Alexis's Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

This brown sugar chocolate chip cookie recipe comes from Martha's daughter, Alexis Stewart, who has been making them since she was about 12 years old. They’re not the usual soft and chewy or cakey chocolate chip cookies, but they are irresistible. They’re made with the same ingredients as other chocolate chip cookies; what is different is the ratios. Many recipes use both granulated white sugar and light-brown sugar, as this recipe does. Where this recipe differs is that it uses 3 cups of light brown sugar and just 1 cup of granulated sugar, the result is flat and crispy chocolate-chip cookies with a rich caramel flavor.

Tips for Making Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies

Use room temperature butter: Not only is room temperature butter easier to cream with sugar, it combines better with the other ingredients making for a well emulsified dough. Take yours out of the refrigerator about an hour before you plan to bake to give it enough time to warm up.

Watch your spacing: These cookies are meant to spread—it's what makes them so thin and crispy, after all—so be sure to space them at least two inches apart on the baking sheets.

Cool correctly: These are not the kind of cookies you want to let cool completely on the pan. As they firm up, the sugar in them will begin to harden—almost like caramel—and adhere, making removing them a challenge. To avoid a sticky situation, once they are out of the oven, set a timer and transfer them from the baking sheets to the racks after five minutes of cooling.

Don't Skip Chilling the Dough

These cookies have a higher ratio of butter to flour compared to our other chocolate chip cookie recipes. For that reason, it's extra important to give the dough at least an hour in the refrigerator for the fat to firm up. Otherwise, you'll risk all of that butter melting immediately in the hot oven, making for greasy cookies with excessive spread. Time in the fridge also lets the flour hydrate, resulting in a better chewiness.