Did I create the best recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies? Yes and no. For me, yes, this is it! It’s everything I like in a cookie: it’s chewy, chock full of nuts, and studded with semi-sweet chocolate chips. And honestly, this might be the best dessert ever because if I had to choose a favorite dessert, the humble chocolate chip cookie would be my choice (but thank goodness I don’t have to make a decision like that!)
But, for many people this won’t be their favorite and that’s ok. People have very clear preferences with their chocolate chip cookies (like their brownies.) Some might scoff at the number of nuts in this recipe; others might prefer a crispy cookie; and still others might want to upgrade to a finer chocolate.
But honestly, unless you’re very anti-nut, you’ll probably still like this chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe even if it’s not your favorite because even a “bad” chocolate chip cookie is still good. And I think it’s worth making this recipe at least once–I feel confident you’ll want to make it again if you do!
An Updated Essential Recipe: Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
I borrowed the base of this recipe from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion which is a super cookbook. The book provides an essential recipe for both a chewy and crispy version of a classic chocolate chip cookie. I started with the recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies. But then, I went a little, well, nutty.
I swapped some of the all-purpose flour with toasted almond flour. I traded some chocolate for hazelnuts AND pecans. And I added a good bit of almond extract with the vanilla. I honestly wasn’t sure if this was going to work–I was especially nervous about replacing the wheat flour with almond flour. But I got lucky and this is an absolutely awesome cookie. It’s a chewy cookie balanced with a ton of crunch texture from the toasted nuts. And the almond flavor comes through thanks to the extract.
- Shop: Almond Flour, Hazelnuts, Pecans, Almond Extract
Cookie Making Tips
I love making cookies and I have gathered plenty of cookie-making tricks along the way; here are some you might find helpful.
Cookie Mixing Tips
- Make sure your ingredients are at room temperature. The butter should be soft to the touch (but not melty) and the eggs should also be room temperature. If you didn’t think ahead, you can soften your butter in the microwave on the defrost setting for 5-seconds at a time. This will likely take less than 10-seconds total, so keep an eye! For eggs, fill a bowl with hot tap water and put the eggs in for 10-minutes to take the chill off.
- Cream that sugar and butter well. For a drop cookie like this, you want to make sure your butter and sugar are well creamed. This will take about 5-7 minutes. You’ll know you’re done when the mixture turns an extremely pale yellow color. It will look almost white if you are only using granulated sugar and very light tan if you are using brown sugar.
- Give the dough a good final stir. Once you think you’re done mixing, take the bowl off of the stand mixer and use a strong spatula or wooden spoon to stir a few more times taking special care to get to the bottom of the bowl. There’s often a bit of dry flour left there and you want to make sure it’s all incorporated before you scoop.
Cooking Baking Tips
- Use disher scoops to portion your dough easily. I like having a variety of scoops on hand to create different sizes. During the holidays, I like to use smaller portions from a 1 tablespoon disher so I have more cookies to share. In the final days of this pandemic, I’ve wanted nothing more to curl up with a tea saucer sized cookie at the end of the day which I get with a 1/4 cup scoop.
- Bake on parchment paper. Parchment paper makes clean-up a breeze. You can use parchment paper a few times before you toss it, too.
- Clean up the edges of your cookies with a spatula. Sometimes, cookies might spread a little too much and take on a non-round shape while baking. If you’re a perfectionist, I found that it’s very easy to coax the cookies back into shape with a metal spatula when they are just out of the oven and still very hot. Gently push the edges back toward the middle in a round shape while they are still hot. This also gives the edges a nice, crinkly texture.
- Keep some ready-made cookie dough in the freezer. I’ve made a lot of cookie dough this year but longer have an office to share with. I’ve found freezing dough balls to be a great solution to overabundance. Just freeze dough balls on a sheet pan in the freezer and once they are frozen, bag them up and return to the freezer. I like writing the temperature and bake time on the outside of the bag. The cookie dough will last at least 6-months in the freezer. You can bake the dough from frozen but you might need to add a minute or two to the cook time.
Video: Watch Me Make This Recipe
Triple Nut Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 4 oz almond flour (1 cup packed)
- 4.5 oz hazelnuts (1 cup)
- 4.5 oz pecans (1 ⅓ cups)
- 5.5 oz all-purpose flour (1 ⅓ cup lightly packed)
- 6 oz unsalted butter (¾ cup) room temperature
- 5.25 oz dark brown sugar (⅔ cup packed)
- 4.75 oz granulated sugar (⅔ cup packed)
- 2 tbsp corn syrup
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- ½ tbsp almond extract
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 9 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips (1 ½ cups)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Set your oven racks to the middle positions.Place the hazelnuts and pecans on a sheet pan. Place the almond flour on another sheet pan and spread it out evenly.Once the oven has heated, toast your nuts in the oven. The whole nuts should toast for about 7 minutes. Chop the nuts roughly once they've cooled slightly. For the almond flour, toast until the flour has turned to a golden brown color–just one shade lighter than graham crackers. This will take between 7-12 minutes. Give it a stir at the 5-minute mark.Once your nuts and almond flour are toasted, set the oven temperature to 375F.
- Meanwhile measure the all-purpose flour in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Place the butter and sugars into the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Cream the butter and sugar on medium high speed for 5-7 minutes until the mixture is very light, fluffy, and turns a very light tan color. Add the eggs one at a time. Make sure the first egg is totally incorporated until you add the second one.Then add the corn syrup, cider vinegar, vanilla extract, almond extract, salt, baking powder, baking soda, Beat until fully incorporated.
- Mix the almond flour into the all-purpose flour with a whisk until it's well combined. Add this mixture to your wet ingredients. Beat until the flours are fully incorporated–about 30 seconds or so. Start the mixer on low so the flour doesn't fly across the kitchen.
- Add the chocolate chips and chopped nuts. Mix for another 15 seconds or so. Remove the bowl from your stand mixer and give the mixture a few good stirs with a sturdy spoon or spatula. Get all the way to the bottom of the mixture to ensure any dry flour bits are mixed in well.
- Scoop the cookies with a ¼ cup scoop (or use a measuring cup.) Allow a couple of inches of space between each cookie. You will likely only get 6 cookies per pan. Bake for 10-11 minutes until the cookies are well browned along the edges but the centers look just slightly under baked. They will finish baking on the hot baking sheet. Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. Cool for another 20-minutes (if you can stand the wait!)
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