Chocolate Chunk Cream Cheese Cookies!

Hello everyone!

I am back to bring you the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I have ever made! It is a variation on my mom’s infamous chocolate chip cookies. I added some cream cheese to the batter which makes the resulting cookie super light and creamy (and massively addictive, so you may want to make two batches!).

Here’s a little food porn to spark your interest before I move on to the recipe:

Okay now that I have you drooling, here are the ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened (use cream cheese in a block or spreadable, don't use fat-free, light or whipped)
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cornstarch (I omitted this and they turned out fine but you can use this if you want!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks (I used a dark chocolate bar broken up into chunks!)

Directions:

1. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter, cream cheese (measure it by smooshing it into a 1/4-cup measure), sugars, egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until well-creamed, light and fluffy, about 5 minutes (or use an electric hand mixer and beat for at least 7 minutes).
   
2. Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, optional salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
   
3. Add chocolate chips and chunks, and beat momentarily to incorporate, or fold in by hand.
4. Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form heaping mounds (I made 28). Place mounds on a large plate, flatten mounds slightly with your palm, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or up to 5 days, before baking. Do not bake with warm dough because cookies will spread and bake thinner and flatter.
5. Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat or spray with cooking spray and place mounds on baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet). Bake for 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are just beginning to set, even if slightly undercooked, pale and glossy in the center. Do not bake longer than 10 minutes as cookies will firm up as they cool (The cookies shown in the photos were baked with dough that had been chilled overnight, allowed to come to room temp for 15 minutes, and were baked for 8 minutes, with trays rotated at the 4-minute mark. They have chewy edges with soft, pillowy centers). Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
6. Cookies will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored airtight in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.

 I did a little experiement with these cookies. I wanted to see how the dough would bake with and without chilling in the fridge. 

Here's how they bake with no chilling:

Ignore the blackened pan, this baking sheet is an old air bake sheet and it makes the PERFECT cookies!

 Here's how they bake with a little bit of chilling time:

Clearly there's a big difference in the thickness of the cookies between the ones chilled and the ones not but once they cool a little they look and taste exactly the same! So you can either get instant gratification and bake them right after mixing or be patient and chill them in the fridge.

Here's some more pics before I end this post!

Okay guys that is the recipe for what I think are the greatest chocolate chunk cookies I’ve ever eaten! If you make these cookies please send me a picture telling me how you liked them! As always you should feel free to reach out to me on my social media. I hope you all have a wonderful day- remember that you have to play nice with the other kids unless the other kids want to fight, then you have to kick the other kid’s butt! If you didn’t know what that was from, it was from Mulan (Mushu said it to Mulan in her tent before her first day of training). Just a little throwback for all you 90's kids!

Xoxo,

Brig