5 Pro-Baker Tricks To Make Your Chocolate Chip Cookies Taste More Exciting

There's not much more classic, comforting, or old school than a warm just-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookie. Everyone has a favorite trusted chocolate chip cookie recipe — whether it's a tested elevated version they swear outshines them all, or the trusty basic formula on the back of the chocolate chips bag. And really, you can barely mess up a chocolate chip cookie — whether you prefer them thin and crisp or a perfectly gooey and chewy cookie, studded with semi sweet or dark chocolate chips, we've never met one we didn't like.

But for the sweet treats aficionados ready to seriously up their cookie-making game, there's no one knows who's their way around a cookie and can share the best tips like pro-chef and founder of the famed Milk Bar brand, Christina Tosi. She creates the best of the best, award-winning sweet treats from rainbow confetti sprinkles cakes to cookies and everything in between. Tosi spoke to Chowhound and revealed that, to really level up your cookies to one that's chef-caliber and chef-approved, there are five steps one can take. From swapping out some of the usual dry goods to rethinking the chip itself to infusing unexpected flavors via extracts and other add-ins.

Butter is one of the vital building blocks of a good cookie — you just can't skip it or skrimp on it if you want that decadent flavor and texture. Yes, there are butter-less cookies, and you can certainly swap out dairy butter for a non-dairy option, but overlook butter entirely? Never if you want a good chef-quality chocolate chip cookie. 

And while regular butter is good, browned butter is great, says Christina Tosi, for an even richer, more robust flavor that beautifully rounds out the typical cookie into something exceptional. To brown the butter, add the amount your recipe calls for, in chunks, to a heavy-bottomed saucepan. You'll be essentially melting and cooking the butter until the milk solid separates out of the liquid, settles on the bottom, and turns golden brown. 

Pro tip: use a light-tinted saucepan rather than a dark one so you're more easily able to see this separation occur. As the butter browns, it picks up a delicious caramel, rich flavor that infuses your cookies with a little magic. Not just for sweet treats, browned butter is the secret to irresistible mashed potatoes and a host of other dishes.

Right up there with butter, flour is another obvious must-have, but the specific type you use is up to you and allows for plenty of customization. You can always use the basic white all-purpose type or some gluten-free flour. Or, as Christina Tosi suggests, add in some less-common alternative flours along with the regular variety your recipe calls for. Make your standard recipe a little more fun, says Tosi — substituting about ½ of your standard flour with something a little unexpected, like corn flour, buckwheat, rye or otherwise.

These different options, like corn flour, will alter the texture, making cookies either a little more chewy or tender, or adding a bit more moisture. In the case of rye, it imparts a delightfully nutty flavor. The sky's the limit as far as what you choose. Other options for alternative dry goods include a handful or two of whole rolled oats, for a little textural interest and chewiness to your cookies. Just remember to remove some of the originally called-for flour so your mixture doesn't become overly dry or tough to mix.

It's hard to perfect a classic — here's looking at you, semi-sweet chocolate chips. Of course, ask around and everyone has their own strongly held belief on which brand's chocolate chips are the best. Chocolate is something of a religion after all, and people are serious about their preferences. Christina Tosi herself loves a good old bag of Nestle's chocolate chip cookies, but if you're wanting to bake as a chef would, grab some fancy chocolate to use in place of chips altogether. 

Tosi suggests you might want to chop up whole bars of premium chocolate — whoever style and brand is calling your name — and fold these chunks and nibs into the cookie dough. Perhaps a bar of your favorite dark chocolate, a flavored bar, or nubby chocolate chunks or oval fèves to deliver heartier hunks of chocolate in each bite. Of course, you're not limited to strictly chocolate — there are all sorts of alternatives to chocolate chips you can use, like carbon or butterscotch chips, though we'd argue this cookie isn't complete without some true chocolate. 

Whatever shape, flavor, or brand you use, sprinkling the chips or bits of chocolate into the dough is the most thrilling part of making your recipe. But why stop there? In addition to chocolate, Christina Tosi suggests mixing in other delicious additions — both in extract and whole foods form. Her suggestions range from experimenting with extracts like coconut for subtle unanticipated flavor. You could also try a range of other extracts, or add in new notes of flavor and texture with chopped-up pistachio or other nuts, crunched-up pretzels, or even potato chips for salty and sweet perfection.

Have a ton of leftover holiday candy from Easter or Halloween you need to use up? Cookie dough is the perfect vehicle to house all sorts of rough chopped candies and sweet treats — there's almost nothing that doesn't work as an addition. Marshmallow bits, M&Ms, nuts, and salty snacks — or toss in some of each — the more the merrier. 

All of these pro-chef tips for upping your chocolate chip cookie game have so far focused on tweaking your approach to making the cookie dough itself, but you can follow the most basic recipe you've always used and still up the ante after the fact. Do so by rolling your balls of dough into crushed toppings like finely pulverized pretzels, coconut shreds, malted milk, etc. to surround them in flavor before lining them up on the tray to bake.

Not only does this let you easily add a boost of flavor to any old cookie recipe, but this is a fun way to involve little helpers who might be in the kitchen with you — you can create multiple bowls of toppings and let little ones roll the dough in their choice of flavoring, then test out which version is the winner. 

Of course, ask ten people and you'll get ten different hot takes on what makes the best chocolate chip cookie so — and no answer is wrong. But when it comes to making cookies taste chef-made and approved, fold in these five tips on your next batch and thank us — and Christina Tosi, the pro — later. After you've had a cookie or five.