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!
Do you spray the foil or does the butter provide enough that it does not stick?
Hi Lisa – do not spray the foil. Enjoy!
Hi Brenda!Â
Does ‘2 T water’ mean 2 Tablespoons!
Thanks!
Yes! T = tablespoon
These were delicious! Thanks so much for the recipe. Baked as directed and added sea salt when they came out of the oven. The only problem I had was with them running together a bit. Advice? Also what’s is the best way to store them to keep them both crispy and chewy?
It’s a large amount of dough per cookie, so they’re apt to run together a bit here and there. To keep the recipe intact, the only thing would be to put less cookie dough balls per pan – will take longer to bake them all. I usually make these when I know we’ll have a group of people (so I don’t eat so many – and they’re just so fun to give people!), so I rarely have any to actually store, or to store for more than a day. But when I do, I just place them in an airtight container on the counter.
I LOVE this recipe. Every other choc chip cookie has become obsolete. My family now requests these cookies before cakes, pies or tarts for their birthdays. I sprinkle coarse sea salt on mine while they’re still hot out of the oven, before transferring to racks.Â
I definitely know why these cookies are the requested treat. SO GOOD. Thanks for coming back to let me know!
I am wondering if there is a video to show what you mean by lifting the pan. I tried to do it, but it didn’t push the centers down.Â
Holey Moley are these good. Like, I never post comments but today I am because they are that good. I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect. So much of the talk about pan slamming focuses on the wrinkles but the true amazingness of the method is the way it makes the melty chocolate chips spread out rather than stay chunked. The result is a cookie that almost has laminated layers of cookie and chocolate. I used Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips and left them whole. Would definitely recommend. Did I mention that these cookies are good?
Thank you so much for coming back to leave a comment – I love that you love these cookies too!!!
This was a very tasty cookie with crispy edges and a slightly chewy center. Lots of flavor and the bittersweet Ghirardelli chips that I used were just the perfect amount of sweetness. I would recommend to begin dropping the pan once the dough starts to flatten out instead of waiting the full 10 minutes. I dropped the pan according to the recipe and didn’t get many wrinkles. I used the foil and the edges browned a bit darker than I’d like–I wonder what effects a silicone mat would provide? I’ll try that next.
Thank you for coming back to comment, Stephanie. This recipe is a favorite around here. I’m sorry to hear you didn’t get the wrinkles – I follow the recipe exactly, works great every time. Are you leaving plenty of height in your oven, to give a good amount of drop?
I think they may be the best choc chip cookie I have ever made!! Dark choc, semisweert and a little milk chocolate- Yummy Thanks!
Aren’t they wonderful?! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment. :)