‘The Pioneer Woman’ Ree Drummond Uses 1 Easy Trick for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ree Drummond has perfected her chocolate chip cookies recipe and has one easy trick for the best flavor. The Pioneer Woman star skips the chips entirely and instead cuts up chunks of chocolate bars. Drummond has a couple of great tips for the best cookies, including one simple step that makes all the difference.
Ree Drummond shares her trick for the best chocolate chip cookies
Drummond showed how to make her chocolate chip cookies recipe on her cooking show, which begins with creaming together sugar, brown sugar, and butter in a mixer — and then she got to work on chopping chocolate.
“Instead of using chocolate chips, I’m using big bars of baking chocolate,” Drummond explained. “I’ve got 8 ounces of semi-sweet and 4 ounces of dark, so it’s a really chocolatey cookie.”
The Pioneer Woman star explained why she avoids chocolate chips for the best flavor. “I like to cut it into chunks,” she shared. “I just think chopped chocolate works so much better in chocolate chip cookies than premade chocolate chips do.”
“They just melt so smooth and creamy,” she added, pointing out that there is a “mix of big chunks and little bits” after chopping the chocolate.
Ree Drummond shares her best cookie tips
Drummond explained that her chocolate chip cookie recipe was “pretty basic” and, in addition to using chocolate chunks, she shared a couple of other tips for great cookies. “The more simple the recipe stays, the better,” she noted.
She mixed in the eggs, vanilla, and the “simple” dry ingredients — flour, baking soda, and kosher salt. Drummond explained that she doesn’t overdo the salt in the cookie dough. “I’m going to sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sea salt which makes them so delicious, so I don’t want to oversalt the dough,” she said.
Finally, she added the chocolate, being sure to get every little bit of it that she chopped. “Trust me, you want to get all of this in there,” she explained. “The big chunks are wonderful, but look at these little powdery bits that are left after chopping. I want all of that going in.”
“It just kind of becomes part of the dough,” she explained, then offered up a warning about the cookie dough. “The dough itself is so good,” she said. “Don’t even start tasting it because you won’t be able to stop.”
After mixing in the chocolate and scooping the dough onto baking sheets and sprinkling them with salt, she shared an easy tip. “Now I’m going to chill these for 20 minutes before I bake them,” she said. Refrigerating the cookie dough ensures they don’t spread as much during baking.
Drummond baked the cookies in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 18 minutes, then allowed them to cool.
You can find the full recipe on the Food Network website.
‘The Pioneer Woman’ star’s chocolate chip cookies earn rave reviews
There were plenty of rave reviews left in the Food Network recipe’s comment section, including, “Best I have tried for chocolate chip cookies!” and “Love! They come out perfect every time.”
Another fan wrote: “Love love love these cookies. They are fast becoming a staple in my house. I like the base recipe, but have also added pecans or bacon or M&M candies.”
“Hands down the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever eaten,” another commenter noted. “Added some pecans and it was AHHHMAZING.”
