White chocolate chip cookies fit all my requirements for the perfect treat. But what exactly makes a good cookie?
Is it the smell? The taste? The toppings? The texture?
For me, it starts with the texture. I love cookies that are a little crisp on the outside, but absolutely soft and gooey on the inside.
White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate chip cookies are an old-fashioned favorite. But I’m here to talk to you about it’s close cousin – white chocolate chip cookies!
White chocolate chip cookies are the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and creamy.
They’re perfect for any occasion. Enjoy them as a snack, a dessert, an occasional treat, or a cure for the midnight munchies.
Feel free to whip up a batch (or two) of these tasty treats whenever the situation calls for it. And read on for some great tips and tricks.
Ingredients
You’ll need the following:
- Sugars. Use a ratio of 1 cup brown sugar to 1/2 cup granulated sugar for these cookies. It’s the best combination for sweet, soft, and chewy cookies.
- Butter. Let the butter soften to room temperature before adding it to the batter.
- Eggs. Use two large eggs or one large egg and an extra egg yolk for extra chewy cookies.
- Vanilla extract. Vanilla, like salt, acts as a flavor enhancer for the recipe. It makes everything else taste just a little sweeter and better.
- Flour. Regular, all-purpose flour is fine for this recipe.
- Baking soda and baking powder. These will help the cookies rise.
- Salt. Salt is another flavor enhancer.
- Cinnamon. Though optional, cinnamon adds a rich warmth that makes these cookies undeniably delicious.
- White chocolate chips. Use high-quality white chocolate chips to ensure you’re getting REAL white chocolate. (Some things that claim to be white chocolate actually aren’t.)
How to Make White Chocolate Chip Cookies
The process of baking white chocolate chip cookies is pretty straightforward.
1. Preheat. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Make the cookie dough. Combine the softened butter, sugars, and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix with a hand or electric stand mixer on medium until well blended and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, gently mixing the first one in before adding the next.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a second bowl. Whisk briskly to incorporate air into the mixture.
Add the second bowl of dry ingredients to the larger bowl. Beat with a mixer on low speed until everything is just mixed. Then, gently stir in the white chocolate chips.
3. Chill. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and transfer it to the fridge. Chill for 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Bake. Prepare a large cookie sheet by spraying it with cooking spray. Place tablespoon-sized mounds of dough on the sheet, leaving an inch of space between them.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
5. Cool. Remove the baking sheets from the oven. Let the cookies cool on the sheets for 5 minutes. Then, transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
When cool, serve and enjoy!
Tips & Tricks
Want even better cookies? That’s what I’m here for, you overachiever, you.
Check out these helpful tips to improve the quality of your white chocolate chip cookies:
- Line your cookie sheets with parchment paper. This way, the cookies won’t stick to the sheet and there’s less mess for you to worry about post-baking. (If you don’t have any, spraying with cooking spray works fine.)
- Use a cookie scoop for uniform cookies. Yes, you can use tablespoons (as mentioned in the recipe), but they’re not very accurate measuring tools. They won’t give you even mounds of cookie dough, either. A cookie scoop makes for easier—and uniform—glopping.
- Keep an eye on the baking process. Cookies are smaller than cakes or pies, so they actually bake pretty fast. I recommend giving them 8-12 minutes when baking at 350 degrees. But make sure to check in after 7 or 8 minutes.
- Remove cookies before they’re completely done. This will take a couple of tries, but it’s worth it. Once you’ve figured out how long it takes for your cookies to bake, take them out 30 to 60 seconds before the time is up. The residual heat will keep them baking, but not at the high, intense temperature, resulting in softer and chewier cookies.
- Always soften your butter. Always. Don’t start with it chilled. Don’t start with it melted. I said “room temperature,” and I meant it. The softer your butter, the fluffier your dough, but hot, melted butter can cook your eggs. Softened butter is also easier to mix with both wet and dry ingredients.
- Add eggs one at a time. This might seem like a weird thing to focus on, but trust me, it makes all the difference. Throwing all your eggs in at the same time increases the risk of them not emulsifying properly due to all the fat in the butter. Slow and steady is best.
- Never add cookie dough to hot cookie sheets. If you’re baking in batches, wait for the cookie sheets to cool to room temperature before placing another batch of cookie dough on them. Otherwise, your cookies will spread and puddle.
- Don’t leave out either sugar. Brown sugar gives the cookies a chewier texture and an almost caramel-like flavor. Caster sugar or granulated sugar, on the other hand, is what gives the cookie its sweet and crispy edge. If you leave out either one, you’ll lose part of what makes this recipe great.
- Don’t press the dough before baking. The cookies will naturally flatten and fall into shape when baked.
- Add sea salt for more flavor. Sprinkle your cookies with a light dusting of sea salt when they’re fresh out of the oven for a fun contrast.
Can I Freeze White Chocolate Chip Cookies?
An important question.
Say you baked a batch too many of white chocolate chip cookies. How long do they keep? Can you freeze them to keep them fresh until your next snack attack?
Freezing cookies is one of the best ways to preserve these ever so addictive treats!
As long as the cookies are completely cooled, it’s perfectly fine to freeze them.
I recommend placing them in an airtight container and arranging them in layers.
Separate the individual layers with parchment paper, and they’ll keep for about 3 months.
When you’re ready to eat them again, reheat them in the oven or microwave for best results. Or, if you’re like me, I often enjoy them straight out of the freezer.
Let your taste buds lead the way!
Serve with a tall glass of milk and a dash of pure, nostalgic delight, because who doesn’t love cookies?
My cookies always turn out Flat Why
Hi Ann!
If your cookies are spreading too much during baking, there’s 3 possible problems:
1. The dough is too soft/warm. So when it bakes, the butter melts and they turn out flat.
– to fix this, chill the dough for a few hours until firm, then bake right from the fridge. You can even bake cookies from frozen! Reduce the oven to about 20 degrees lower than the original recipe temperature and bake for a few extra minutes.
2. The leavening agents (baking soda/baking powder) are out of date.
– To test baking powder: add 1/2 teaspoon to 1/4 cup of hot water and look for vigorous fizzing.
– To test baking soda, add 1/2 teaspoon to 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar and check for strong bubbling.
If you don’t see fizzing/bubbling, they need to be replaced.
3. Your oven isn’t hot enough.
– I suggest getting an oven thermometer and double checking that it’s getting to 350°F before the cookies go in. Some older ovens don’t heat up enough, so you need to adjust it.
Hope this helps!!