If you like to tinker with chocolate chip cookies, it's easy enough to brown the butter or add walnuts and flaky salt, but altering essential ingredients like eggs feels riskier. However, adding an extra egg yolk to your dough is far from a shot in the dark, and can take your cookies to a whole new level.

Because egg yolks contain lecithin and fat, they enrich the flavor and texture of chocolate chip cookies. If you prefer your cookies chewy rather than crispy, adding extra yolks will create a softer and more tender final product, and you can even save the extra whites for another dessert or dish.

For best results, Serious Eats recommends adding one extra yolk per whole egg that your cookie recipe calls for. Too many egg yolks will add too much moisture, making your batch of cookies spongy and cake-like, so don't overdo it — sometimes moderation is the best approach when baking.