Ingredients
Scale
- 8 oz. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled
- 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
- 1 c. packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 3 c. unbleached all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp. sea salt
- 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 12 ounces (2 c.) good quality semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 c. crushed walnuts
Instructions
- Using a grater, grate chilled butter into a large bowl. Make sure to scrape out butter left on grater. If butter is too warm, stick it in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Add sugars to the butter. Using a mixer, mix until just combined. Do not over beat.
- Add vanilla and eggs, and mix until just combined. Again, do not over beat.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture, and mix until just combined. Dough will look crumbly. You are right on track.
- Stir in chocolate and crushed walnuts.
- Take off your rings—you’re gonna need your hands for this. Gather dough into a large ball, as you would if you were making a snow ball. Place on pan lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. Only bake 6 cookies at a time, trust me on this. When I baked 12 at a time, they seemed to flatten out a bit more.
- Preheat oven to 375°. Meanwhile, place cookies in the fridge.
- Bake for 18 minutes or until slightly browned around edges. Cookies will still be doughy in the middle.
- Allow to cool completely before eating. They taste so much better with a rest. The doughy center will stiffen up.
Notes
• You can make smaller versions of these cookies (or rather normal-sized cookies). It will yield double the amount. Bake 8 up at a time and reduce the cook time to 13-15 minutes.
• If you’re a flour sifter, skip it for this recipe.
• Skipping the walnuts will yield a flatter cookie. Additional flour is needed. (I haven’t tested it yet without. If you do, please let me know!)
I’ve been looking for the best way to replicate Carol’s cookies and this recipe is it! These turned out perfect and I’d even say they are slightly better than Carol’s cookies!
Here are a couple things I did that are not mentioned specifically in the recipe.
4oz dough balls, then smash them just a little in the middle.–makes for giant cookies & happy family members 🙂
(only bake 4-5 at a time when the cookies are this size.)
Freeze dough balls for 1-3hrs prior to baking.
Bake on an airbake cookie sheet and with a sheet of parchment paper.
Bake for 10-12 mins, then rotate the pan 180 degrees & cook for another 8-12 mins. Pull cookies out of the oven right before the edges start to brown. The centers may still look wet and doughy, but like Melissa says, they will set.
Let them set on the pan for 10 mins, then put them in the refrigerator. (We did this so that we could eat them sooner! 🙂 )
Melissa, have you tried to make any of Carol’s other cookies, like the toffee crunch?
Thanks for adding these updates! I’m going to give it a try. You’re not going to believe this—we haven’t had a Carol’s Cookie since we moved away from Chicago, but found them at our Minneapolis Whole Food’s this weekend and snatched one up! We bought chocolate chip but will try the toffee next time!
Oh funny timing! You might need to make a batch of your own again!
I just pulled a few of the cookie dough balls from the freezer to bake tonight and I was looking at the recipe and just realized I completely forgot to put in the brown sugar!! I’m going to remake the recipe with the brown sugar and see if it makes a difference.
But, without the brown sugar they were really good, so I can imagine the brown sugar only makes them better. 🙂
hi Melissa, you mentioned needing extra flour if you skip the nuts. Do you know how much more flour? I’m just not a fan of nuts I try to save all the limited cookie real estate for the chocolate 😉 thanks a lot!
Hey Taylor! I haven’t tried it without yet, so I can’t give you an exact amount. I would start by adding an extra 1/4 cup. Let me know how it works!
Made these and they turned out perfect! They taste just like a Carol’s cookie…texture wasn’t exactly the same, but my husband actually said he liked these better than Carol’s! 🙂
Those look very good! I just posted my verson of Chocolate Chip cookies and have been checking out other blogger’s recipes! I love how many cooking bloggers there are these days! Between the blogs I follow, my own blog and Pinterest I better upgrade my internet package! {hehe}
Off to look at your beautiful blog more….
🙂
Hi Martha,
I tried the recipe and for some reason they’re turning out huge. I’m only putting 4 cookies in a pan and they’re spreading over 6″. The cookies are still thick though. Roughly how many inches are the snow balls that ypu make? Was watching Carol on YouTube and her employees are making massive snowball size cookies.
I still can’t get mine to look like a”bun”. Your help would be greatly apprecisted!
Thanks
Jassim
Hey Jassim, the cookies are usually about 2.25″ in diameter before baking. They spread to a little over 3 inches while baking. Hope this helps!
Hi Martha,
I was actually baking the cookies at 12AM, and my problem didn’t start until 1 AM imagine the hysteria and delirium happening all at the same time. It was comedy hour in my kitchen yet I was screaming as oppsed to laughing…anyway, I emailed you at 1:30AM my time hence all the typos!
Thank you so much for your lovely post! My fam is going nuts over these cookies (and let me tell you they’re extemely happy that the cookies are 7″ big).
Keep up the great work!
Jassim
*extremely! lol…
I forgot that I bookmarked your 1.0 recipe a while ago, and just found it again and am excited to try your 2.0 recipe! I’m also obsessed with Carol’s cookies, my favorite’s the toffee one, soooo good. Thanks for giving me plans for the long weekend 🙂
I have made these twice now and they are fantastic! I’ve also tried the recipe with less sugar and it just doesn’t compare. These are the kinds of cookies that when I bite into them I say, ‘damn that’s a good cookie. I can’t believe I made that.’ My husband can’t stay away from them. I’ve followed your blog for a while now and really appreciate it!!! I’m hoping to try your decorator cookies for Thanksgiving.
Whitney, your comment made my day! I love the response these cookies evoke. They make me cuss too 🙂 Hope you love the decorator cookies just as much!
Well I made these yesterday, and I’ll be keeping this recipe! I did have to lower the oven temp just a tad and only bake them for 15 minutes as they were getting too brown. They’re sweet, thick, and delicious though!
So glad you liked them!! Isn’t that crazy that ovens are so different. It seems like half the battle of baking is knowing your oven. Happy cookie eating!
I’m so excited to try these soon. They’re very attractive!
I’ll be back to let you know how fast they were eaten 🙂
Please do tell. Happy cookie making/eating!
Looks delicious! Of course, ALL your recipes do! xx
You are the sweetest Lisa!
These look delicious. Very interesting how you grate the butter, I might try that. Either way, they look great 🙂
Grating, melting, creaming—they all turn out a different consistency. I wish I knew the science behind it all!
Those look so good! I love your blog! 🙂
Hazel
Thanks for stopping by! I love your name by the way! So pretty.
Those cookies look so soft and chewy!
And dense. Very dense!