7 Ways to Upgrade Your Chocolate Chip Cookies (2024)

When it comes to the chocolate chip cookie, it doesn't take much to achieve face-melting levels of deliciousness. After all, it's a dessert that tastes pretty amazing even when made with the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips. But that doesn't mean that you should be content with mere excellence. Fact is, since these cookies start out brilliant, you only need one or two simple tricks to make them even better—and customize them to suit your taste.

Here are our seven favorite ways to gild the chocolate-chip-cookie lily:

1. Brown your butter

Most chocolate chip cookie recipes start by creaming softened butter with sugar. But what happens when you brown the butter until golden brown and let it cool until solid before blending it with the sugar? You get nutty depth that works perfectly with the cookies' butterscotch flavor. And that's a good thing.

2. Whisk coffee grounds or espresso powder into the flour

Almost every chocolate chip cookie recipe calls for whisking together the dry ingredients—and that's the perfect opportunity to add a little coffee to the mix. Just add a teaspoon or two of freshly ground coffee or instant espresso powder, and you'll score amazing mocha notes.

Photo by Linda Pugliese, food styling by Chelsea Zimmer

3. Use hand-chopped chunks, not chips

Sure, you can buy chunks of chocolate and fold them in instead. But why deprive yourself of the joy of random large and small bits of chocolate running through your cookie? Chopping it yourself creates a range of sizes, and that means surprise in every bite.

4. Stir crunchy cereal into the dough

When you think about it, cereal and chocolate chip cookies already have plenty in common: They're both best with plenty of milk. Take that affinity even further by folding a handful of your favorite crunchy cereal into the dough. You'll get a great dose of crunchy-chewy texture, along with the flavors of the cereal you choose. (Pro tip: crispy rice cereal wins.)

7 Ways to Upgrade Your Chocolate Chip Cookies (2024)

FAQs

What are the 7 cookie methods? ›

There are many varieties of classifications for cookies. This refers to the way in which the cookie is prepared after the dough has been made. For example, there are drop, icebox, bar, sheet, cut out, pressed, rolled, molded or wafer.

How to make cookie better? ›

Butter Instead of Margarine

Instead of margarine or shortening, add butter to your cookie mix. Butter results in a richer flavor, which makes sense when you consider it started as cream! Margarine contains more water than fat. This means your cookies spread while baking, resulting in thin cookies with a gummy texture.

How to make pre-made chocolate chip cookies better? ›

  1. Add spice to your dough. ...
  2. Punch up the flavor of your cookies by adding extracts. ...
  3. Before baking, roll the dough in a garnish of your choice. ...
  4. Stir nuts right into the dough for an added crunch. ...
  5. Add in your favorite savory snacks, like chips or pretzels. ...
  6. Top your cookies with flaked sea salt.
Aug 3, 2020

What are 7 layer cookies made of? ›

What Are Seven-Layer Cookies? They are called Seven-Layer Cookies because there are seven basic ingredients that are layered one by one in the order in which they appear in the recipe below: butter, graham cracker crumbs, coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, sweetened condensed milk, and chopped pecans.

What are the 7 basic ingredients in all cookies? ›

What are the 7 basic baking ingredients?
  • Flour.
  • Raising Agent.
  • Salt.
  • Fats & Dairy.
  • Add-Ins.
  • Water.

What are the 7 steps in the baking process? ›

Q-Chat
  • Melting of Fats.
  • Formation and expansion of gases.
  • Killing of yeast and other microorganisms.
  • Coagulation of proteins.
  • Gelatinization of starches.
  • Escape of water and gases.
  • Crust formation and browning.

How to upgrade chocolate chip cookie mix? ›

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix Hacks

Try your favorite chopped candy bar, toasted nuts, mini marshmallows, pretzels, chips or whatever your heart desires! Better yet, try a variety to create the ultimate monster cookie. Just be sure to keep your add-ins to ½ cup, otherwise, you risk overwhelming the dough.

How can I improve my box cookies? ›

No one will even suspect they're store-bought (and we won't tell anyone!).
  1. Add brown sugar. ...
  2. Experiment with extracts. ...
  3. Mix in different candies and snacks. ...
  4. Add espresso or coffee grounds. ...
  5. Deepen the flavors by refrigerating the dough. ...
  6. Salt before baking the cookies. ...
  7. Reduce baking time for extra soft cookies.

What makes a cookie thicker? ›

A low proportion of sugar relative to flour reduces spread, keeping the cookies thick. A high proportion of mix-ins helps thicken the dough. Blending chocolate chip styles creates a more dynamic flavor. Overnight refrigeration hydrates the flour, again helping the cookies stay thick.

What makes chocolate chip cookies taste so good? ›

The caramelized butter, sugar, vanilla, chocolate, and subtle notes of salt offer a balanced flavor profile. The saltiness highlights and enhances the preexisting flavors. But what makes for the perfect chocolate chip cookie? You get what you pay for, and high-quality ingredients equate to a high-quality product.

Why are my chocolate chip cookies crunchy and not chewy? ›

The ingredients you use and how you shape your cookies both play an important role in whether your cookies turn out crispy or chewy. The type of flour and sugar you use, if your cookie dough contains eggs, and whether you use melted or softened butter all factor into the crispy-chewy equation, too.

Why are my chocolate chip cookies puffy and dry? ›

Not using enough sugar resulted in dry and bready cookies. They weren't chewy at all, and they puffed upward in the center.

What are the 6 categories of cookies? ›

What are the different types of cookies?
  • Drop cookies.
  • Rolled or cutout cookies.
  • Sandwich cookies.
  • Filled cookies.
  • Cookie bars.
  • Molded cookies.
  • No bake cookies.
  • Pressed cookies.
Dec 31, 2023

What are the different cookie mixing methods? ›

We're here to help you understand all the methods and when to use each one.
  • Blending. This can be done using several different instruments from an electric mixer to simpler tools like spoons, whisks, and rubber spatulas. ...
  • Folding. ...
  • Beating. ...
  • Cutting. ...
  • Creaming. ...
  • Kneading. ...
  • Whipping. ...
  • Stirring.
Jul 28, 2021

What are the 4 cookie types? ›

Here are the 4 main types of cookies:
  • Session cookies. These are temporary web cookies that are only present as long as your web browser stays open or your session is active. ...
  • Persistent cookies. ...
  • Third-party cookies. ...
  • First-party cookies. ...
  • User experience. ...
  • Advertising and marketing. ...
  • Analytics and web optimization.
May 22, 2023

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