Chocolate Chip Cookies

Instructions

1. 1

   Melt and cool the butter

   Melt the butter gently, then set it aside until it feels barely warm to the touch, about 10 minutes. Hot butter will dissolve the sugars into a slick, soupy dough and your cookies will spread into lace, so give it the full cooling time.

2. 2

   Whisk the sugars into the butter

   In a large bowl, whisk the cooled butter with both sugars for a solid minute, until the mixture looks glossy and thick like wet sand. You are not creaming air in here — you are dissolving the sugar, which is what gives you those shiny, crackled tops.

3. 3

   Add the egg, yolk and vanilla

   Whisk in the whole egg, the extra yolk and the vanilla, beating hard for about 30 seconds until the batter turns smooth, thick and slightly paler. The extra yolk is your chewiness insurance.

4. 4

   Combine the dry ingredients

   In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and fine sea salt so the leavening is evenly distributed. Measure the flour by spooning it into the cup and sweeping the top level, or you will pack in extra and end up with dry, cakey cookies.

5. 5

   Bring the dough together

   Add the dry ingredients to the wet and fold with a sturdy spatula just until the last streaks of flour disappear. Stop there — every extra stir builds gluten and toughens the crumb. Fold in the chocolate chips and chunks.

6. 6

   Chill the dough

   Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, or up to 3 days. Chilling firms the fat so the cookies hold their height, and it gives the flour time to soak up moisture, which deepens the toffee flavor noticeably. Overnight is genuinely better if you can wait.

7. 7

   Shape and heat the oven

   Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment. Scoop the cold dough into 3-tablespoon balls, roughly 55g each, and space them at least 2 inches apart — six to a sheet. Taller, craggier balls bake into thicker cookies, so don't flatten them.

8. 8

   Bake

   Bake one sheet at a time for 11 to 13 minutes, until the edges are set and golden but the centers still look soft, puffed and slightly underdone. They will look not-quite-ready when you pull them; that is exactly right.

9. 9

   Settle and cool

   If you want perfectly round cookies, swirl a wide glass or round cutter around each one right out of the oven. Sprinkle with flaky salt, then let them sit on the hot sheet for 5 minutes to finish setting before moving them to a rack.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Rap the baking sheet firmly on the counter two or three times at the 9-minute mark to deflate the domes — this is the trick behind those rippled, bakery-style ridges.

• 2.

  Use a mix of chips and roughly chopped chocolate bar. The shards melt into wide puddles while the chips hold their shape, so you get both textures in one bite.

• 3.

  Press a few extra chocolate pieces into the tops of the dough balls before baking so the finished cookies look as chocolatey as they taste.

• 4.

  Dough balls freeze beautifully. Freeze them solid on a tray, bag them, then bake straight from frozen with 2 extra minutes.

• 5.

  If your cookies spread too much, the dough was too warm. Chill the shaped balls for 15 minutes and always start with a completely cool baking sheet.

Equipment

• Two rimmed baking sheets
• Parchment paper
• Large mixing bowl
• Medium mixing bowl
• Balloon whisk
• Flexible spatula
• 3-tablespoon cookie scoop
• Wire cooling rack
• Kitchen scale

Storage