25 Best Ingredients To Upgrade Your Chocolate Chip Cookies

When thinking about what classifies a dish as comfort food, chocolate chip cookies hit every single mark. They're buttery and sugary with rich chocolate that is oh-so-satisfying. There is much to revel in, from the cookie's outer crispiness to its gooey center. Taking just a single bite of a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie can bring a wave of nostalgia over you, temporarily alleviating any stress you might have. Typically, you can make this traditional bake with simple elements like butter, sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, leavening agents, and chocolate chips. 

But the chocolate chip cookie can also serve as a foundation for experimentation, from which you can create a commendable confection. From incorporating add-ins to making calculated substitutes, these recommendations will improve the cookie's flavor and mouthfeel. So, say goodbye to cookies that are too dense or downright bland. Your dessert will assuredly reach new heights by putting these clever ingredient ideas into play, upgrading your chocolate chip cookies from classic to classy in no time.

One way to guarantee that your cookies turn out chewier is to use the unconventional flour Alton Brown uses for chocolate chip cookies: bread flour. If you aren't familiar with different types of flour, you might wonder what bread flour is and how you use it. 

Bread flour has extra protein compared to all-purpose flour, which helps the baked good become chewier. Luckily, using it in cookie dough is quite simple; you can replace all of the all-purpose flour with bread flour, and you don't need to change the proportions. Let's just say that Brown was definitely onto something with this idea.

Browning the butter before adding it to your cookie dough will give the sweet treat a more complex flavor. It will also amplify hints of nuttiness that you can't achieve with regular butter. It can be easy to burn butter when making brown butter, so it's important not to leave it unattended. 

Simply melt the butter under low heat until its changes from yellow to brown; you can transfer it to a heat-resistant container so that it won't keep cooking in the hot pan. Then, allow it to cool before adding it to your brown butter chocolate chip cookies. If you neglect to let it cool first, it can curdle the eggs, which you don't want.

Coconut is a fantastic addition to cookie dough because coconut and chocolate bring out the best in each other flavor-wise. Depending on your desired texture, you can use desiccated or shredded coconut. These coconut chocolate chip cookies use desiccated coconut, which is a fine consistency, but still gives the dessert a texture lift. 

Only a cup of coconut is needed for it to make its mark. You can add it to the dough just after creaming the butter and sugar (and before you add the eggs). Another fun course of action would be to toast the coconut before blending it into the dough, adding even more complexity to the confection.

It is no secret that agave syrup is naturally sweet, but did you know it can also improve the texture of baked goods? You can use this secret ingredient if you prefer super chewy cookies. It can be an ultra-bummer when you make tender cookies only to find that they have hardened up hours later. But if you use agave syrup in the dough, this problem won't arise. 

You can do this by keeping 80% of the sugar your recipe calls for and replacing the rest with agave. However, since agave makes the dough softer, you will want to add a bit of flour (1 tablespoon flour to every ¼ cup agave) to make up for it.

You've heard how toffee chips can elevate your chocolate chip cookies, but how about adding butterscotch chips? The two are both made with brown sugar and butter, so It's understandable to get them mixed up. However, there is a real difference between toffee and butterscotch: how they're cooked. 

Butterscotch is cooked for a shorter amount of time, which results in a softer consistency. So while toffee can give your cookies a pleasant crunch, butterscotch chips are soft like chocolate chips and will complement the flavor of the chocolate. You can mix them in last minute, giving your baked good a buttery caramel-like boost in flavor.

Using almond flour instead of all-purpose flour can benefit your cookies for a few reasons. First of all, it will give the cookie base a nuttier flavor that regular flour doesn't offer. Not to mention, almond flour is gluten-free, so recipes like this almond flour chocolate chip cookie recipe are suitable for those who need to stay away from gluten. 

If you're wondering what the difference is between almond meal and almond flour, the answer is that almond flour is finer. This property makes it more suitable as an all-purpose flour replacement, although you could use almond meal in a pinch — just expect cookies that are likely a bit denser. One thing is for sure: When using almond flour in your cookies, its flavor will work wonders.

For another sweet and salty creation, try incorporating salted caramel into your mixture before baking; This is key to Valerie Bertinelli's tasty spin on chocolate chip cookies, and it sounds absolutely delectable. Bertinelli suggests using semi-sweet chocolate chips and caramel pieces in the cookie base, then sea salt sprinkled on top to enhance the flavor of the caramel and chocolate. 

Bertinelli uses the Kraft brand of caramel chunks for best results because other brands tend to melt in the oven. You could even go a step further and add pecans, which would make the cookie a turtle-style delicacy.

If we told you there is a creamy liqueur you need to try adding to your chocolate chip cookies, what liqueur comes to mind? If you guessed Baileys Irish Cream, you hit the nail on the head. Baileys liqueur is known for being especially velvety with hints of chocolate, and you'll only need a few tablespoons of it to build on the already tasty flavor of the cookies. 

Simply mix the milky liqueur into the dough after whipping the butter and sugar to a light and fluffy state. You could also add a bit of espresso powder to highlight the chocolate taste even more.

Maple sugar can replace the granulated sugar in chocolate chip cookies, giving you deeper sweetness. If you have never worked with this product, you might wonder what maple sugar is and how you use it. Specifically, maple sugar is evaporated maple syrup. It is created by cooking the syrup down, which turns it into a sugar-like texture. 

From there, you can use it as you would use granulated sugar. So, to make maple sugar chocolate chip cookies, you'll have to swap the cane sugar with the maple version. Easy enough, right? This will give your cookies with a gooey center rather than a brittle one, and they will have wonderful hints of maple.

Making double chocolate cookies is a classic and delicious way to enhance a traditional recipe. You can either replace some of the flour with cocoa powder in your usual cookie recipe or find a formula like this rich double chocolate chip cookie recipe (which makes it a bit easier because it saves you from doing math). This recipe is unique because the chips are mixed throughout the dough and sprinkled on top before baking. 

The cocoa powder matched with the chocolate chips makes for double the trouble in the best way. This combo certainly is made for chocoholics. And you're only ½ cup of cocoa powder away from bringing this confection to life.

You shouldn't throw out leftover sourdough starter because you can use it in your chocolate chip cookies. Not only will you reduce food waste (if you use sourdough discard), but your bakes will turn out lighter and airier, so you get the best of both worlds. 

To do so, just remember that you have to compensate for it by altering other ingredient amounts. For example, if you were to add four ounces of starter to your mixture, you would have to subtract two ounces of flour and two ounces of wet ingredients from the dough (this is because the starter is a 1:1 ratio of flour and water).

Taking advantage of corn syrup could be the solution that prevents your cookies from being too dense. It is the ingredient swap you need to try for ultra-chewy cookies. Although you can scour the internet for a recipe that uses corn syrup, the easiest way to go about it is to add a tablespoon of it to your favorite recipe. 

Since it is only a small amount, it isn't enough to where you would have to compensate for it and adjust the other ingredient amounts. Yet, it is enough to positively affect the texture of the baked good. Ultimately, it will leave the cookie perfectly crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside.