Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie + Recipe (5 variations)

A cookie is a baked or cooked food that is small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar and some type of oil or fat. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.

In most English-speaking countries outside North America, including the United Kingdom, the most common word for a crisp cookie is biscuit.The term cookie is normally used to describe chewier ones. However, in many regions both terms are used.

In Scotland the term cookie is sometimes used to describe a plain bun.

Cookies that are baked as a solid layer on a sheet pan and then cut, rather than being baked as individual pieces, are called in British English bar cookies or traybakes.

Cookie-like hard wafers have existed for as long as baking is documented, in part because they deal with travel very well, but they were usually not sweet enough to be considered cookies by modern standards.

Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region. They spread to Europe through the Muslim conquest of Spain. By the 14th century, they were common in all levels of society throughout Europe, from royal cuisine to street vendors.

With global travel becoming widespread at that time, cookies made a natural travel companion, a modernized equivalent of the travel cakes used throughout history. One of the most popular early cookies, which traveled especially well and became known on every continent by similar names, was the jumble, a relatively hard cookie made largely from nuts, sweetener, and water.

Cookies came to America through the Dutch in New Amsterdam in the late 1620s. The Dutch word "koekje" was Anglicized to "cookie" or cooky. The earliest reference to cookies in America is in 1703, when "The Dutch in New York provided...'in 1703...at a funeral 800 cookies...'"

The most common modern cookie, given its style by the creaming of butter and sugar, was not common until the 18th century.

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• One bag semisweet chocolate chips

Recipe:

• Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven, and preheat to 375 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

• Whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Beat the butter and both sugars with an electric mixer on medium-high speed in a second large bowl until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the eggs to the butter mixture, one at time, beating after each addition to incorporate; beat in the vanilla. Reduce the speed to medium, add the flour mixture, and beat until just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

• Scoop 12 heaping tablespoons of dough onto each prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Roll each into a ball with slightly wet hands. Bake until the cookies are golden but still soft in the center, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a rack to cool completely.

• When the baking sheets have cooled completely, scoop the remaining dough onto 1 sheet and bake. Store the cookies in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Notes:

When measuring flour, we spoon it into a dry measuring cup and level off excess. (Scooping directly from the bag compacts the flour, resulting in dry baked goods.

Variations: 

1. For cakey cookies: Replace the light brown sugar and granulated sugar with 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar. Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and tender, 12 to 15 minutes. 
2. For crispy-cakey cookies: Bake the cookies at 425 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, 8 to 10 minutes. 
3. For chewy cookies: Use 1 cup light brown sugar and 1/4 cup corn syrup and omit the granulated sugar. Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside, 10 to 12 minutes. 
4. For super-chewy cookies: Substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour. Bake at 375 degrees F until golden with caramelized edges, 12 to 15 minutes. 
5. For extra-crispy cookies: Bake the cookies at 300 degrees F until flat and crunchy, 24 to 28 minutes.