These Childhood Chocolate Chip Cookies are the cookies of my youth. They are a soft, tender, chewy brown sugar cookie that is packed with chocolate chips. The cake flour makes them extra soft!
These are NO CHILL Chocolate Chip Cookies. No, I don’t mean that they have no chill or even that I have no chill around them, which is also true, but that the dough doesn’t need to be chilled before baking!
Measure, mix, shape and put those cookies straight in the oven. These Childhood Chocolate Chip Cookies bake thick and chewy without all the fuss. My kind of cookie.
I have been making this recipe since High School and I have rarely strayed. There are millions of chocolate chip cookies recipes out there but I think that the cake flour really takes these childhood ones to a whole new level of chewiness.
Why Cake Flour in these Childhood Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Love that you asked this! Let me go get my nerdy glasses. Brb.
- Less gluten means less chance for gluten development. Not that you want to tempt fate and mix these forever, but you can rest easy knowing that mixing to incorporation will not leave you with tough cookies.
- Cornstarch. Yes, that sneaky secret ingredient to keep cake flour from clumping (as much). It makes these childhood chocolate chip cookies tender and chewy.
- Extra Fine. Cake flour is almost as fine as 00 flour. This will make your cookies lighter, softer and more tender. Well more tender than others made with straight All-Purpose or even All-Purpose and Bread Flour anyway!
In this recipe I would suggest using semi-sweet chocolate chips because these cookies are so sweet that milk chocolate is just too sweet, and that means a lot coming from me.
Nestle Toll House invented chocolate chip cookies in the 1930’s by accident or so the legend goes! Europeans have been making different variations on the sugar cookie for centuries, but the Americans can lay claim to the masterpiece that is the chocolate chip cookie.
When I originally posted this childhood chocolate chip cookies recipe back in 2013, I dedicated it to my Maternal Grandmother, Nana. Here’s to you, again, Nana!
Childhood Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 3 ¼ cups All-purpose flour (403 g)
- 1 cup Cake Flour (120g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups butter ((slightly softened) 339 g)
- 1 ¼ cups packed brown sugar (282.5 g)
- 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar (287.5 g)
- 2 eggs (100 g)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons vanilla
- 1 heaping teaspoon cinnamon (Saigon, or the best you can find)
- 1 package semi-sweet chocolate chips (I use Ghirardelli, shh don’t tell Toll House)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375°. Combine the flour, cake flour, baking soda and baking power; set aside.
- Combine butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar, and beat until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; mix thoroughly. Slowly add flour mixture until well mixed (3-4 additions); then stir in chips.
- Make large balls of dough (approximately the size of half a lemon) if you are baking them now, or smaller balls if you are going to freeze them and bake them later.
- Bake at 375° for 12.5 minutes or until the outsides have browned but the centers still look soft. My cookies do not look done when I remove them from the oven. Cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheet and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Video Instructions
If I were to use self rising cake flour instead would I still need to add the baking powder & soda? If yes, how much would you suggest?
Hi Chris! I have only baked with self-rising flour once by accident, so I am not terribly familiar. I would omit all the baking soda and powder from the recipe and just use the flour. Good luck! Let me know how it goes if you try it!
Thank you. I did as you said; omiited all baking soda & powder and it worked! Cookies tasted just fine. Nothing was off in the flavor.
I'm so glad!!! Thank you for reporting back! Have a great week!
A crispy cookie? what is even the point? Soft and chewy is the way to go!!
Thanks! Hoping for a quick recovery!
These look great! I was so relieved to hear Nana is doing better and headed home this morning!