King Arthur’s 2024 recipe of the year is a giant chocolate chip cookie

Many people have put forward recipes in the quest to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Bakers tinker with recipes to get them just right, adding cream cheese to get a super-soft cookie, or cutting back on butter, as Joanna Gaines does in her recipe, to get them to fluff rather than flatten. Sometimes the tips for getting the perfect cookie conflict — Donna Kelce’s famous chocolate chip cookies recipe calls for adding extra butter.

King Arthur Baking is no stranger to tweaking a recipe to get it just right. The beloved baking brand has revealed that its bakers did a deep dive into chocolate chip cookie recipes over the course of two years, and, after this extensive research, they’ve declared an oversized, soft-textured “Supersized, Super-Soft” chocolate chip cookie as the 2024 Recipe of the Year.

Because of the chocolate chip cookie’s popularity, the experts at King Arthur told “Good Morning America” they wanted to take a step out of the traditional recipe box and try something unexpected but still tempting.

“There’s so many different ways to make amazing chocolate chip cookies — we wanted to come up with something that was new and innovative and different,” King Arthur associate recipe editor Kye Ameden told “GMA.” “It’s just an entirely different kind of chocolate chip cookie recipe, so stirring the pot a little bit intentionally this year.”

So, what makes the 2024 Recipe of the Year chocolate chip cookie different?

First, these cookies are large! Think muffin size in diameter or about 2 1/4-inch diameter scoops.

The cookies also use bread flour, which helps give them a soft texture, and the cookie recipe prep borrows from an Asian bread dough technique known as tangzhong. Bakers cook a small percentage of the flour and liquid before mixing it with the yeast and other ingredients. The extra step produces a “soft and pillowy” texture.

The use of brown butter gives these chocolate chip cookies deep, rich caramel notes. And finally, this cookie dough also gets extra time to chill. The King Arthur bakers suggest letting the dough chill for 24 to 72 hours for maximum flavor.

Want to try King Arthur’s 2024 chocolate chip cookie recipe of the year? The bakers shared the recipe.

Supersized, Super-Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 cups (426 g.) packed light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 16 tablespoons (226 g.) unsalted butter, cut into 1-in. pieces
• 1/2 cup (113 g.) whole milk
• 2 3/4 cups (330g) King Arthur Unbleached Flour, divided
• 2 large eggs, cold from the refrigerator
• 1 tablespoon King Arthur Pure Vanilla Extract
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups (340 g.) semisweet chocolate (preferably 60% to 65% cocoa) — use chopped chocolate wafers or bars for best results

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar and salt. Set aside.
2. To brown the butter: Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. After several minutes, the butter will sizzle and may spatter. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan regularly, for about 5 to 7 minutes, until it’s a dark golden brown color and brown bits start collecting at the bottom of the pan; the butter will have stopped sizzling and may also have a layer of foam on the surface.
3. Once the butter is browned, immediately pour it over the sugar mixture (be sure to scrape out the brown bits at the bottom) and whisk vigorously to combine; this helps dissolve the sugar slightly and creates the shiny surface of the baked cookies. (The mixture will stay lumpy and won’t become smooth at this point.) Set the empty saucepan aside to cool slightly.
4. To make the tangzhong: In the same saucepan used to brown the butter, combine the milk with 3 tablespoons (23g) of the bread flour and whisk until no lumps remain.
5. Place the saucepan over low heat and cook the mixture, stirring regularly with a whisk and then a flexible spatula, until it’s thickened, paste-like, and starts to come together into one mass, about 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and transfer directly to the bowl with the butter and sugar. Whisk until mostly smooth; some lumps of the tangzhong mixture are OK.
7. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue whisking until smooth.
8. Weigh or measure the remaining 2 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon (307g) bread flour by gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess. Add the bread flour to the bowl with the butter and sugar, then add the baking powder and baking soda. Using a whisk or flexible spatula, stir until well combined and no dry spots remain.
9. Place the bowl, uncovered, in the refrigerator and allow it to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.
10. While the batter is cooling, use a serrated knife to roughly chop the chocolate into coarse pieces. Avoid chopping the chocolate too fine, as small pieces will melt when mixed into the dough.
11. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and fold in the chopped chocolate. Cover the bowl and return to the refrigerator for 24 to 72 hours to allow the flavors to intensify.
12. To bake the cookies: When you’re ready to bake, remove the chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes to allow it to warm up slightly. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350F with a rack in the center.
13. Scoop the dough into 85g to 90g portions; a level scone and muffin scoop works well here. If you’re scooping by hand, the mounds of dough should be about 2 1/4″ in diameter. To make smaller cookies (that are still generous in size), scoop the dough into 50g portions using a jumbo cookie scoop.
14. Arrange the scooped cookie dough on parchment-lined baking sheets, them 3″ to 4″ apart. (Five dough balls fit perfectly on a half-sheet pan. The 90g cookies can be arranged in a 2-1-2 pattern; the 50g cookies can be arranged in a slightly staggered 4 x 2 pattern.) Roll each dough piece into a smooth ball before baking for consistently shaped cookies.
15. Bake the large (90g) chocolate chip cookies for 18 to 22 minutes or the smaller (50g) cookies for 15 to 18 minutes, until the edges are set and the cookies are browned, rotating the pan halfway through baking to ensure even browning. (Bake one pan of cookies at a time for best results.) Remove the cookies from the oven and let them rest on the baking sheets until cool enough to handle, at least 15 minutes.
16. Storage information: Store leftover chocolate chip cookies, covered, for up to 5 days; their slightly crispy edges will soften and the cookies will maintain a soft texture. Freeze the baked cookies for longer storage.

If you want to make the cookie dough into bars that do not require an overnight dough rest, follow the recipe alterations for the perfect, chewy cookie bar!