Ina Garten Says These Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookies Are "The Perfect After-School Treat"
We trust Ina Garten when it comes to just about anything, but especially when she reminds us to eat more cookies. The Barefoot Contessa shared an age-old truth on Instagram last week, reminding us that we're all a little happier when we indulge in a chocolate chip cookie—and she has just the recipe to put us in high spirits.
You can find her Giant Crinkled Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe on the Barefoot Contessa website or in her most recent cookbook, Modern Comfort Food (buy it: $19, Amazon). You'll need just eight ingredients to pull these cookies together: unsalted butter, granulated sugar, light brown sugar, extra-large egg, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking soda and bittersweet chocolate (plus some kosher and sea salts that you probably already have in your pantry).
Garten beats her butter and sugar first—in her favorite Kitchenaid Stand Mixer (buy it: from $350, KitchenAid), of course—then mixes in the other wet ingredients until combined. Once the dry ingredients are all sifted and combined, she adds them in with the mixer on low. The chocolate chunks are the last in, mixed into the dough by hand.
To get perfectly uniform cookies, Ina uses an oversized ice cream scoop (the medium version of this tool from Williams Sonoma should do the trick) and freezes the dough into 12 scoops. After 15 minutes in the freezer, the dough is ready to go into the oven at 350 degrees—and that's where a special trick comes in.
Getty Images / Andy Kropa
Garten credits cookbook author Sarah Kieffer for inspiring the pan-banging part of this recipe. To get the cookies to bake into a classic chewy cookie, with a slightly undercooked center and golden edges that crisp up in the oven, the recipe calls for opening the oven after 10 minutes and banging the sheet pan to deflate the dough. Every three minutes, the cookies get a *bang* that forces the center of cookies to deflate into a flat disc, so you end up with a perfectly wrinkled treat.
Commenters warned that making the cookies can be a loud project, but their delicious taste makes them worth annoying the neighbors. (You can always drop a couple cookies off as an apology!) "Between chopping the chocolate and banging the cookie sheets, I think my neighbors thought I was tearing my kitchen apart," one commenter wrote. "They are worth the work, but I only baked three on a cookie sheet or they ran together. Love the delicious chewy texture."
Others who have made the recipe were also raving in the comments, including one person who wrote, "Ina, I made these last night—OMG, absolutely the best cookie we have ever eaten!!! Thank you!! ❤️❤️." But the commenter we most relate to is—no surprise—Katie Couric, who wrote, "Come to mama." Same, Katie. Big same.
