While our Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies are rich and buttery with an irresistibly chewy center, sometimes we get a hankering for another style: a thin, crisp cookie—one that’s perfectly flat, almost praline in appearance, and that packs a big crunch. This style of cookie should feature the simple, gratifying flavors of butter and deeply caramelized sugar. While brown sugar gives chocolate chip cookies nice flavor, it also contributes moisture; substituting white sugar for some of the brown gave our cookies just the right balance of butterscotch flavor and good crunch. Adding some milk to our dough allowed it to spread in the oven, resulting in a thinner cookie. And instead of creaming the ingredients until fluffy, we simply beat them until combined for less aeration. Knowing that corn syrup browns at a lower temperature than sugar, we added a couple tablespoons for a shiny, crackly golden surface. Increasing the baking soda also improved browning. Baking the cookies one sheet at a time further encouraged spread so that the cookies flattened and cooled into thin, crisp disks—perfect for dunking. You can use either whole or low-fat milk here.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups (7½ ounces) all-purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ½ cup (3½ ounces) granulated sugar
- 0.33 cup packed (2⅓ ounces) light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (4½ ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in bowl.
- Using stand mixer fitted with paddle, beat melted butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and corn syrup on low speed until thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Add egg yolk, milk, and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated and smooth, about 1 minute, scraping down bowl as needed. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Using rubber spatula, stir in chocolate chips. Give dough final stir by hand to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed. (Dough can be covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Let refrigerated dough soften at room temperature for 30 minutes before portioning and baking.)
- Working with 1 tablespoon dough at a time, roll into balls and space them 2 inches apart on prepared sheets. Bake, 1 sheet at a time, until deep golden brown and flat, about 12 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking.
- Let cookies cool on sheet for 3 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cookies cool completely before serving. (Cookies can be stored in zipper-lock bag for up to 1 week.)