Learn how to make Alton Brown’s chocolate chip cookie recipe, also known as “the chewy”. These cookies are big and thick with just the right amount of chocolate.
My quest to find my perfect chocolate cookie recipe continued this past weekend when I tried out Alton Brown’s chocolate chip cookies. It’s known as “the chewy” and I’ve seen the recipe floating around on other blogs lately.
There were a few things that I liked about the recipe right away:
- It calls for bread flour which I found interesting. I usually use all-purpose flour for cookies and I wondered how bread flour would work.
- You don’t have to refrigerate the dough for a long time as you do with the New York Times chocolate chip cookie recipe, another recipe that I love but takes a while to make.
- The cookies quite pretty once they’re baked. Alton’s cookies look like classic chocolate chip cookies you’d find at the bakery.
- It also looked easy to make and it gets rave reviews from others who have tried it.
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter
- Bread flour
- Kosher salt
- Baking soda
- Sugar
- Brown sugar
- Whole egg plus one egg yolk
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Semisweet chocolate chips
Bread Flour Makes a Chewier Cookie
I did some research and discovered bread flour gives cookies a chewier texture. It has a higher amount of protein than all-purpose flour which amps up the gluten providing more structure for the cookies. Now that I know this, I’ll have to experiment with some of my other cookie recipes.
Recipe Tips
There’s nothing unusual in how you prepare the dough. You can mix the dough in one bowl starting with the wet ingredients and then adding in the dry ingredients to form the dough.
You do need to chill the dough for at least two hours. This solidifies the butter so the cookies don’t spread too much when they bake. It also gives the flour time to absorb the wet ingredients.
The dough is also a lot easier to scoop when it’s cold. So, once it’s chilled just scoop and bake the cookies until they are golden brown.
Keep the cookies in an airtight container once they are cooled. They will last for a few days at room temperature.
I really liked how easy this recipe was to make. I love how the cookies stayed puffy and thick after they cooled and they are a perfect size – big, chewy chocolate chip cookies.
Overall, I found this recipe to be pretty tasty. I will definitely make them again!
More Famous Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
I love trying famous cookie recipes – here are some more that you might like to try, too.
- Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Ad Hoc Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Milk and Cookie Shots
- Momofuku Compost Cookies
Alton Brown's “The Chewy” Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 sticks unsalted butter
- 2 1/4 cups bread flour
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/4 cups brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
- Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for at least two hours.
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Scoop the dough onto the baking sheets, using an ice cream scoop, 6 cookies per sheet. Cookies should be quite large if you are using a regular ice cream scooper.
- Bake for 14 minutes or until golden brown, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Is there anyway to substitute the butter? Like yogurt or oil? Do you know if that’s gonna change the texture of the cookies? 🙂
Unfortunately that will definitely change the texture of these cookies.
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Thanks. This is great for readers who want to make them gluten free.
The only thing I could think of was that maybe your dough was refrigerated long enough. But it looks like you got some suggestions on your comments. Yours look good too, just different. As long as the taste is the same!
These are very, very good. Since we have a need to make them gluten free, I made a couple quick changes/additions.
Instead of flour, substitute:
2/3 c rice flour
2/3 c tapioca flour
2/3 c corn starch
1/4 c sweet sorghum flour
and 1/2 tsp xanthan gum.
Umm… haha mine looked SO MUCH different than these, how funny! I think I did something horribly wrong, oh well they were delicious none the less. Yours look awesome!
Hehe, it’s okay. It happens to me a lot, when I think the comment hasn’t gone through. So many people going on diets lately. I don’t have the willpower to stick to one…Maybe if I gave up reading and writing a food blog.
Silly me. I must have accidentally submitted my comment twice.
These cookies look scrumptious. Too bad I’m jumping back onto South Beach though. I’ll have to remember to revisit this recipe.
These cookies look scrumptious. Too bad I’m jumping back onto South Beach though. I’ll have to remember to revisit this recipe.