Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

Yum

It’s no secret that we are cookie fiends at my house.  There is very nearly always some type of cookie cooling on my counters for church, school, or someone’s upcoming birthday party.  One day I looked at the scads of cookies and thought, “No.  These are mortal cookies. Cookies of the masses.  We need a cookie so great– so stupendous– so . . . amazingly large . . . that no one will ever forget it.”

And the largest chocolate chip cookie I have ever made was born!  *Earth conquering music swells in background.

Well.  It wasn’t THAT big. But it was probably 12 inches across– about large enough to be a nice cookie cake.  And it was cool as heck.   I really think you need this gigantic chocolate chip cookie in your life.  Like, now.  Come on.  You deserve it. Call it science.  That makes everything sound better.

What are we waiting for?  Let’s do this!

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

(Classic Recipe from Hershey– adaptations, steps, and photos are my own)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or margarine, softened (I use margarine)

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 egg, room temperature

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour (more on this in a minute)

1 (12 oz.) bag semi sweet chocolate chips (I use frozen chips)

Directions:

Cream together butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Add in egg and vanilla and mix well, scraping bowl halfway through mixing to ensure that everything gets incorporated.  Mix in baking soda and salt.  Add in flour until dough is soft enough to scrape with a spoon but firm enough that dough scraped off the beater will kind of slowly fall into the bowl like slow motion in a movie.  Sorry that’s a stupid description but that’s the only way I can think to describe what it looks like. ?  Each flour is a little different so watch for this consistency rather than the specific measurements, so much.  Stir in chocolate chips and press dough into a greased 12″ baking pan.  Bake the cookie at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until cookie is done in the center.  Cover pan with foil if necessary during baking so that the top doesn’t get too brown before the cookie is done in the center.

Now, in pictures! ?

 

Every time we make cookies, I say it.  And I’ll say it again.

“Cold Ingredients are the enemy of good cookies.”

It’s true.  When your butter and eggs are cold, your batter will be lumpy and lifeless.  When you let your cold ingredients sit on the counter for 1/2 an hour or so before starting, the magic begins.  So let’s make some magic.

Start by creaming together your room temperature butter or margarine and sugars together. I highly recommend the Kitchenaid mixer, because you don’t have to stir anything in by hand. Seriously. This baby can knead bread dough. It could probably run for Congress.  I think it does more work in a day than most of those people do anyway.  *awkward throat clearing.

Next, add in your room temperature egg and vanilla.  I like to stop the mixer partway through and scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. That way you can be sure that all the buttery goodness is incorporated into the wet ingredients.  This translates to a ginormous cookie on a plate in front of you, faster.  You’re welcome.

Next I like to add in my baking soda and salt, mix that in separately, and then add in the flour and lightly mix until combined.  A word on all purpose flour (or any flour, really).  I once heard a master baker say that “each brand of flour measures differently.”  She is so right.  Everyone has “the right way” to  measure flour. Some use kitchen scales for absolute correctness.  But here’s my take on it.

“Get to know your flour.”  

Yes.  I’m full of wisdom today. And I won’t even charge you extra for it.  Get to know the flour that YOU use.  My personal flour choice is Aldi’s store brand, because it’s like 1/3 the cost of the others.  Plus I shop there anyway.  But I find that this cheaper kind requires a squidge more flour in recipes, to make them come out right.  I solve this dilemma by packing my measuring cups, which is supposedly against every “flour measuring” trick in the book.

For more expensive brands of flour, like King Arthur Flour, I find that I have to spoon the flour into the cup and level it off with a butter knife.  The higher quality flour doesn’t take as much to finish off the recipe.  I don’t know why.  But get to know your flour.  Get to know how to measure it to work for your recipes.  You can follow a recipe exactly and still have golf ball cookies that don’t spread because you used too much flour, or flat as a pancake cookies that drip all over the cookie sheet because you didn’t use enough.  Get to know the feel of your batter.  Get to know your flour.  😉  It’s a friendship that will pay off well in cookie dividends.

Next stir in your chocolate chips.  I prefer to do this by hand, mainly because I love the feel of the dough as I stir in all that chocolatey goodness.  Plus I can sneak a few chocolate chips this way.  Don’t tell the diet police.

Spray a 12 inch round baking pan (these are the ones I use) with cooking spray and gently scrape the cookie batter onto your pan.  I found it easiest to wet my fingers with water and smoosh the dough evenly into the sides.  Bake your cookie at 350 degrees (use an oven thermometer to make sure your oven isn’t lying to you) for 25ish minutes, or until your cookie is done in the center.  You may have to cover with foil toward the end of baking so that the center can get done without the sides getting too brown.  Take a lesson from me and spray your foil with cooking spray before you put the foil on top. I didn’t do that and ripped the poor dear’s skin off.  Horror!  But I covered the scar with chocolate syrup so it’s all good.  😉  “We’ve got a medical emergency here, Doctor!”  “Prescribe CHOCOLATE!”  Works for me.

Of course, when your cookie comes out, you have a choice to make, and it’s a difficult one.

“Share or keep this entire, glorious cookie to myself?”

I’ll let that one up to you.

You did it. And I’m just so proud of you.

---

---

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, which just means that we get a few pennies if you purchase through our link. I never recommend products that I don't personally use and love. Thanks!