Let’s be honest, who doesn’t miss home every once in a while? What I actually mean is, who doesn’t miss mom’s home cooking every day?
College allows us to have the independence that we always longed for to do things like go out and about as we please, but we also gain other responsibilities that we only fully realize once there’s no one to do them but ourselves. And cooking for ourselves can definitely be a daunting task. How do you ice a cupcake? Hard boil an egg? Make Mac ‘n Cheese?
I’ll answer all your questions and more, and I promise, your kitchen will become a ‘no fear’ zone.
Now, when I miss home, I instantly think of the delicious smell of fresh baked goods that would await me, and what is homier than a chocolate chip cookie? Besides your own bed, I don’t think anything can beat chocolate-y goodness. So, here is my recipe for Extra Chocolate-y Chocolate Chip Cookies.
I played around with so many—too many—cookie recipes, but I finally found one that makes a soft, gooey cookie every time. The secret? Cream cheese. You can’t taste the tanginess of the cream cheese in the cookies, but you can taste the velvety, smooth texture it adds. And the combination of chocolate chips AND chocolate chunks ensure that you never face the sad moment of taking a bite and not getting any chocolate in it… We’ve all been there.
So, if you love thick, soft chocolate chip cookies that are stuffed with sweetness, try these out! Not to mention, they taste a million times better knowing that you made them yourself. Just try and see!
What You Need
- Stand mixer – this will make the process much faster, but if you don’t have one, that’s okay! Use a large mixing bowl and a wooden spoon to mix the dough instead.
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Rubber spatula/big spoon – you’ll need this to scrape the sides of the bowl so all the ingredients can be fully mixed.
- Oven
- Baking tray/cookie sheet
- Potholders
- Refrigerator
- Plastic wrap
- Parchment paper/nonstick cooking spray
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter – room temperature
- 1/2 cup cream cheese – room temperature
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar – “Packed” just means that you need to press the sugar into your measuring cup, so use a spoon to add the sugar a little at a time into the cup and then press down on it using the back of your spoon until you’ve added enough sugar to fill the cup.
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Pinch of salt – 1/8 of a teaspoon
- 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 cups milk chocolate chunks – Take a King size Hershey’s bar and cut it up into random sized pieces; they don’t have to be all even.
Directions
- In your stand mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, granulated and brown sugar, egg, vanilla, on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping occasionally with a rubber spatula – all of the ingredients should be well incorporated so that you can’t see the individual sugar granules.
- Once the batter is well mixed, add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and mix on medium speed – don’t start off on high unless you want a flour snowstorm in your kitchen (this has happened to me…more than once).
- After mixing for 1 – 2 minutes, use a wooden spoon to mix in the chocolate chips and chunks.
- Cover the mixing bowl with a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour – this is super important in order to ensure we get our cookies big and gooey, instead of flat and dry.
- 15 minutes before you remove the cookies from the fridge, set your oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
- Use your hands to scoop balls of dough the size of a ping pong ball onto the cookie tray, placing them about two inches apart.
- Bake for 8 – 9 minutes, or until the cookies begin to look golden brown – be careful not to over bake, the cookies will keep cooking because of the residual heat carried over when the cookies are removed, A.K.A. they will keep cooking after you remove them from the oven!
- Let the cookies cool for 10 – 15 minutes, as hard as it may be, and then dig in! Keep these covered with plastic wrap for a week, but I highly doubt they’ll last that long.
Photo credit: Author’s personal blog