Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
Amazing Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies that are GIANT (big-as-your-head!) and crinkled, with soft, chewy centers and crispy edges. My family goes crazy for these!
I Have a Special Love for Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
Mom’s homemade chocolate chip cookies, warm off the cooling rack, will always be my favorite chocolate chip cookies. Having grown up on those cookies, there’s definitely a nostalgic factor built in.
But I’m betting that if you asked any of my close childhood friends, including all my cousins, those chocolate chip cookies would rank way up high on their lists, too. Mom’s cookies were a regular request. And if we ever ran out, Mom was quick to reload her stash.
It’s good to be loved for your cookies, don’t you think?
Right now I have a special love for these Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies, a recipe from Sarah Kieffer’s The Vanilla Bean Baking Book. These giant cookies are worthy of dreaming about. Because believe me, I have.
Giant crinkled chocolate chip cookies recipe
I first enjoyed one of these big-as-your-head chocolate chip cookies this past summer. I was completely blown away, as I’d never seen or tasted a cookie like this before.
And Sarah made them herself. How awesome is that?
At that time, Sarah’s book The Vanilla Bean Baking Book was to be released shortly. I was chomping at the bit to get ahold of it. For this recipe ALONE.
It was obvious to me that these giant cookies contained a large quantity of butter and some really great chocolate. But I was beside myself as to how I could accomplish the amazing crinkled textures of this chocolate chip cookie on my own.
That ultra flat cookie, with a soft and chewy center, surrounded by crinkly, wrinkly prettiness that is the perfect texture of crispy.
Sarah is a local Minnesota food blogger friend who is known for her baking. And she is as lovely in person as she is on these pages.
The Vanilla Bean Baking Book is a collection of delightful recipes accompanied by Sarah’s signature simple-yet-elegant photography and thoughtful writing. I have spent many of this winter’s evenings reading through her cookbook, flagging all the beautiful things.
So many beautiful things!
At the very top of my list is this recipe for chocolate chip cookies.
The cookies are extraordinarily beautiful, with enticing folds of pooled dough baked to crispy absolute perfection.
Special steps for making chocolate chip cookies from the vanilla bean baking book
Some of the magic in this recipe is due to the enormous size of each cookie. I’ve never made a singular cookie with this much dough!
The rest of the magic comes from the generous amount of butter in the cookie dough, plus Sarah’s baking method, a bit unique.
A couple key items in the recipe’s directions include lining baking pans with foil dull-side-up and freezing the dough balls before baking (not so unconventional, but absolutely key in getting cookies that bake just the right way).
And the really fun – and somewhat bizarre – step is slamming the baking pans of dough balls in the oven every two minutes while baking. I’m not even kidding. Just trust me – it works.
It’s why people call these Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies!
After you freeze gigantic dough balls and slam a few pans, you too can enjoy chocolate chip cookies just like this.
Just be sure to share.
Because remember, it’s always good to be loved for your cookies.
Like this cookie recipe? Save it to Pinterest!
Here are a few more cookie recipes you might like:
- Apple Peanut Butter Cookies
- Triple Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with Sea Salt
- Mint Chocolate Chip Buttercream Brownie Cookies
- Chocolate Turtle Cookies from Bake at 350
- Butter Swirl Shortbread Cookies from Fifteen Spatulas
- Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel Cookies from Baked by an Introvert
Chocolate Chip Cookies from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book
Ingredients
- 2 c. 284 g all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- ¾ tsp. kosher salt
- ½ lb. 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1-1/2 cups 297 g sugar
- ¼ c. 50 g packed brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1-1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 T. water
- 6 oz. 170 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into bite-size pieces averaging 1/2″ with some smaller and some larger
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line three baking pans (I find that commercial-grade 12″ x 17″ rimmed pans give me the best results with this recipe) with aluminum foil, dull side up. This helps create the crinkles in the cookies and lends an extra-crisp, golden brown bottom.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a beater blade, beat the butter on medium until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar and brown sugar and beat on medium until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and water and mix on low to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until combined. Add the chocolate and mix on low into the batter.
- Form the dough into balls weighing 3-1/2 ounces (100 g) each. This is approximately a heaping 1/3 cup each. I wanted my cookies to match Sarah’s as much as possible and measured each dough ball with a kitchen scale. If you make the dough balls smaller, you won’t get as many ridges on the outer layer, and your centers won’t be as gooey. Place four balls an equal distance apart on prepared pan and transfer to the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. Do not skip freezing the dough, as it’s essential in keeping the dough from spreading too much, and aids in the creation of the crinkly outer layer. After putting the first baking pan in the oven, put the second one in the freezer.
- Place the chilled baking pan in the oven and bake 10 minutes, until the cookies are puffed slightly in the center. Lift the side of the baking sheet up about 4″ from the oven rack and let it drop down against the rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the inside falls back down. To quote Sarah, “this will feel wrong, but trust me”. After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake 16 to 18 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden brown but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
- Transfer the baking pans to a wire rack; let cool completely before removing the cookies from the pan.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
I received a copy of The Vanilla Bean Baking Book for my use and review. All opinions are 100% my own. We LOVE these cookies!
hi! I have a question! Is the kosher salt required or is it okay to use normal idolized salt?Â
Hello Brianna – I prefer kosher salt in all my cooking and baking, so that’s what I also list. Normal iodized salt is smaller and stronger, so I would use less – but I haven’t tested this for myself, to be able to tell you how much less. Enjoy the cookies!
hi how do you store these? stacked with wax paper in between? since they seem so soft in the center not sure if they would stick to each other. thanks! ;)
Wow, I made these yesterday and they were so so delicious. Probably the best cookies I’ve ever had and so worth any of the effort. Perfect!!!
I have made these for Christmas gifts, exceptional. Â Have ordered your book. Â However, wondering what do you think if I make the dough a few days ahead of time refrigerate and remove and leave at room temp. Then freeze for the allotted time. Do you think this would be a bad thing. Appreciate your response. Â Thanks. Rebecca
Awesome guideline & its very simple to understand thanks for the great content.
These were amazing!!! Have been on a quest for really really really really good chocolate chip cookies and your recipe is divine!!
Aren’t these wonderful?!?!
Is it possible to reduce the sugar and make smaller cookies out of this dough?
Hello Adrienne – To get these same results, I would not recommend reducing the sugar. I have not tried making smaller cookies, so cannot say if that would produce the same wrinkly cookies. Please let me know if you give the smaller size a try!
These are great! Came out exactly like your pictures. I used dark chocolate chips. Next time I am going to add some salt to the tops.Â
If it were just me in the house, I’d do the same. Dark Chocolate is my true chocolate love. I love your salted plan!!
I can’t believe it’s taken me 6 months to make these again! Baking in the summer isn’t fun without AC, but sweating a little for these is so worth it!
You are a total CCC diehard!! I’ve been wanting to make these again, but don’t want to work with the oven . . . and we have AC! :) So glad you like this recipe too.
I have some plumbers in doing a bathroom remodel and I gave them each a cookie to take home the other day. Today they came back and one of them said, that was THE best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever eaten, you have to give me the recipe!
These are such unique cookies! I made them last night and they turned out just as described. Crispy and chewy, yum! I thought the flavor was a bit bland and might be due to the 74% cacao wafers I used. Next time (probably today, who are we kidding) I would do a mix of semi-sweet chips and the wafers. I also sprinkled some Maldon flakes on top. Thanks for the post!
So wonderful! So glad you liked these!!
Can’t believe this is becoming a new trend. My son and I started slamming our chocolate chip cookies half at through baking about 10 years ago when we were experimenting on how to make the best, flat, crispy yet chewy chocolate chip cookie. We have a great recipe and have been slamming ever since!
That’s so fun to know!!
I just made these chocolate cookies. They are to die for. Â So delicious. A little work but so worth it and presentation was great for a gift. Thank you
Hello when I bake these cookies they come out crunchy and pale! I checked my ingredientsÂ
I don’t know what I’m doing wrong maybe you can help!
I really really want these to work
Hi! I’m about to put my first pan of these in the oven that’s in the freezer. I’m going to a lunch that might have between 10 and 15 people and everyone brings lunch items to share I didn’t realize that this only made 10 cookies which makes sense since they are rather large. Do you think it would be OK once the cookies have called completely to cook into quarters for smaller pieces?
Hello Nancy – you won’t get the pizzazz of showing off those giant cookies, but I definitely get where you’re coming from and think it would work just fine. They are big, quartering them would be pretty perfect for a few bites. The flavor and texture are so wonderful. Enjoy!!
What do you think about using milk or semi sweet chocolates or even a combination of unsweetened and and milk or semi?Â
Also what about including pecans?Â
Mine turned out just like the pics….used a hand mixer as that is all I had…
Mine turned out great…..just like the pics….used a hand mixer as that is all I have….
Is it possible to reduce the sugar and make smaller cookies out of this dough?Â
OMG! THESE ARE GREAT.
Hi! Â Looking forward to making these. I only have a hand mixer. Will that make a difference?
Thank you!