What Makes the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie?

What Makes a Great Chocolate Chip Cookie? A Few Things Actually…

Are you looking for the best chocolate cookie recipe? You have to answer a few questions first. Do you like soft or chewy chocolate chip cookies? How about milk chocolate chips or rich dark chocolate chunks? Do you like to finish your cookies with a bit of sea salt?  

Well, we think a lot of things make truly great chocolate chip cookies. 

We thought we’d share what we’ve learned to help you find your favorite cookie recipe:

  • Fluffy Cookies: If you like soft chocolate chip cookies, we suggest using 75% cake flour and 25% all-purpose baking flour. Don’t get us wrong, we love all-purpose baking flour, it is a great pantry staple and makes a delicious cookie. However, using cake flour will result in a delicate, cake-like, and soft cookie texture. With less protein in cake flour, there is less gluten formed when mixing the cookie dough, resulting in perfectly cakey cookies.
  • Crispy Cookies: My grandmother’s signature chocolate chip cookie recipe called for melted butter (since her’s is handwritten on a recipe card, you can find a similar recipe on the King Arthur Baking website). The results were thin, fudgy and chewy cookies. On the other hand, if cakey and fluffy cookies are not your preference, then melting the butter is definitely the way to go. Typical cookie recipes call for you to cream room temperature butter with sugar, which is a leavening agent. By melting the butter, the only leavening agent left is from baking powder or soda. The result is a flatter, chewier chocolate chip cookie. So yum.
  • Chocolate Chips or Chunks: Are you a dark or milk chocolate person? What about white chocolate?With so many variations out there, determining what makes the best chocolate in your chocolate chip cookie depends entirely on your personal preference. Nevertheless, ingredients do matter. Therefore, go for high-quality ingredients when possible as it truly does make a difference. The more premium the chocolate, the better the taste.  We also think chocolate chunks are a fun addition to a cookie.  
  • Sea Salt: To salt or not to salt? To counter some of the chocolate sweetness and to enhance the flavor of a chocolate chip cookie, we do love a sprinkle of sea salt. And it looks really pretty on a just baked chocolate chunk cookie. If you decide to salt, make sure you use a flaky sea salt and use sparingly. The results will be quite delicious.

These are all things you can experiment with when you decide to start baking your own chocolate chip cookies. Have fun in the kitchen! And if you are looking for a truly special, unique chocolate chip cookie made with premium chocolate and a rich, subtly spice flavor, try the AMERICAN HERITAGE Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Cookie.

Image of 3 chocolate chunk cookies on a plate with a glass of milk.

Would you like to know our secret ingredient? We use AMERICAN HERITAGE CHOCOLATE Tasting Squares, and chop them to create rich and tasty chocolate chunks in chocolate chip cookies. It definitely hits all the notes of what truly makes a great chocolate chip cookie.

a dispenser carton of individually wrapped american heritage chocolate tasting squares on a wooden surface

Happy baking!