible.

I modify recipes all the time, for health reasons or simply because I don’t have a required ingredient on hand. One thing I’ve discovered is that I can pretty much ALWAYS reduce the amount of sugar a recipe calls for, and it doesn’t adversely affect the final result. In fact, sometimes it makes the result spectacular.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Time

I’ve been making these cookies for years, so I don’t remember exactly when I first tried this experiment. But I was following a recipe for “best chocolate chip cookies” I’d found on allrecipes.com, and when it came time to measure out the sugar, I was like, Dang that’s a lot of sugar. I just couldn’t do it. I decided to try cutting the amount of white sugar and brown sugar in half. The cookies turned out cakey and fluffy, super soft in the center but nicely snappy on the outside. With less sugar in the recipe, the cookies do not spread and carmelize as much as others I’ve made.

Ready for the secret recipe? Here we go.

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda + 2 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (I like to use dark chocolate morsels)

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream together butter and both sugars until smooth.
3. Add eggs to batter, beating in one at a time (you’ll get better emulsification of the ingredients; here’s why).
4. Add the vanilla.
5. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water then add to batter, along with the salt.
6. Stir in the flour.
7. Fold in the chocolate chips.
8. Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
9. Bake for about 10 minutes, just until the edges are starting to brown.
10. Remove to a cooling sheet/rack immediately.

You should get between two and three dozen cookies from this recipe, depending how big you make them. 

I hope you enjoy the cookies as much as I do! And maybe the results will embolden you to play with sugar reduction in other recipes as well.