The Quest To Make The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Okay! So, one big part of Christmas in my family is cookie baking. I mean, back in the day, we would have "Cookie Bake Weekends" at my house and my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins would all come down. And we'd bake SO MANY COOKIES. It was a lot of fun, and I have a ton of really fond memories from then.

Anyway, my favorite kind of cookie is, naturally, chocolate chip cookies. And unfortunately, I suck at baking chocolate chip cookies. So, I decided to pursue the perfect chocolate chip cookies. I am by no means claiming to have achieved chocolate chip cookie perfection. But! I made some changes to my baking process and it really seemed to help. So! I thought I would share those tips with you!

1. Start with softened butter. 
This piece of advice comes from my cousin Emily. She also recommends microwaving your butter if you want to get to your cookie-baking faster. I, however, do not own a microwave. So I just had to leave it out for a bit to get nice and room temperature.

2. Use a wooden spoon.
This piece of advice also comes from Emily. To reconfirm it, though, the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever had were made by a family friend who used to watch me on Wednesdays when my mom had meetings, and she also hand stirred everything. Seriously, it's laborious but I think there's something to the "don't use an electric mixer" tip. This is also why you should start with softened butter. I mean, can you imagine trying to hand stir rock hard butter? No thank you.

3. Add a little extra flour.
This tip came from one of my best friends, Laura. One of my big issues with chocolate chip cookie baking is that they get thin and flat when they're baking, and adding a little bit extra flour helps combat that. In the interest of full disclosure, Emily was appalled by the thought of adding extra flour. Anyway, I think it's a good idea if your problem is thin/flat cookies, but definitely be wary of how much extra flour you're adding.

4. Use dark chocolate chips.
Nobody really gave me this tip, but dark chocolate chips are the best chocolate chips. So I definitely would recommend it.

6. Use parchment paper.
Nobody gave me this advice, but my mother basically demanded it. So, parchment paper is great because it protects your pans and makes your cleanup process way easier. But! I was surprised to find that it also acted like some fantastic cookie saver. Actually I have no idea whether or not the success of this batch of cookies had anything to do with my use of parchment paper. But like a sports fan's unwashed red socks, I'll be using parchment paper while cookie baking from now on.

Seriously. This batch of cookies turned out amazing. Santa's going to be so stoked this year.

If you have any other advice to help me on my quest to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies, please leave it in the comments! I'm seriously eager to know!