What if doing less work each day could result in the best chocolate chip cookies you’ve ever made? It can!
When I was a single woman with all the time in the world, I would make cookie dough, bake it, let it cool and pack it up in containers all in one day. This didn’t seem like too much work at the time.
But throw in the laundry of 7 people, 3 meals for 5 kids, tidying up, general house maintenance and THEN add baking cookies on top of it all, and I was overwhelmed! I had time to make cookie dough or bake cookies, but not both on the same day!
And that’s how I stumbled upon the best way to improve the flavor of chocolate chip cookies without doing any extra work: let the dough rest. (And go ahead and rest a bit yourself!)
How Your Chocolate Chip Cookies Change After Resting
Flavor
The most noticeable change will be the flavor. For one, the vanilla intensifies. The cookies have a more complex, sweet-vs-salty flavor. The cookies are overall more delicious!
Do a comparison for yourself! Make a batch of cookie dough, and bake a dozen right away. Put the rest of the dough in the fridge to bake tomorrow. Compare the 2 sets of cookies. You will be amazed!
Shape
Your cookies will be taller and rounder if you let the dough chill in the fridge before baking.
When cookie dough is refrigerated, the butter hardens. When you pop the dough into the oven, the outside of the cookie bakes first, creating a shell that holds its shape. The inside bakes slower, leading to a taller, rounder cookie.
Conversely, a room temperature dough melts and spreads before the outside can bake, leading to a thinner, crunchier cookie.
How Dough Rest Works
As your dough is patiently waiting for you in the fridge, magical things are starting to happen.
For starters, the flour becomes hydrated by absorbing some of the water from the egg and butter, so there’s less of a bland flour flavor.
The flour breaks down slightly, changing complex carbohydrates to simple sugars! Your tastebuds will thank you!
Lastly, by some sort of sorcery that I don’t quite understand, the vanilla and salt flavors intensify, leading to a more complex, robust flavor in the final chocolate chip cookie.
A Common Explanation: Debunked!
I saw many articles saying that a small percentage of the water in the dough evaporates, leaving a more concentrated flavor. I decided to test this out.
I made my cookie dough and put it in the same bowl that I always use. I weighed the bowl and the dough in grams. After 24 hours, I weighed the bowl and dough again. If water evaporated out, the weight should decrease.
For reference, a cup of water weighs 240 grams. 1 ounce weighs 30 grams. If even only 1/3 of an ounce evaporates (a very small amount), the dough weight should decrease by 10 grams. 1/3 of an ounce is hard to measure; 10 grams is easy to measure.
Guess how much the weight changed. Go on. Take a guess!
Not one gram. The cookie dough and bowl weighed exactly the same. Yet, the flavor of the cookie was better!
Then I thought, maybe I didn’t wait long enough. The flavor is improving, but maybe the water needs more time to evaporate. I checked again at 48 and 72 hours (2nd and 3rd day). I bet you could guess the results. No change. It weighed the exact same amount as when I made the dough!
To Sum Up
Overall, while I don’t quite understand the science behind dough rest, I do know that it works. Even my husband (who can’t always tell the difference between cinnamon and nutmeg) can tell when I’ve let the dough sit in the fridge.
Ready to try it out for yourself? Let me know how a dough rest changes your chocolate chip cookies!
Happy Baking (and Resting)!
Dangerously Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- cookie scoop (optional, 1 Tablespoon or 1 1/2 Tablespoon size)
- mixer (hand or stand) (recommended for maximum fluffiness)
- baking sheets
- wire cooling rack
Ingredients
- ⅔ cups butter-flavored shortening (such as Crisco)
- ⅔ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla flavoring
- 4 cups all-purpose flour (500 grams if measuring by weight)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (12 oz bag)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F if baking immediately (although a dough rest is strongly recommended).
- Using a mixer, cream butter, butter-flavored shortening, white sugar and brown sugar on medium to medium-high speed for 3-5 minutes until mixture is pale and fluffy.
- While your mixture is creaming, in a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and mix until fully incorporated.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture, mixing on low to incorporate.
- Stir in chocolate chips by hand to avoid breaking up the chocolate chips.
- Recommended for best flavor: If time permits, transfer dough to a bowl that can either be covered by a lid or plastic wrap, or transfer to a gallon-sized baggie and store in the fridge for 24 hours or overnight. Maximum flavor is achieved at 1 day but the dough will store up to 2-3 days.
- Heat oven to 375°F. Scoop dough into 1 or 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized cookies with a cookie scoop or scoop with a spoon and roll into a ball. Place dough on an ungreased baking sheet about 2 inches apart.
- Bake 1 Tablespoon-sized cookies for 8-10 minutes. Bake 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized cookies for 10-12 minutes. Fully-baked cookies will brown slightly along the bottom edge, but for maximum softness and chewiness, don't let them brown on top.
- Let cool 2 minutes before removing to wire cooling rack.
Notes
- Measuring flour: For this recipe, the amount of flour is important to how soft and round your cookies are. I prefer to measure by weight because it’s easy! If you don’t have a kitchen scale, be sure to use the spoon-in-and-level method for measuring your flour. Don’t scoop the measuring cup directly into the flour or you may get more than you want.
- To freeze cookie dough: scoop dough into 1 Tablespoon or 1 ½ Tablespoon sized balls using a cookie scoop (or scoop dough with a spoon and roll by hand) and place on a plate in a single layer. Place in the freezer for 4 or more hours. Remove from plate and store in a freezer bag or covered container for to 2-3 months.
- To bake frozen cookie dough: Preheat oven to 375°F. Place frozen dough balls directly on ungreased baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Add 1 minute to usual baking times. Cool 2 minutes before removing to wire rack.
- For maximum softness: Immediately out of the oven, these cookies will be crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. For maximum, allover softness, transfer completely-cooled cookies to a covered container and let rest at room temperature overnight or up to a day.
For a more in-depth look into the Dangerously Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, click here.
For secrets on how to get the softest chocolate chip cookies, click here.
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