Home » Seasonal Cooking » Fall » Canal House Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
4.8 from 49 reviews
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A couple of weeks ago, a friend told me she had checked out Canal House Cooks Every Day from the library and described it as the loveliest cookbook she had seen in a long time.
Middle child that I am, afraid to miss out on any fun, I immediately followed suit. That night by the light of my itty bitty book lamp, I poured through every chapter, making mental notes of ingredients to purchase and recipes to try, feeling more wound up with every page I turned, finally closing my eyes to a photo of a sheet pan lined with chocolate chip cookies, the last beautiful image in the book.
The following morning, before even thinking about coffee, I set butter out to soften and turned to the recipe, credited to Katherine Yang, a New York City pastry chef. When the Canal House ladies sought Yang’s guidance for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever, Yang passed along this one, a thin and crisp variety, one that perfectly balances that irresistible salty-sweet dynamic — there’s no need to top these off with any flakes of fancy sea salt.
Crisp on the edges, chewy in the center, buttery with chocolate chunks throughout, these delicate cookies are enough to convert the thick-and-chewy-chocolate-chip-cookie lover in me forever. They are delectable. Even Ben, who never does any heavy lifting in the dessert department, eats them by the half dozen and swears he could eat them by the whole. I wouldn’t put it past him.
While I know the last thing many of you need is another cookbook, I am confident none of you would regret this addition to your libraries. And while these chocolate chip cookies, as simple and classic and timeless as they are, in some ways perfectly capture the spirit of the Canal House cooks, they aren’t perhaps the best reflection of the cookbook.
With chapters organized by the months of the year, the book’s recipes are driven by the seasons, not only its produce gems — peas and favas in the spring, squash and apples in the fall — but also its preparations — grilled salmon in the summer, braised brisket in the winter.
Be warned: If you acquire it soon, it will make you seriously regret having not visited more pick-your-own strawberry farms this past May and might make you feel you squandered asparagus season entirely. But don’t despair: you will redeem yourself soon, vowing to make every tomato recipe in the August chapter.
The book is inspiring to say the least. It will make you want to hang your pots and pans from the rafters and tie up your apron with pride every time you set to work. It will make you covet your mother-in-law’s china collection and make you want to scour flea markets (or have a field day at Fish’s Eddy) for vintage serving platters. It might inspire you to clear off your kitchen table and break out your pasta roller. It might make you a pickler, a poacher, a preserver.
As you read the vignettes, you’ll find yourself daydreaming about how you might get into mushroom foraging this fall, and although you’ve felt quite lazy in recent months, you think you might even consider peeling — yes, stalk by stalk — your asparagus next spring. And if your pleasure reading gets interrupted one more time, perhaps by a disagreeable toddler throwing himself at your feet, you might find yourself wishing to be nothing more than a duck floating along the canal ready to snatch up bread and any other nuggets tossed out the Canal House studio’s open French doors. Ahhh, where would we be without our dreams?
Canal House Thin and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star
4.8 from 49 reviews
- Author: Alexandra Stafford
- Total Time: 31 minutes
- Yield: 15 to 20
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Description
Adapted from Canal House Cooks Every Day
Notes: For best results, make this batter and store it in the fridge at least 24 hours prior to baking and up to 1 week in advance.
I like to weigh (so anal, sorry) my cookie balls before baking and find that 1 oz (28 g) is a nice size for these cookies.
Also, if you like thick-and-chewy chocolate chip cookies, try these.
Ingredients
- 10 ounces room temperature high-fat butter, such as Kerrygold
- 1¼ cups (298 g) dark brown sugar
- ¾ cup (149g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or extract
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt*
- 2 large eggs
- 1¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons (265g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 8 ounces chocolate chips
*It seems like a lot, but go for it…I even use salted butter, and the cookies are not too salty.
Instructions
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla bean paste, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs and mix on medium speed until blended, about 2 minutes.
- Whisk the flour and baking soda together, then add to the dough, continuing to mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in the chocolate chips. Using a spatula, quickly mix the dough, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Remove the bowl from the mixer. Portion the dough into balls weighing about 1 oz (28 g) each. For best results, store the dough balls in the fridge for at least 24 hours prior to baking and up to 1 week in advance.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Once heated, place the balls, about 4 inches apart, onto the parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake until golden brown, 10–11 minutes. Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 11 minutes
- Category: Cookie
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
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Meg Ryan —Reply
I love this recipe! They come out exactly as I like them and no recipe has ever compared. I just have 1 question. Do you refrigerate each individual ball wrapped up or the whole bowl? What’s your process because I refrigerate the bowl and then just Scoop out the cold batter (returning the bowl to the refrigerator in between batches).
Thank you!
Meg Ryanalexandra —Reply
Hi Meg! I do like to portion out the batter and then refrigerate the pan of portioned balls in an airtight container. But there is no right way to do it! If you like your method, you do you 🙂 🙂 🙂
Patrick —Reply
Hi, sorry for the late comment/question.. just came across your recipe today and was wondering if I would be able to substitute the butter w brown butter (melted).
(sorry if this has already been asked/answered)
Patrick —Reply
Actually my bad one last question. If I wanted to add chopped walnuts to the recipe do I need to change the measurements for any of the other ingredients to accommodate the addition of the nuts?
alexandra —Reply
No need to change the measurements of the other ingredients!
alexandra —Reply
Hi Patrick! Sorry for the delay here. I have never tried brown butter here, but I would imagine it would work. Don’t skip the chilling-of-the-dough-balls step. Let me know if you give them a go!
Cindy —Reply
2cups sugar?
want to use white sugar only,like you suggested? Ok ?alexandra —Reply
Hi Cindy! I think you can definitely use 2 cups of white sugar. Keep in mind, the high amount of brown sugar in this recipe will promote the chewiness in the final cookie. So if you use white sugar only, the cookies might be a little crisper.
Jannie —Reply
I’ve searched far and wide for these cookies! They were crispy on the edges and chewy in the center. The texture was perfect. They were delicious. Thank you!!!!
alexandra —Reply
So great to hear this, Jannie!
dirk —Reply
Cut the salt by 1/2, pretty good cookie.
Gillian —Reply
These are by far the ugliest and most delicious cookies I’ve ever made. My mixer’s bowl is too small, so I did mix them by hand and see from your other replies previously that this may have been the cause of the spread I managed to get (a hilarious first batch is now “cookie bark”, heh). While mine don’t look like yours in that they’re flatter, even lacy with holes in some of them and very brown all over, they aren’t overcooked and retain a lot of chew with the faintest bit of crunch around the edge. Just how we like them! I’m eagerly waiting on feedback from the step-kids, but since we’ve been eating the less pretty ones (that’s really saying something!), I already know they’re awesome! I did use an entire 10oz. bag of chips/chunks, which I know changes the weight of my cookies. I found 20-21 grams made a nicer sized cookie taking my spread into account, baked for 8 minutes in case that helps anyone.
The yield was certainly a surprise; and I’m glad, because boy are these calorically dense! I just kept making more and more balls… Ultimately, I had 42 cookies I managed to bake, some at 28 grams, and several at 21 grams. I still have about 16 left in the freezer for later baking. Yes, this recipe made 58 cookies for me; that’s a lot of cookies! I’m glad I can inflict these on other people since it’s Christmas, otherwise I’d be in trouble. 😉
alexandra —Reply
So great to hear all of this Gillian 🙂 🙂 🙂 I appreciate you sharing all of your notes, too — so helpful for others. And yay for having frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer. That is the BEST feeling. Happy happy holidays to you!
AS —Reply
The texture of this dough was a nightmare to work with. Just insanely sticky in my mixing bowl, and then after chilling overnight, somehow both so firm it was hard to scoop while still being insanely sticky.
But! It’s all worth it. this might be my new all-time favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Baked up the texture is perfect. Super thin, super chewy, crispy around the edges. The dough is so flavourful, I almost enjoy the bites without chocolate chips more.
I use a medium cookie scoop, because I could not imagine rolling up this dough with my hands and my best batch was baked closer to the 11 minute mark then the 10 minute.
I accidentally transposed the brown sugar and white sugar amounts, so I threw in a tablespoon of maple syrup to make up for the decreased amount of molasses, and it worked really well.
alexandra —Reply
So nice to hear this! The dough is tricky to work with. So glad your efforts paid off in the end!
AS —Reply
I’ve made this recipe a number of times now and it’s definitely one of my favourites.
I use a medium cookie scoop to portion out the dough, freeze the dough balls, and then put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer.
They bake up from frozen in 11 to 12 minutes and I bake three to six of them at a time. It’s really nice having fresh cookies, plus doing it this way means less risk of eating an entire batch in one sitting.
alexandra —Reply
Oh I love this idea so much! Thanks so much for writing. That’s brilliant. Nothing better than freshly baked cookies.
Susana Cotto —Reply
My husband just bought me this Canal House book. I also have their Cook Something. You are so right Ali about how reading and looking through these books makes you feel. It’s beautiful escapism for people like us who have a true love of food and cooking. I have all their other volumes on my wish list. Oh and this recipe is on my list to do. I also want to try their chicken and rice recipe you posted.
alexandra —Reply
I just love those Canal House ladies so much 🙂 🙂 🙂 So glad you feel the same. Hope you love the cookies!
Gina Wilson —Reply
I know this is a year later. But I came across this recipe. I want to try it. After you chill the dough. Do you let it come to room temp before baking. Or do you take it out of the frig and put it right in the oven? Thanks so much. I have been looking everywhere for a good thin but not crispy cookie recipe. I am definitely gonna hint to my husband I want this book as well. hahah.
alexandra —Reply
No need to bring to room temperature! Just form the balls, chill them, then bake them straight from the fridge. Hope you love these!
Joel S —Reply
Wow! I’m somewhat of a baker and have my own go to cookie recipe. I’ll never go back after eating these. These came out INCREDIBLE.
I had a couple differences and they came out perfect. I used kerry gold unsalted 8 ounces butter, not realizing it was only 8. I added 2 ounces regular salted butter. Every other ingredient was per instructions and weighed out on a food scale to be precise.
I did NOT refrigerate at all. I immediately began scooping out 1 ounce drops and baking. Every single cookie spread out evenly and left a crispy edge with a chewy interior. Absolutely incredible product. My wife says these are easily the best cookies she’s ever had and that’s saying a lot as my original cookie was the family favorite. This recipe made about 50 cookies for me.
alexandra —Reply
Oh yay! Wonderful to hear all of this Joel!! I’m so happy you skipped the fridge step and baked them immediately … so much easier. Really appreciate you taking the time to write and share all of this.
Jennifer —Reply
Perfect! I’ve been looking for a cookie like my mom made when I was little. Mom lost the recipe, but this is it! All my friends wanted these cookies when they came over. We called them, “greasy cookies”. Unappetizing name, but who wants a dried out cookie? They turned out marvelously!
alexandra —Reply
Oh I love this! Greasy Cookies is a totally appropriate title 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much for writing!
Teresa Hale —Reply
please help! i don’t have a standing mixer or paddle attachement, and i’m ready to bake. i just have regular ol’ mixer. what should i do? thanks!
alexandra —Reply
Hi Teresa! I’m likely getting here too late … what did you do? If your butter is soft enough, a regular mixer should be fine!
Tasia Harper —Reply
I used this recipe and added a few white chocolate chunks, as well as additional sprinkling of salt before baking and oh my gosh… the best best best cookies I’ve ever had. My husband and I ate them all in one day. Hated myself for that but gosh they were amazing. 🤣
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
Oh yum!! Love this idea so much. Will definitely try next time around — I love white chocolate and I LOVE salt, so these additions are right up my alley. Thanks for writing!
Amanda —Reply
Holy. Crap.These are SO delicious! I had to tinker a bit to get them to bake properly (I think this is related to issues I sometimes run into related to the difference in Canadian flour!) Even after chilling in the fridge for 48+ hours, I had the most success baking them from frozen. I really feel that Canadian AP Robin Hood flour is just a bit different and sometimes we have to adjust a bit. Hopefully this helps some other Canadian bakers! These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made, and honestly I think I’ve tried them all 😉.
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
Oh yay!! So nice to hear this, Amanda 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thank you SO much for writing and sharing your notes. It is so interesting how different the Canadian flours and US flours are, and I so appreciate you experimenting with different cooking methods. In some ways, baking from frozen is ideal — how nice to have a stash of frozen cookie balls on hand? So great to hear you loved them … they’re my favorite, too. Hope all is well xo
Ivana —Reply
Best Choco chip cookies ever – been making them for about a year and they’re always gobbled up by the fam. I don’t refrigerate the dough and it’s fine. I also use less salt – I’m a fan of sprinkling with salt flakes for texture if I want an additional saltiness, otherwise it’s a great great cookie and my kids love making them too. But really don’t over bake these guys …. Learned that lesson the hard way LOL!
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
So great to hear this, Ivana! I love the addition of flaky sea salt on top as well… will try that here next time. Thanks for writing!
Bean —Reply
Hi! I tried this for the first time last night, baked a few cookies immediately and while they spread out they were a little bit too thin, with none of the nice crinkle on the edges in yours. I figured I should refrigerate them, then woke up this morning to try to bake them for work. Even directly from the fridge they spread out like crazy, and I had the weird issue of raw dough in the middle, but the cookies burning from the bottom. I had to chuck them :/. I did use regular unsalted butter instead of Kerigolds, but it was at room temp. I didn’t change the amounts of any ingredients, any ideas what I might have done wrong?
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
So sorry to hear this, Bean! I am a little stumped. Did you weigh the ingredients? Or use the volume amounts? It sounds as though your dough needs more flour to prevent the spreading.
T —Reply
Used 1/2 the amount of table salt, dark muscovado sugar.
These were the best cookies I have ever eaten, and also have a beautiful hue.Alexandra Stafford —Reply
So great to read this! Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes. I love these, too.
A —Reply
This dough was bizarre. I hesitate to call it dough because it’s so soft and fluffy and sticky, resembling softened icecream. There would be no way I could roll these into balls. I even second guessed myself, wondering if I left out an ingredient. Admittedly I did use the volume measurements and regular stick butter. I scooped out balls using the purple cookie scoop, chilled them, and hoped for the best. These cookies are great. The taste, the texture, so good and totally worth it!
Darcy —Reply
Hi! This is probably rare but I prefer my chocolate chip cookies with minimal chocolate chips haha! If I use half the amount of chocolate chips, and mini semi-sweet chips instead of big chunky chips, will that impact the outcome of the cookies? These look delicious so I’d love to still use this recipe! Thank you 🙂
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
Darcy, I think it should be fine! Go for it 🙂
Julian —Reply
Absolute best thin and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe online. I have been searching for what I consider to be my ideal chocolate chip cookie recipe and this is it! I wish I could share the picture. They’re perfect. Thank you.
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
So nice to hear, Julian! Thanks so much for writing 🙂
Janet Mullinax —Reply
This is exactly the kind of cookie recipe I have been looking for…my cookie holy grail! Everyone who tried them loved them!
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
Great to hear, Janet! Thanks for writing 🙂
Sarah —Reply
I’ve been searching for these cookies my whole life. I love chocolate chip cookies but I prefer mine really non-cakey- the flakier and butterier the better. These deliver in every way. They’re definitely not the typical cookie but are way better. I normally have to add extra chocolate chips to recipes to make up for the lackluster “dough” but I added extra here and almost wish I didn’t. I don’t have brown sugar so I added two tbsp of molasses and just used white sugar. I also froze the dough balls. My only suggestion would be that if you like raw cookie dough like I do, use less salt bc the dough itself is a little salty although the cookies are OK.
Alexandra Stafford —Reply
So nice to read all of this, Sarah 🙂 🙂 🙂 Thanks so much for writing and sharing your notes. I don’t love a cakey cookie either.
Betsy —Reply
They are too soft from the butter to make into balls and weigh. Trying putting them in the frig. and will try again to make. So sad!
