Double chocolate chip cookies are soft and loaded with chocolate chips. They're a chocolate lover's dream. Part cookie, part brownie, made from scratch and totally indulgent.
The Secret to the Perfect Chocolate Cookie
The secret that makes these cookies soft and fudgy? It's all in the kinds of fats you use and ratio of ingredients.
The older version of this recipe that was handed down to me called for shortening. But I never keep shortening on hand.
Shortening is great for helping cookies to hold their form. But I'm a butter lover from the way-back. Butter has great flavor and adds the little touch of crispiness to the outside of a cookie. But it can also cause cookies to spread more depending on your ingredients ratios.
So I re-worked the recipe without the shortening and used butter and sour cream for the fat component. I also reduced the amount of sugar because, though I have a sweet tooth, I don't like overly-sweet desserts.
Sour Cream in Cookies
I added sour cream to this recipe to create a bit of a softer, more tender texture. I'm a soft batch cookie fantatic.
The acid in the sour cream also helps to activate the baking soda for the nice rise you get in these cookies.
Adding Mix-Ins
My kids helped me test this recipe. One day during testing, I found myself with three half-used bags of different kinds of chips. The kids wanted all three, so we threw caution to the wind and added ⅓ cup white chocolate chips, ⅓ cup large size chocolate chips and ⅓ cup mini chips. Guittard is my favorite brand of chocolate chips.
I really like how the mini chips melt after they've been baked in these cookies. You almost don't know they're there since they don't really hold their form after cooking. They create these small chocolate packed nooks and crannies and I'm pretty sure from here on out I'll always use the mini chips in this recipe.
You could also add chopped nuts to the dough if you were in the mood. Or go for mint chips to make a mint chocolate combination.
Picture Perfect Cookies
The best way to ensure your cookies are uniform in size? I use an ice cream scoop or a cookie dough scoop to measure out each cookie. It's much easier than using a spoon and it ensures picture perfect consistency when the cookies are done.
Fair warning, this dough is a bit stickier compared to a lot of cookie recipes. The higher ratio of wet to dry ingredients helps to create a softer cookie
How to prevent cookies from getting dry
The combination of fats, brown sugar and ratio of wet to dry ingredients in this chocolate cookie recipe makes them super moist and chewy. However, if you don't measure your ingredients properly or you over-bake the cookies, they will become dry.
When it comes to baking, always measure, and always keep an eye on the clock to get perfect, super delicious results.
But, my favorite little hack if they do turn out a little dry? Stick them in a sealable plastic bag or container and add two slices of bread into the bag. The cookies will steal the moisture from the bread and will gain a little bit of moisture back!
Freeze Your Cookies
Lately I've been on a baking kick and have already pawned enough cookies off on neighbors and loved ones. Good news is that these cookies freeze beautifully. Stick them in an airtight container or bag and keep them in the freezer up to three months.
I have been known to eat them straight from the freezer on occasion 😉
Love a double chocolate situation AND sourdough? Check out my Sourdough Chocolate Chocolate Chip Muffins.
Print
Fudgy Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 50
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen
- Category: cookies
- Method: baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Double chocolate chip cookies are soft, fudgy and loaded with chocolate chips. A chocolate lover's dream! Part cookie, part brownie and totally indulgent.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup (170g) butter, softened
- 1 ¼ (266g) cups light brown sugar, packed
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ (60g) cup sour cream, room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 ⅓ cups (280g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (50g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup (150g) chocolate chips plus extra for adding on top before baking
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Combine the butter and light brown sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer (or large bowl and using a hand mixer) and cream together for 2 minutes until slightly lightened in color.
- Add the 2 eggs to the stand mixer and continue to beat until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets evenly mixed.
- Then add the sour cream and vanilla to the stand mixer and mix until all wet ingredients are fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add ⅓ of the dry ingredients mixture into the stand mixer and turn on the mixer on the lowest power setting until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet, then add in ⅓ more at a time until all of the dry ingredients are added to the wet. Try to limit the amount of mixing so you don't over-mix your dough. Otherwise you'll end up with a tougher cookie. The dough will be slightly sticky.
- Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and add in the chocolate chips to the dough and fold in by hand with a spatula until the chips are evenly distributed through the dough.
- Using a spoon or a a cookie scoop, scoop out a heaping 1.5 Tbs dough into balls and drop onto a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet with space for the cookies to spread. If you want a smoother look to your cookies, you can lightly roll them in your hands. The dough will be tacky, but should be roll-able. Add extra chocolate chips on top of each cookie.
- Place the cookies into the oven at 350F on the middle rack and bake for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will be puffed up and no longer appear wet on top.
- Once the cookies are done baking, transfer them to a wire cooling rack and allow them to cool for 20 minutes before enjoying. They will deflate a bit compared to when they came out of the oven for that signature bumpy cookie look.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 189
- Sugar: 16.3 g
- Sodium: 166.4 mg
- Fat: 8.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 27.5 g
- Fiber: 1.4 g
- Protein: 3.3 g
- Cholesterol: 23.9 mg
Simadra says
Im not sure if I did something wrong, but my cookies didn't flatten out and were pretty dry.. it was some-what.. cake like?
Joanie Simon says
I'm so sorry to hear that! The most frequent culprit of cookies that don't properly flatten and are too dry / cakey is too much flour or a flour that's more highly absorbent (some gluten free flours, for example, or bread flour or whole wheat). What method of measuring did you use for the flour? Did you use all purpose flour? I use Gold Medal All-Purpose flour for all of my cookie and cake recipes. As far as measuring, it's pretty wild how much variation there can be when measuring with cups versus weight. I'm able to achieve the highest accuracy measuring flour by weight. It was a literal game changer for me when I switched to it. I used to have such a hard time with so many baking recipes, but when I moved to measuring by weight, all those problems went away and my baking went next level. Let me know where you think the trouble was. Again, sorry it wasn't a success. Just made these last week for a party and used peppermint on top and they were such a hit.
Jessica Ford says
What can I use instead of sour cream ?
Joanie Simon says
Greek yogurt is a great 1 to 1 substitute!