I know I just recently wrote about chocolate chip cookies, but you know I have to keep experimenting, and these are my latest favorites. They are dense and chewy and delicious! I mean, they are really chewy. The method is a little questionable, so I don’t expect anyone to try this recipe, but if I don’t blog about it, my little piece of paper where I wrote everything down is likely to disappear and then the recipe will be lost forever.

It’s a pretty standard recipe, with oats added for a little chew, (but not so many as to make it taste like an oatmeal cookie), and also some bread flour, lest I forget, because it’s not even written down! And here is what happened when I first made these cookies. I scooped them out and baked one tray of cookies right away. I had another tray of scooped out cookie dough waiting to go, and I was about ready to put it in the oven, when all of a sudden I realized I had to be somewhere, so I dashed out of the house. Several hours later, I got back home and realized that the cookie dough had been sitting at room temp all that time. Luckily, it was not a hot day, so I baked that second tray of cookies, and oh my!! There was quite a difference in texture between the first tray and the second one.

I know what you might be thinking. It’s pretty standard to let cookie dough rest in the fridge for a couple of hours before using. That makes them not spread as much, and the results are overall much better. But this is not that. The cookie dough was at room temperature. After the second tray went in, I put the rest of the cookie dough in the fridge, where it stayed for a couple of days. I thought to myself that the cookies would be even better if I used cold cookie dough. Not the case. I tried it, and they were not as good. They were missing the wonderful texture. So strange! I was flummoxed.

Next day I took the bowl of remaining cookie dough and put it on top of the fridge to make room for something else, and forgot to put the bowl back in the fridge! Later that day, I scooped out the last of the cookie dough which was at room temperature, and baked it up. The cookies were better than ever. So chewy, kind of dense, and on the bottom kind of caramelized sugar or something that I can’t even describe. Of course, now that I am telling you this, I am doubting that this little experiment can be replicated. So I’m gonna make these cookies all over again, just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. And I will do this before I publish this post, I promise!

Update! 11/11/2025 – I have found that these cookies come out just as nicely (and a smidge taller) if you just go ahead and pre-scoop and chill the dough for at least two hours, and then bake at 375° for 11 minutes, or until the edges have browned but the tops still look slightly pale and glisten-y. And these are still my favorites!

Angela’s Favorite Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 2 2/3 cups (320 grams) all-purpose flour*
• 1/4 cup, heaping, (30 grams) old fashioned rolled oats (NOT instant oats)
• 1 teaspoon (6 grams) kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks, or 227 grams) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup (150 grams) packed light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 1 package (340 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips**

1. In a medium bowl, mix flour, oats, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugars, and beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer for about two minutes, until lighter in color and creamy.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then beat in the vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well incorporated.
4. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix on low speed just until the flour has been incorporated. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl and do a final mixing by hand.
5. Stir in the chocolate chips.
6. Cover the bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature for one to two hours (do this at your own risk… I wouldn’t recommend it if it’s a particularly hot day, or if it’s hot in your kitchen). At this point you have a couple of choices: you can either bake up the cookies, or you can cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to three days (I think the cookies come out better when you refrigerate the dough after letting it rest at room temp). When you are ready to bake cookies, take the bowl out and let the cookie dough come back to room temperature… an hour is probably sufficient.***
7. Once the dough has rested, line a couple of sheet pans**** with parchment paper and preheat your oven to 375° for at least ten minutes. Once oven is good and hot, scoop out cookie dough balls (about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dough per cookie) and place nine on each tray, two inches apart. Why not twelve? Well, I think it works better to have fewer cookies to avoid having the cookies touch each other when they spread. You don’t want to lose even one teeny bit of crispy edge.
8. Bake the cookies one tray at a time on center rack of preheated oven for about nine minutes, or until the edges have browned and the tops look mostly baked, but might still have a tinge of glisten to them. You really don’t want to over-bake these cookies.
9. Let the cookies cool on the tray for about four minutes, then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling. I always set a timer for this, because if you leave the cookies on the tray for too long, the bottoms will not be crisp.
10. Enjoy! These cookies are best eaten the day they are baked, for best texture. Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Notes:

*If you are not using a kitchen scale, stir your flour to aerate and fluff it up before lightly sprinkling your flour by the spoonful into measuring cup, and use the straight edge of a knife to level the flour. And by the way, no need to use bread flour. I just use King Arthur all-purpose flour, which has a high enough protein content that it adds that nice chew. If you use a flour such as Gold Medal, which has a lower protein content, your cookies will be softer.

**Last night I decided to get fancy with these, so I chopped some good quality milk chocolate into smallish shards, and added about 1/2 cup of them to the dough in addition to the bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I have no regrets.

***About leaving the cookie dough out at room temperature… if this feels uncomfortable for you, just don’t do it. But I have to say that I am pretty convinced that this is exactly what makes these cookies so wonderful. Here is my theory: when you let the dough rest at room temperature, the flour and oats absorb any excess moisture, making for a dense, chewy cookie. If you put the dough in the fridge right away, the butter will firm up, not allowing for full absorption of moisture. If you bake the cookies right away, same thing – the moisture is in the cookie and the flour hasn’t had time to absorb it. This is just a theory! I am not a scientist, but I do know that there is a distinct difference between waiting and not waiting, as well as baking the cookies at room temp or from the fridge.

****For best results, use a heavy gauge aluminum cookie sheet for even baking and heat distribution.