Entertaining
Dorie Greenspan's Secret Ingredient for the Chewiest Chocolate Chip Cookies
Plus, an easy weeknight-friendly meal special enough for guests.
If there is a singular, holy-grail cookie that can be counted on to make an appearance on our cookie tray each holiday, it's Pierre Hermé & Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies. The popular standbys are at once crumbly like a sablé and chewy like a good ol' American chocolate chip cookie—and chocolatey, sweet, and just salted enough for balance.
We know by now that when the queen of cookies speaks, we listen. In her latest book, Everyday Dorie: The Way I Cook, the irresistibly charming author introduces us to another baked gem, ready to grace your holiday spreads, bake sales, and weekend tables alike. Say hello to your new favorite Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.
As a chewy-for-life cookie fan, I had to bookmark this recipe immediately. There's no soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe I won't try in the name of field research and, as always, Dorie delivers.
"Every time I think I've made my favorite chocolate chip cookie and I've finished with chocolate chip cookies—I'm never going to make another one!—I have another idea for another one," she says in her latest Dinner with Dorie video, above. Lucky for us, she shares all the tips to guarantee the perfect chew, including the power-hitting single ingredient: oats.
"You won't really taste them as oats, but they'll give you that terrific texture," she assures. Dorie explains her process further in the book: "I’ve kept the sugar to a minimum—less sugar means more chocolate flavor. If you want to increase it, though, I’ve given you options, but I’d suggest that you make a choice: Increase either the granulated or the brown sugar—don’t up both of them at the same time.
"The one absolute in this cookie is the chocolate: Use good chocolate and chop it yourself. Chips will work, but they won’t give you great flavor, they won’t melt into the cookie the way chopped chocolate does and they won’t give you the tweedy look that you get when you chop chocolate and then include the 'dust.'"
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Take care, too, to give the dough a nice bit of time to chill out. "If you bake these cookies straight from the mixing bowl, they’ll spread," Dorie points out. "If you chill or freeze the dough, they’ll be chubbier. They’re very good both ways." (We'd say chubby is always a good thing when it comes to chewy cookies.)
Watch the video in full for more cookie tips, as well as the rest of Dorie's easy, weeknight meal—one simple enough to whip up for her and her husband, Michael, but also one that feels appropriate for any-time guests: pimento cheese to share, a crisp chicken Milanese topped with a tangy chopped salad, and of course, the cookies. "It's an everyday dinner, but if I had company coming, I'd be proud to serve that as a special meal."
Are you a fan of oats in your cookies? Let us know below!
A New Way to Dinner, co-authored by Food52's founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, is an indispensable playbook for stress-free meal-planning (hint: cook foundational dishes on the weekend and mix and match ‘em through the week).
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Written by: Hana Asbrink
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