KitchenAid Chocolate Chip Cookies

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People search this for one of two reasons: they have just bought a stand mixer and want to use it, or they followed the booklet recipe and the cookies came out flat.

The recipe is fine. The problem is almost always the mixer, because a stand mixer makes it effortless to do the one thing that ruins cookie dough.

The mistake a stand mixer encourages

Creaming butter and sugar puts air into the dough. Air is good — up to a point. Past that point you have whipped so much air in that the cookies rise fast in the oven, run out of structure, and collapse into thin crisp discs.

By hand you get tired and stop. With a stand mixer you walk away and come back to something the texture of buttercream.

Cream for 2 minutes on medium. Not 5, not "until fluffy". The mixture should be lighter in colour and combined — not aerated like frosting.

The other stand-mixer trap is the flour. Once flour goes in, mix on the lowest speed and stop the moment the streaks disappear. Every extra revolution develops gluten, and gluten in a cookie means tough.

What you need

• 225 g unsalted butter, softened but still cool
• 200 g soft brown sugar
• 100 g granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 340 g plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 340 g chocolate chips

Note the sugar split — more brown than white. Brown sugar has molasses in it, which is acidic and hygroscopic; it makes a chewier cookie that stays soft. An all-white-sugar cookie is crisp and spreads more.

Method

1. 1. Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F. Line two trays.
2. 2. Cream the butter and both sugars with the paddle, medium speed, 2 minutes.
3. 3. Add the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, mixing just until combined.
4. 4. Whisk the flour, bicarbonate and salt together separately.
5. 5. Add the dry to the wet on the lowest speed, and stop as soon as no flour streaks remain.
6. 6. Fold the chocolate chips in by hand, or on the lowest speed for a few seconds.
7. 7. Chill the dough 30 minutes. Optional but it noticeably reduces spread.
8. 8. Scoop rounded tablespoons onto the trays, well apart.
9. 9. Bake 9–11 minutes, until the edges are set and the centres still look underdone.
10. 10. Leave on the tray 5 minutes before moving them. They finish cooking there.

Why cookies come out flat

In order of how often it is the cause:

Over-creamed. Two minutes, not five.

Butter too warm. Softened means it holds a fingerprint, not that it is greasy or glossy. Warm butter is already half-melted and the dough spreads before it sets.

Not chilled. Thirty minutes in the fridge makes a visible difference.

Old bicarbonate. It loses potency. Drop a pinch in vinegar — if it does not fizz vigorously, replace it.

Storing

Five days in an airtight tin. A slice of bread in the tin keeps them soft, which sounds like folklore and works — the cookies pull moisture from the bread.

The raw dough freezes better than the cookies do. Scoop into balls, freeze on a tray, then bag them. Bake from frozen, adding 2 minutes.