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.
Ingredients
- 12 Tablespoons butter (170 g)
- 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (325 g)
- 1 Tablespoon arrowroot 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
Instructions
Make the dough
- 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. - 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.
- 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.
- Add in the liquid ingredients: Add the egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and milk to the sugar. Mix just until everything is smooth.
- Add in the flour/chocolate: Mix in the flour and chocolate chips, just until the flour disappears.
- Portion out the dough: Portion out 2 ounce balls of dough (I use my Vollrath yellow scoop ). Roll them in your hands, and then place them on a plate or small sheet tray to chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Scrape the butter and all the brown bits from the pan into a small bowl. Chill the butter in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Bake the cookies
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 F (190 F). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- 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.
- 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.
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 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
