Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
We think we can all agree that high school can be both exhilarating and tragic all at the same time, right? So much is happening.
There are friends and drama and boys and more drama and homework and dances and proms and slow songs and dates in cars and staying up until dawn talking to your best friend. There are butterflies and broken hearts, dreams, plans, and finding your way. In the midst of it all, there are friends. Friends that you navigate that crazy, scary world with… best friends.
Do you know what best friends do a lot of during high school? Eat. There are so many random foods that remind us of some of our best high school friends and trigger such fun memories. Things like iced animal crackers, Dr. Pepper, cheese sandwiches, pizza rolls, Twizzlers, and… Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies. Once we discovered a world of packaged chocolate chip cookies that weren’t crisp, all bets were off. We were a Soft Batch fanatic in no time at all.
It’s been awhile now that we've been trying to replicate the Soft Batch chocolate chip cookies of our 1990’s alternative music-filled teenage years. Turns out, it’s not straightforward. We tried a handful of random recipes to no avail, then we tried the recipe from Serious Eats. These actually had pretty much the exact same flavor as the original Soft Batch cookies, but try as we might, we just couldn’t get the texture to turn out the way we wanted. Finally, we settled on a compromise, which included our from-scratch vanilla pudding mix; using this, along with slightly underbaking the cookies, resulted in evenly soft cookies reminiscent of the ones we would binge on in high school.
We had our Chief Culinary Consultant taste one and he said that it kind of tasted like a chewy store-bought cookie, and thus, we considered it a success. While we have a long list of awesome chocolate chip cookie recipes that we love, we were thrilled to be able to recreate something that reminds us of some of our favorite people.
Grab a cookie, a glass of milk and cheers to good friends!
One year ago: Mini Tiramisu Cheesecakes
Two years ago: English Muffin Bread
Three years ago: Oreo Cheesecake Cookies
Four years ago: Irish Soda Bread Scones
Soft Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
Yield: 30 cookies A recreation of those ever-so-soft chewy chocolate chip cookies.- 2¼ cups (281.25 g) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (72 g) from-scratch vanilla pudding mix
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (227 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup (165 g) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 1 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups (270 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing only until a little flour remains. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.
- With a medium cookie scoop (or 2 tablespoons), form dough into balls and place on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake until the outside edges are just set and light golden brown, and the middles are still puffy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes
Note: You can substitute one small (3.4-ounce) package of instant vanilla pudding mix for the from-scratch pudding mix. Nutritional values are based on one serving
- Yield: 30 cookies
- Prep: 10 minutes
- Cook: 12 minutes
- Total: 25 minutes
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups ( 281.25 g ) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup ( 72 g ) from-scratch vanilla pudding mix
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup ( 227 g ) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup ( 165 g ) light brown sugar
- ¼ cup ( 50 g ) granulated sugar
- 1 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups ( 270 g ) semisweet chocolate chips
Method
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and mix until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the dry ingredients, mixing only until a little flour remains. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the chocolate chips.
- With a medium cookie scoop (or 2 tablespoons), form dough into balls and place on prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake until the outside edges are just set and light golden brown, and the middles are still puffy, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
