The ultimate chocolate chip cookie is within your reach…
So, you’re looking to make the ultimate chocolate chip cookie. We bet you didn’t know that it doesn’t really matter what recipe you choose, what does matter, is the tools and the tricks that you use to makethose cookies. To give you the upper hand, we’ve rounded up our top six cookie-making tools that will help you on your way to making the ultimate chocolate chip cookie.
1. Heavy rimmed baking sheet
Forget flimsy baking sheets, or the kind that have no rim so the cookies slide all over. The best baking sheets for making cookies are ones that are large, heavy and rimmed around the outer edge. We love these Goldtouch Sheet Pans — available in several different sizes — from the baking pros at Williams Sonoma.
2. A silicone baking mat or non-stick parchment paper
When baking the best cookies, a silicone non-stick baking mat (like a Silpat) (or non-stick parchment paper) is a MUST. These completely non-stick (nothing sticks them – not even sticky toffee or caramel!) and safe food liners add a barrier between your cookies and your baking sheet. This ensures that your cookies will not stick and bake perfectly and ensures that clean up is a cinch. If you choose to use parchment instead of a silicone baking mat, use kitchen scissors to cut the piece of parchment so that it fits precisely inside the rim of your baking sheet.
3. A stand mixer (or a wooden spoon and a good arm)
One of the essential steps to making a superior chocolate chip cookie is to cream the sugar(s) and the butter (which should be at room temperature) together. A stand mixer (like this one from Kitchen Aid) can help you perfectly cream your butter and sugar together, with minimal effort on your part. Simply combine sugars that you are using (most recipes use a combo of brown sugar and white granulated sugar), then add your unsalted butter in clumps. Use the paddle attachment on your stand mixer on a medium-high setting, and let it cream your sugars and butter together until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 3 to 4 minutes. During this process, you should stop the stand mixer every so often to scrape down the sides of the bowl using a silicone spatula (see below). Now, if you do not have access to a stand mixer, a good old wooden spoon, your arm, and about 3 to 4 minutes of heavy mixing will do.
4. Good quality silicone spatula
Although it seems like a simple kitchen tool, a good quality silicone spatula-like these from Joseph Joseph are among the best tools you can use to ensure your cookies come out perfectly. What does it do? By using its flexible and flat edge to scrape down the sides of your bowl during the creaming and mixing process, it ensures that all of your ingredients become perfectly combined. Its flat, flexible edges ensure that all of the ingredients that get stuck to the side of your bowl while mixing, get scraped back down to meddle with the other ingredients. Fewer clumps + more perfectly mixed ingredients = better cookie dough batter.
5. Ice cream scoops
Ice cream scoops? Yes, ice cream scoops. If you’re looking to make a uniformly shaped (size and shape) batch of cookies, an ice cream scoop will be your best friend. We suggest using a stainless steel one with a release lever that quickly pushes the cookie dough out of the ice cream scoop. Check out this one from Williams Sonoma.
6. A large cooling rack
A cooling rack is a final tool that we recommend you make the ultimate chocolate chip cookies. A cooling rack allows air to circulate under cookies while they cool, which helps prevent condensation, which could make the bottoms of your cookies soggy (yuck). It also helps to crisp up cookies that are meant to be crisp.