Crumbl’s Chocolate Chip Cookie

After weeks for testing, investigating nutritional information and ingredient lists, and pouring over TikTok clips and Instagram posts of cookies in various stages of mixing, portioning, and baking, here it is. I am about 98% confident that this recipe reliably produces eight cookies that look and taste like Crumbl's Milk Chocolate Chip cookies, and even with a couple of recipe adjustments to make it work better for home bakers who likely won't be making retail-sized batches with 12 pounds of butter and 48 eggs using 20 quart industrial mixers, this is the closest recipe you'll find to Crumbl's genuine recipe.

You will need a stand mixer with a paddle attachment to make these properly. You can't cream the butter and sugar enough without them.

How to make these better

There are so many ways these cookies fall short of their potential. Luckily, in your own kitchen, you can upgrade them as much as you like. Here’re my suggestions.

• Bake 3oz portions instead of 5.5oz, at 375°F without convection. Allow them to get golden brown around the edges, and in spots on the top, while still being puffy and slightly moist in the middles. Remove from oven and cool completely on the pan.
• Add another teaspoon of salt.
• Add a tablespoon or two of dry milk powder, or toasted milk powder if you’re really going for it.
• Add 1/8 tsp freshly grated nutmeg and 2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract.
• Allow the dough to rest in the fridge anywhere from an hour to 48 hours, before allowing to thaw completely to room temperature on the counter, and continuing from step 9.
• Replace 2 oz of the white sugar with 2 oz of brown sugar. Your final quantities will be 3 oz white sugar and 6 oz brown sugar.
• Make another recipe that’s awesome without the need for so many tweaks. 😬

Ingredients

• 8 oz Unsalted Butter, ideally at 60ºF
• 4 oz Light Brown Sugar
• 5 oz Granulated White Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 15 oz All-Purpose Flour
• 3/4 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 tsp Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt or 1 tsp Table Salt

If you're like me, and you find Crumbl's cookies underseasoned, feel free to add more salt. Just do so carefully.

• 12 oz Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips

You can use whatever sort of baking chips you like here, but if you want them to be as close as possible to Crumbl, Guittard's chips are the right size and flavor. Feel free to add more, but don't reduce the quantity of chips or your cookies will spread too much.

Directions

1. If using a convection oven - as Crumbl does - preheat it to 315ºF with the fan. If just using a conventional oven, preheat to 340ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the Flour, Baking Soda, and Salt.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar on low speed until no dry sugar remains then increase the speed to medium-high. Let this continue creaming for 2-3 minutes then scrape down the bowl and paddle with a flexible spatula to ensure that all of the butter is being aerated.
4. Continue creaming for another 2-3 minutes until everything is very pale and fluffy, scraping down the paddle and bowl again halfway through.
5. With the mixer still running, add the two eggs and continue mixing until they have mostly combined with the creamed butter and sugar. Scrape down the paddle and bowl, and continue mixing until everything is evenly mixed, about another minute. (I also like to add one teaspoon of vanilla extract here, though Crumbl doesn't use any).
6. Turn off the mixer, and dump all of the flour mixture into the bowl. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and paddle, and start the mixer on its lowest speed until just a few streaks of dry flour remain.
7. Turn off the mixer again, scrape the bowl and paddle again, and add the chocolate chips. Return the mixer to its lowest speed and mix until it forms a soft dough and the chocolate chips are evenly distributed. If there are still a couple tiny flecks of dry flour, that's okay.
8. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and fold the dough up from the bottom 3-4 times with a flexible spatula to ensure that there are no large pockets of unincorporated dry flour.
9. Using your hands, loosely form 5.5 oz discs of dough on a parchment-lined baking sheet. The portions should be about 3.5 inches in diameter. You'll want four evenly-spaced portions per baking sheet. Don't try to make them smooth or uniform on top, but do try to keep them circular and at a somewhat even thickness. You aren't looking for domes, but a rough craggy top so that the pointy bits can brown nicely in the oven. A cookie with a smooth top produces a much less interesting texture.
10. Bake for 16-24 minutes until the edges and the pointy bits on top have started to brown. You have some wiggle room here, so if you like your cookies a little doughier, pull them as soon as they start browning. If you like your cookies to have more of a caramelized butterscotch flavor, give them a minute or two extra to get golder.
11. Remove cookies from oven and allow to cool completely on the pan before enjoying. If you simply cannot wait that long, give at least three minutes on the pan before enjoying, just long enough that they can be lifted without falling apart.