Martha Stewart Alexis’s Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Martha Stewart Alexis's brown sugar chocolate chip cookies take 2 hours 15 minutes, including chilling, and brown sugar, butter and chocolate chips to make a thin, crispy cookie. Try this easy dessert for a bake sale or holiday cookie tray, since it's make-ahead friendly and yields 50 cookies.

Chill the dough for at least an hour, because it holds a lot of butter and needs time to firm up. Skip it and the butter melts fast in the oven, so you get greasy cookies that spread too far.

Martha's daughter Alexis flips the usual sugar ratio, using 3 cups of light brown sugar against just 1 cup of granulated. That gives you flat, crispy cookies with a deep caramel flavor instead of the usual soft and cakey kind.

Martha Stewart Alexis's Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy

Servings

50

servings

Prep time

35

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Calories

180

kcal

These cookies bake up thin and lacy, with crisp golden edges and a buttery, caramel-like bite. Chilled dough and a short rest on the pan keep them from spreading too far or sticking.

Ingredients

• 1 pound (4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for baking sheets
  

• 3 cups packed light-brown sugar
  

• 1 cup granulated sugar
  

• 4 large eggs
  

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  

• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  

• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  

• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  

• 1 1/2 cups best-quality chocolate chips
  

Directions

• Cream the wet ingredients: Cream 1 pound of room temperature butter until smooth, then add 3 cups packed light-brown sugar and 1 cup granulated sugar. Beat until smooth, then mix in 4 eggs and 2 teaspoons vanilla.
• Sift the dry ingredients: Sift 3 1/2 cups flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 2 teaspoons baking soda into a large bowl. Sifting keeps the baking soda from clumping in the dough.
• Mix and chill the dough: Slowly beat the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, then fold in 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour or up to 2 days.
• Scoop the cookies: Preheat the oven to 375°F and butter two baking sheets. Use a 1/4-cup scoop to portion the dough, spacing cookies at least 2 inches apart so they can spread.
• Bake the cookies: Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden, rotating the pans halfway through. The edges should look deeply browned and crisp.
• Cool and repeat: Let the cookies cool 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then move them to wire racks to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Tools for this recipe

• KitchenAid Artisan 5-quart stand mixer, OXO medium cookie scoop, Checkered Chef cooling racks, Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract, 8 oz. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

FAQs

Can I use all brown sugar in these cookies?

I wouldn't, because the 1 cup of granulated sugar is what dries the dough out a little and gives these cookies their crispy edges. Without it, the cookies would spread and brown differently in the oven.

How long do these cookies keep?

Store them at room temperature, where they stay good for up to one week. An airtight container works best to keep them crisp.

Can I make the dough ahead of time?

Yes, the dough can chill in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, which makes these an easy make-ahead bake. Scoop and bake straight from the fridge when you're ready.

Can I make these without a stand mixer?

I don't recommend it. Creaming 4 sticks of butter with 4 cups of sugar traps air in the dough, and doing that by hand takes a lot of elbow grease. A hand mixer works if you don't have a stand mixer.

What's the biggest mistake with these cookies?

Leaving them on the pan too long is the usual one. As they firm up, the sugar hardens like caramel and sticks, so move them to a rack after 5 minutes.