# Soft-Centred Chocolate Chip Cookies

> Soft-centred cookies need three things: **softened, not melted, butter**, **an hour of chilling** so the dough does not spread, and **taking them out while the centre still looks raw** — they finish setting on the hot tray.

**American Cuisine · 32 min · 24 servings · 190 kcal per serving**

Cookies that come out flat and thin, or hard like biscuits, usually fail at one step that is always skipped: chilling. That hour in the fridge is the whole difference.

## Ingredients

- 170 g — soft butter
- 0.75 cup — brown sugar
- 0.5 cup — white sugar
- 1 piece — egg
- 1 piece — egg yolk
- 2 tsp — vanilla
- 2.25 cups — flour
- 1 tsp — bicarbonate of soda
- 0.75 tsp — salt
- 1.5 cups — chopped chocolate

## Method

1. **Cream butter and sugars** — Beat the softened butter with both sugars for **3 minutes** until light and pale. Melted butter makes the cookies spread and come out thin.
2. **Egg and vanilla** — Add the egg, the extra yolk and the vanilla and beat for a minute until combined. That extra yolk adds fat and protein, which keeps the centre soft.
3. **Dry ingredients** — Combine the flour, bicarbonate and salt, add to the mixture and fold **just until it disappears**, then stir through the chocolate. Any extra beating toughens the cookies.
4. **Chill** — Cover the dough and refrigerate for **at least an hour** — or overnight for a deeper flavour. Cold firms the butter so the cookies hold their shape instead of spreading.
5. **Shape and bake** — Roll walnut-sized balls and space them 5 cm apart on a tray. Bake at **190°C for 10 to 12 minutes** until the edges are golden and the centre still looks underdone.
6. **Cool on the tray** — Leave them **5 minutes on the tray** before moving them. They finish cooking in the residual heat, and moving them early breaks them apart.

## Tips

- The centre must look underdone when it leaves the oven — it finishes on the tray, and that is the secret to softness.
- An hour of chilling minimum; overnight gives a noticeably deeper flavour.
- Brown sugar gives softness and white gives crispness — the mix gives you both.
- The dough freezes as ready-shaped balls for three months and bakes from frozen with two extra minutes.

## FAQ

### Why do my cookies spread flat?
The dough was not chilled, or the butter was melted rather than softened. An hour in the fridge — cold butter melts more slowly in the oven, so the cookie holds its shape.

### Why are they hard?
Overbaked, or beaten after the flour went in. Take them out while the centre still looks raw — they finish on the tray — and fold the flour only until it disappears.

### What does the extra egg yolk do?
Yolk is fat and protein without extra water, which gives a richer, softer centre. Extra white would dry the cookies out.

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Source: https://hanakoleah.com/en/american-cuisine/soft-centred-chocolate-chip-cookies
Edited by: Marwa Mohamed
Last updated: 2026-09-13