Joanna Gaines shares her family's favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe (2024)

When life gives you lemons (or maybe butter), make the Gaines family's favorite chocolate chip cookies.

Chip and Joanna Gaines, with their five kids, ages 1 to 15, have found some fun ways to stay sane and savor the extra — albeit mandated — family bonding during this unprecedented time.

Stationed in her home kitchen, Joanna Gaines whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies from her first cookbook, "Magnolia Table," catered to the preferences of her little ones.

View this post on Instagram
See Also
Joanna Gaines Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe - Recipe Diaries

With life looking quite a bit different than we’re all used to, our @magnolia family is looking for ways to focus on how we can make the most of our time spent at home, because honestly there's no better place to be right now - and in the midst of all that's going on, we believe that there is room for connection, creativity, laughter, and inspiration. ⠀ ⠀ So here’s what we’re gonna do: for the next few days, we’re going to share a new challenge and/or activity that we can all get in on together and share. To kick it off, Drake has filmed us making the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the first cookbook. ⠀ ⠀ Now it’s your turn! I want to see what you're cooking at home - just post on your account or in your stories and tag @magnolia and #webelieveinhome

A post shared by Joanna Stevens Gaines (@joannagaines) on Mar 19, 2020 at 10:18am PDT

"With life looking quite a bit different than we’re all used to, our @magnolia family is looking for ways to focus on how we can make the most of our time spent at home, because honestly there's no better place to be right now — and in the midst of all that's going on, we believe that there is room for connection, creativity, laughter, and inspiration," Gaines wrote on her Instagram.

In the cooking demo, filmed by the Gaines' eldest son, Drake, 15, Gaines dished up some secrets to getting the cookies just right — that is, equal parts chewy and fluffy.

And it's all about the butter.

"Typically butter makes for a flatter cookie. I use real butter and I don't soften it completely, like overnight," she explained. "I like it to be a little bit chilled still — even though it's soft and it kind of gets clumpy. Those clumps of butter actually work really well in this recipe. It makes them fluffy and chewy, which I think the kids really like."

TODAY

Get The Recipe

Joanna Gaines' Strawberry Shortcake

Joanna Gaines

Gaines uses brown sugar because it contains molasses, which makes the cookies more moist and chewy, whereas white sugar caramelizes and makes cookies more brown and crisp.

While we're champing at the bit to whip up a batch of these cookies (hey, we may even start now), this delicious dessert isn't the only fun fans can have with the Gaineses this week.

"So here’s what we’re gonna do: for the next few days, we’re going to share a new challenge and/or activity that we can all get in on together and share," the cookbook author posted.

They also want to see what their followers are cooking while staying at home. Gaines asked folks at the end of the video to post their own videos on Instagram as posts or stories with the tag @magnolia and #webelieveinhome.

Joanna Gaines' Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

2 cups brown sugar
1 stick softened butter (left at room temperature about an hour, still a little chilled)
2 eggs
1½ teaspoons vanilla
2½ cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
3/4 bag chocolate chips

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Add the brown sugar and butter to a stand mixer and beat on low spread until well combined but still chunky. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue to mix.
Next add the flour, salt and baking soda. Start on low speed, increase to medium and then to high speed and allow to mix until ingredients are well combined
Add the chocolate chips and mix for a few seconds on medium to high speed.
Spoon or place cookies about one inch apart (about 12 dollops) on baking sheet lined with wax paper and bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Optional: For a heartier dessert, spread an even layer of the cookie dough into one or two mini-cast iron pans, bake and top with your favorite vanilla ice cream.

Erica Chayes Wida

Erica Chayes Wida is an award-winning journalist, food writer and recipe editor who helmed a local newspaper before joining TODAY's freelance team. A mother of two, she loves singing, collecting old vinyl and, of course, cooking. Erica is forever on a worldwide quest to find the best ham and cheese croissant and brainstorms best over a sauce pot of bubbling pasta sauce. Her work has been featured on BBC Travel, Saveur, Martha Stewart Living and PopSugar. Follow along onInstagram.

FAQs

Bake until lightly browned on top, 10 to 11 minutes. Cool on the pan on a rack for 1 minute, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.

Bake at 375 degrees F until golden and crunchy on the outside, and chewy on the inside, 10 to 12 minutes. For super-chewy cookies: Substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour. Bake at 375 degrees F until golden with caramelized edges, 12 to 15 minutes.

Based on what these results demonstrated for this chocolate chip cookie recipe, for crispier cookies, aim for a 16-hour rest period or longer, and a shorter rest period for chewier cookies. For a good balance of both textures, a rest period of more than 16 hours works well. There you have it! Cookie science.

“Typically with sweets, I go all out,” she says. “If you're gonna make the cake, just make the cake.” The key, of course, is moderation. Gaines does stress that most of her family's food includes things like the nutritious vegetables and fruits that grow in their own garden—like this beautiful broccoli!

Commercially manufactured chocolate chip cookies have preservatives and artificial sugars in it, making it unhealthy and adding an unnecessary amount of calories to it.

The cookie rises: As the butter melts and the cookie's structure loosens, this frees up water, which in turn dissolves baking soda. This baking soda is then able to react with the acidic components of brown sugar, creating gases that cause the cookies to rise up and develop a more open interior structure.

Snoop Dogg's peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe - His original cookie features creamy peanut butter and semisweet chocolate morsels, making it the perfect indulgence this holiday season. #

Gray hair can be affected detrimentally when baking soda is added to it, as the natural oils will become stripped and cause breakage of dry hair due to excessive dryness and brittleness.

Using a kitchen timer will give you a ballpark amount of time for the cookies to be in the oven, but visual cues and an oven thermometer are the real MVPs. Our Take and Bake cookies should be cooked at 300 degrees for about 16 min, with a few extra minutes added if you're baking the cookies from a frozen state.

How to Tell When Chocolate Chip Cookies Are Done. Chocolate chip cookies are done when they have a firm golden edge or bottom and appear slightly set on top. If the edges become dark brown, they are overbaked. If edges aren't golden and tops are soft and shiny, bake a little longer.

350° is the standard temp for a cookie, and it's a great one. Your cookies will bake evenly and the outside will be done at the same time as the inside. Baking at 325° also results in an evenly baked cookie, but the slower cooking will help yield a chewier cookie. The outsides will be a little softer, too.

Golden brown edges - A fully cooked chocolate chip cookie will have light, golden-brown edges. If the edges are dark brown or black, you've overcooked them. On the other hand, if they're pale without a honey-brown tinge, they're not ready yet.