Get ready to make some noise in the kitchen! Sarah Kieffer’s method yields a lightly crispy exterior, with a soft and chewy center. They’re the best recipe to please any chocolate chip cookie lover!
Make Some Noise: We're Making Pan Banging Cookies!
WHO’S READY FOR SOME CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES??????
(Read in ring announcer’s voice, please).
These cookies are bound to make some noise in your kitchen. Very literally, yes. But also figuratively, too.
Ok, so what the heck does “pan-banging” mean anyway? I’m sure that’s your first question.
This recipe hails from Minneapolis-based food blogger, Sarah Kieffer, of The Vanilla Bean Blog. This recipe has been featured in the NY Times, and has yielded a cult following for Sarah and her scrumptious recipes.
The concept is really quite simple: you will literally be banging the pan that your cookies are baking on, as they bake! Let me explain a bit more.
How To Make Pan Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
After balls of the dough are placed in the freezer (a non-negotiable step), the cookies are baked for 10 minutes, at which point you’ll lift up one side of the pan (while it’s still in the oven), and drop it – creating a BANG! You’ll continue this process in intervals throughout the remaining bake time.
What this does is forces the part of the cookie that is “puffing up” (i.e. the center), to drop with each drop of the pan. That means that the center will spread out, creating the ripples you see in the photo above.
“So what will they taste like?”
Um, like heaven?
Really though, they are so delicious. They’e definitely on more of the crunchy side, since the dough continues to be flattened throughout the baking process. But they’re still slightly soft on the inside, which makes them perfect.
These cookies are definitely large! Only 4 cookies should be baked on one cookie sheet at a time, so note that this recipe will take a bit more time that your standard chocolate chip cookie recipe (and of course, will be a bit more hands on).
But believe me (and everyone who lost their minds that I served these to)….it’s so worth it.
Give this recipe a try, and let me know what you think! Thank you to Sarah for such an amazing chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Pan-Banging Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 lb unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp water
- 6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped (chips are fine, too)
Instructions
- Adjust an oven rack to the middle position. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 3 baking sheets with aluminum foil, dull side up.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the butter on medium until creamy. Add the granulated and brown sugars and beat on medium until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, and water and mix on low to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix on low until combined. Add the chocolate and mix on low into the batter.
- Form the dough into 3½-ounce balls (a heaping 1/3 cup each). I like to use my large ice cream scoop for this! Place 4 balls an equal distance apart on a prepared pan and transfer to the freezer for 15 minutes before baking. After you put the first baking sheet in the oven, put the second one in the freezer.
- Place the chilled baking sheet in the oven and bake 10 minutes, until the cookies are puffed slightly in the center. Lift the side of the baking sheet up about 4 inches and gently let it drop down against the oven rack, so the edges of the cookies set and the inside falls back down (this will feel wrong, but trust me). After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat lifting and dropping the pan. Repeat a few more times to create ridges around the edge of the cookie. Bake 16 to 18 minutes total, until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden brown but the centers are much lighter and not fully cooked.
- Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack; let cool completely before removing the cookies from the pan.