Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies: no more flat cookies

Finally make chocolate chip cookies that don’t deflate or turn into over brown hockey pucks with my better high altitude chocolate chip cookies recipe. Loaded with the nutty flavor of brown butter, these cookies will bake up into delicious crisp edged cookies with a soft middle and SO much chocolate.

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If you live at high altitude as I do (I’m at just above 5000 ft here in Colorado), you know the medieval struggle that is the chocolate chip cookie. In the over 20 years I’ve lived here I’ve periodically given up on this cookie because of the over brown, flat pancake, over crisp, over everything cookies that the classic Toll House cookie gives you. My Gram used to toss bad batches of cookies out her kitchen window to the local squirrels. Let’s just say that I’ve been tempted but was too concerned for the squirrels given the number of fails I’ve had with these cookies.

For an experienced baker to fail at perhaps the most iconic American cookie over and over again is not fun. Finally, finally, finally after many many tries, I’ve combined all my tests into a recipe that gives you a lovely chocolate loaded cookie that I’d be proud to bag up for a bake sale.

Let’s get a batch in the fridge for baking later.

Why your cookies aren’t working at elevation (hint: it’s not you)

I typically do not overly adjust my recipes for my altitude. At 5000 ft, my altitude is high but not mountain high, and as such I’ve never found that baking here is an impossible feat. But…

Chocolate chip cookies on the other hand are a different beast. Let me count the problems:

1. Lower air pressure: At higher altitudes, the air pressure is lower, causing leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder) to make the cookies rise more quickly, before the outside of the cookie has baked enough to support the air inside the cookie. Result: flat cookie.
2. Heavy chips, weak cookie matrix: Chocolate chips weigh a lot. I’m convinced that’s why bakers who make 6 ounce extra large cookies often use mini chocolate chips. The batter of a classic chocolate chip cookie, made from simply butter and sugar and flour does not have enough weight itself to support that weight. Cookies rise, and immediately sink. Add the same chips to crispy oatmeal cookies, and it’s not a problem because the oatmeal adds weight to the batter.
3. Too much sugar: Since the air pressure makes liquid evaporate more quickly, it also concentrates the sugar. Higher sugar in a cookie recipe will make for overly brittle, overly brown cookies with not a great structure. Result: flat cookie!
4. The frustrating imprecision of high altitude baking recipes: High altitude recipes often have a range of recommendations. While I know that’s meant to address the various ranges of elevation, some of the recommendations can be confusing or lead you to an idea that you just need to wing it. Winging it is not typically a winning strategy in baking, and most people don’t have the time, patience, or knowledge to adjust a recipe until it works. I’ve tried many high altitude chocolate chip cookie recipes, and I’ve never been happy with any of them.

Why this high altitude chocolate chip cookies recipe will restore your faith in your baking skills

• It works: There’s a combo of strategies I’ve tested over about a dozen different batches, dialing it in until I came up with a cookie that bakes up into nice thick chunky cookies with a soft middle. Nothing was taken for granted here.
• They don’t turn into pancakes: I watched and watched with baited breath, waiting for these cookies to collapse, and that never happened.
• They taste good: When you can pull apart a cookie and get that glorious chocolate pull, you know you have something great.

How to fix your flat sad chocolate chip cookies

1. Use brown butter: brown butter will get rid of the excess water in the butter. This will give you a denser dough that will hold its structure better in baking. More structure means less chance of a collapsing cookie.
2. Less sugar: with a little less sugar in the dough, we’ll keep the dough from getting too brittle or brown.
3. Chill!!!!: Cold cookies will bake up better because they will melt more slowly in the oven, giving the outside time to set before they get too brown.
4. Add a little starch: a little starch added to the dough adds tenderness to the cookie. It also keeps the cookies from spreading too much. Since we want to avoid flat cookies, a little starch is a good thing.
5. Up your flour: a higher amount of flour will make for a denser matrix to support the weight of the chocolate chips.
6. Change your liquid proportions: This is counter-intuitive, but I reduced the eggs in my recipe from 2 eggs to 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk and added in 2 tablespoons of milk (the milk adds tenderness). With a slightly lower liquid content, the cookie matrix is again strong enough to hold the chips without deflating in the oven.
7. Raise the temp: Since the baking can happen a little faster at altitude with these cookies, raising the temp will help set that outside edge of the cookie before they plummet. A chocolate chip cookie baked at 375 is much better than the standard 350.
8. Lower the leavening: because the air pressure works to make things happen faster in the oven, a little less baking soda is a good thing. Here I cut it by 25%.
9. Kick the salt: I use less salt because I don’t like overly salty cookies. You can completely omit the salt if you’re using salted butter. This won’t affect baking much.

Secret Tips for baking the absolute best high altitude chocolate chip cookies

1. Chill the butter: Once you’ve made the brown butter, it needs to chill a little while. I’ve found that 20 minutes in the freezer is perfect.
2. Mix your dry ingredients with the chocolate chips: I ALWAYS do this. Nobody likes getting a cookie at the bottom of the batch that has 2 chocolate chips in it. If you mix the chips into the dry ingredients, you can use your mixer to distribute them equally through the batter at the same time you’re adding in the flour.
3. Portion out the dough before chilling: Too often bakers are told to chill dough and THEN portion it out into cookies. The problem with this approach is that it takes too long to chill an entire batch of dough only to end up with over-hard dough that is difficult to scoop. Make up the balls before baking, and then it won’t take as long to chill them.
4. Bake 1 sheet at a time: Most of the time, I bake 2 sheets of anything at a time. Here, we need all the heat power going to one tray, or the cookies won’t bake evenly. I haven’t tried this on convection to see how that affects things. I figured that most people don’t have that option on their oven, so I haven’t used it on mine.

Process for making high altitude chocolate chip cookies

1. Brown the butter: Melt the butter over medium low heat in a skillet until the foaming subsides and you see brown flecks in the butter. It will smell nutty. Chill the brown butter in the freezer for 20 minutes.
2. Mix the dry ingredients: Whisk the flour with the arrowroot

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   starch, baking soda, and salt. Dump in the chocolate chips and stir to distribute the chips through the flour.
3. Mix the sugars: Mix the sugars with the cold-ish brown butter (some will still be liquid, and that’s just fine) just until it turns into a sandy paste. You don’t want to incorporate too much air, or the cookies could collapse in the oven.
4. Add in the liquid ingredients: Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and milk to the sugar. Mix just until everything is smooth.
5. Add in the flour/chocolate: Mix in the flour and chocolate chips, just until the flour disappears.
6. Portion out the dough: Portion out 2 ounce balls of dough (I use my Vollrath yellow scoop

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   ). Roll them in your hands, and then place them on a plate or small sheet tray to chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
7. Bake: Bake 1 sheet at a time: you can fit 6-8 balls of dough on a tray. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the sheet back to front halfway through baking.
8. Cool: cool the cookies on the tray they baked on.

The Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies

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• Author: Elizabeth Farr
• Total Time: about 2 hours
• Yield: 20 large cookies 1x

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Description

Tired of flat, overly crisp, overly brown chocolate chip cookies, I set about the best high altitude chocolate chip cookies that don’t rise only to plummet immediately after baking them at 5000 feet altitude.  I stared at them nervously and delicately placed them on my counter to cool as if they were little soufflés, anticipating the inevitable collapse.  It never came.  These are the cookies milk was made for.

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Ingredients

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• 12 Tablespoons butter (170 g)
• 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (325 g)
• 1 Tablespoon arrowroot

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  starch
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (omit if using salted butter)
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (one 12 ounce package, 340 g)
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar (160 g)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
• 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
• 2 Tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Instructions

Make the dough

1. Brown the butter: Melt the butter over medium low heat in a skillet until the foaming subsides and you see brown flecks in the butter. It will smell nutty. Scrape the butter and all the brown bits from the pan into a small bowl.  Chill the butter in the freezer for 20 minutes.
2. Mix the dry ingredients: Whisk the flour with the arrowroot starch, baking soda, and salt. Dump in the chocolate chips and stir to distribute the chips through the flour.
3. Mix the sugars: Mix the sugars with the cold-ish brown butter (some will still be liquid, and that’s just fine) just until it turns into a sandy paste. You don’t want to incorporate too much air, or the cookies could collapse in the oven.
4. Add in the liquid ingredients: Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and milk to the sugar. Mix just until everything is smooth.
5. Add in the flour/chocolate: Mix in the flour and chocolate chips, just until the flour disappears.
6. Portion out the dough: Portion out 2 ounce balls of dough (I use my Vollrath yellow scoop

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   ). Roll them in your hands, and then place them on a plate or small sheet tray to chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Bake the cookies

1. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 F (190 F). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment

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    paper.
2. Bake: Bake 1 sheet at a time: you can fit 6-8 balls of dough on a tray. Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the sheet back to front halfway through baking.
3. Cool: cool the cookies on the tray they baked on for 10 minutes, and then move them to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.  Cookies are best when they are warm, but you can store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.  You can also freeze the cookies for about 2 months.

Equipment

Vollrath yellow scoop

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1/2 sheet pan

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parchment

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Notes

Can I make these at altitudes lower than 5000 ft?: I imagine you can, but it’s been a long time since I lived at sea level.  If you do try this recipe in a place lower than 5000 feet, please leave me a comment and let me know what you discovered.

Can I make these at altitudes OVER 5000 ft?: Yes, you can, though you might need to adjust your ingredients slightly.  I’d start with the liquid and the baking soda before I touched anything else.  Pick up a copy of the High Altitude Baking book

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published by the Colorado State extension office; it’s by far the most helpful book on the topic of high altitude baking.

• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• + 1 hour, 20 minutes chilling time:
• Cook Time: 36 minutes
• Category: Cookies
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: American