Brooke's Sweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

There are a thousand chocolate chip cookie recipes floating around, but this one has a small trick most don’t: a tablespoon of water beaten into the creamed butter and sugar. That extra moisture turns to steam in the oven and gives the cookies a softer, chewier middle without sacrificing the crisp edge.

Equal parts granulated and brown sugar does the rest of the work. The brown sugar brings molasses depth and chew, the white sugar lets the edges crisp and caramelize. Folding the chocolate chips in by hand at the end keeps them whole instead of beaten to bits, so every cookie has visible pockets of melted chocolate.

No chilling required, no fancy techniques. Cream, mix, scoop, bake.

Pro Tips

• Soften the butter by leaving it at room temperature for about an hour. Microwaving it makes greasy cookies that spread too thin.
• Underbake by a minute. The cookies look almost raw in the center when the edges go golden, but they finish setting on the hot pan and stay soft.
• Use a small cookie scoop or rounded teaspoon for even cookies. Hand-rolled balls vary in size and bake unevenly.
• Mini chips give chocolate in every bite. Regular chips give bigger melty pools. Both work, pick your preference.

Variations

• Add ½ cup of chopped toasted walnuts or pecans with the chocolate chips for a classic crunch.
• Swap the semi-sweet chips for chopped dark chocolate and a flaky sea salt finish for a grown-up version.
• Replace ¼ cup of the flour with cocoa powder and use white chocolate chips for a double-chocolate twist.