The science behind the perfect chocolate chip cookies

Soft and chewy, thin and crisp, or cakey? How do you like your chocolate chip cookie? Everyone has their own preference, and knowing the special baking tricks that get it just how you want it is the only way to make a chocolate chip cookie that's right for you.

There are two special ingredients that affect the overall shape and look of the cookie, shown in the recipe above.

The first is butter. For soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies, you need to use 2 sticks of butter. For a thin and crisp cookie, it's 2 1/2 sticks, and for a cakey cookie, it's 1 3/4 sticks.

The second ingredient that will transform your cookie is sugar. For soft and chewy cookies, you'll want to use one cup of brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. The greater quantity of brown sugar adds chewiness to the cookie because it has molasses in it. So for a thin and crisp cookie, you'll want a higher ratio of granulated sugar, which would be 1 1/4 cup of granulated sugar with 3/4 of a cup of light brown sugar. For a cakey cookie, you need to reduce the amount of sugar in general, so you'd want to use 3/4 cup granulated sugar with 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Watch the video above to learn the full recipes and to see the science behind the perfect chocolate chip cookies in action!

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