Magnolia Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you love bakery style cookies that feel simple and comforting, then these Magnolia Style Chocolate Chip Cookies are for you. These are inspired by the famous cookies from Joanna Gaines’ cookbook ‘Magnolia Table’, adapted just enough to become a staple in my own kitchen. They have crisp, golden edges, gooey centers, pools of melted chocolate, and that nostalgic taste that pairs perfectly with a cold glass of milk.
As a native Texan, I am a big fan of Joanna Gaines and her Magnolia vibes. While I was in my 20s, I would travel from Dallas to Waco to visit the Silos with college friends. Everything was so inspiring, cozy, and inviting, much like the vision of “Home on Salt Creek”, which is found perfectly in these adapted Magnolia Style Chocolate Chip Cookies. I love that the original recipe uses light brown sugar and butter instead of shortening. From there I swapped creaming the butter and sugar for using cold butter and adding a hint of espresso powder to draw out the richness of the chocolate chips.
Even more, I found that pulling the cookies out of the oven while they were still soft and using a cookie cutter or mason jar lid made these cookies perfectly round and visually beautiful.
The Ingredients
All Purpose Flour: Weigh your flour with a digital scale for accuracy. This keeps your cookies coming out great every time.
Baking Soda: Reacts with the brown sugar for a rich golden color and caramelized taste.
Salt: Use regular table salt, not kosher salt.
Espresso Powder (Optional): Deepens the richness of the cookies without leaving a coffee taste. Optional but worth it!
Light Brown Sugar: Adds a complex, caramelized taste.
Butter: Use cold, cubed butter for a chunkier, more cake-like texture. I also use salted butter to balance out the sweetness of this recipe.
Eggs: Room temperature eggs mix into the dough more evenly.
Vanilla Extract: Adds sweetness. Using Mexican vanilla is extra special.
Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips: Use any combination of mini, morsels or chunks for the cookies.
How to Magnolia Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Preheat Oven:
Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Make The Cookie Dough:
In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a mixing bowl and hand mixer) mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder together until evenly combined.
Add the brown sugar and cold, cubed butter and mix on low-medium until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
Add the eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed until combined.
Turn the mixer to high speed for a few seconds to pull the dough together and make it chunky.
Fold in the chocolate chips using a wooden spoon or spatula.
Shape The Cookies:
Using a digital scale, weigh out 50 grams of dough and use your hands to form the dough into balls. (For larger, bakery style cookies, make 80 gram dough balls.)
For best results, freeze the dough overnight before baking. If you have less time, chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
Bake:
Place the dough balls on the lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes for the 50 gram cookies or 12-15 minutes for the 80 gram cookies. The tops of the cookies should be lightly browned. *Bake times are calculated with frozen dough, bake for 8-10 minutes if using room temperature or refrigerated dough.
(Optional) For a beautifully circular cookie, swirl each cooking using a round cookie cutter or wide mouth mason jar lid as soon as the cookies are removed from the oven.
Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Storage:
Store the cookies in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Tips For Making Magnolia Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Measure the flour and brown sugar in grams using a digital scale for the most accurate consistency in batches.
- You can use salted or unsalted butter, I prefer to use salted butter since the recipe calls for a low amount of salt.
- You can swap the vanilla extract for Mexican vanilla for a richer taste.
- For bursts of chocolate flavor and dimension, I use ½ cup mini chocolate chips and 1 cup of chocolate chunks.
Why Use Cold Butter? How ‘Reverse Creaming’ Works
The short answer is that it makes your cookies taste like a bakery style cookie with crisp edges and a chewy center.
According to King Arthur Baking, “using cold butter in cookies limits spread, yielding a thicker, denser texture with a soft center and crisp edges.” By skipping the process of creaming the butter and sugar together, you end up with a dough that has better structure to reduce spreading. Also the small bits of butter that melt in the oven make the center of the cookies gooey and moist.
Why Baking Soda Works Here:
Even though “soda spreads and powder puffs” this recipe relies on baking soda because it reacts to the acidic molasses in the brown sugar to produce carbon dioxide bubbles. Don’t be tempted to switch the soda for powder. When testing this recipe, I found that baking powder made the cookies taste more “chalky”.
Tips For Freezing:
You can freeze these cookies two different ways:
- Freeze the cookies after baking (once they are completely cooled).
- Freeze the cookie dough balls before baking.
I recommend freezing the cookie dough balls so that you end up with fresh, ‘just out of the oven’ taste in a matter of minutes. I have definitely microwaved frozen cookies before but sometimes you end up with a cookie that isn’t evenly heated. If you have the extra minutes, go for baking from frozen.
In order to freeze the cookie dough balls, transfer the balls to a lined baking sheet, tray, or large plastic container. Make sure the balls are not touching, or else they will stick together. Place in the freezer. Once they are frozen, you can put them in a freezer bag to clear up space in your freezer.
Magnolia Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
- Whisk
- Spatula
- Digital Scale,
- Circular cookie cutter or wide mouth mason jar lid (optional)
- Wire cooling rack
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour (300 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
- ¼ teaspoon espresso powder (optional)
- 2 cups packed light brown sugar (400 g)
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter* cold and cubed (see notes)
- 2 large eggs (room temperature)
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract* (see notes)
- 1 ½-2 cups semisweet chocolate chips* (170g) (see notes)
Instructions
Prepare the oven:
- Preheat the oven to 350℉ (180℃) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Make the dough:
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a mixing bowl and hand mixer) mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and espresso powder together until evenly combined.
- Add the brown sugar and cold, cubed butter and mix on low-medium until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed until combined.
- Turn the mixer to high speed for a few seconds to pull the dough together and make it chunky.
- Fold in the chocolate chips using a wooden spoon or spatula.
Shape the cookies:
- Using a digital scale, weigh out 50 grams of dough and use your hands to form the dough into balls. (For larger, bakery style cookies, make 80 gram dough balls.)
- For best results, freeze the dough overnight before baking. If you have less time, chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
Bake:
- Place the dough balls on the lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes for the 50 gram cookies or 12-15 minutes for the 80 gram cookies. The tops of the cookies should be lightly browned. (Bake times are calculated with frozen dough. Bake for 10-12 minutes if using room temperature or refrigerated dough. )
- (Optional) For a beautifully circular cookie, carefully swirl each cookie using a round cookie cutter or wide mouth mason jar lid as soon as the cookies are removed from the oven.
- Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
Storage:
- Store the cookies in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Using cold butter makes for chunkier dough and less spreading.
- You can use salted or unsalted butter. I prefer to use salted butter since the recipe calls for a low amount of salt.
- You can swap the vanilla extract for Mexican vanilla for a richer flavor.
- For bursts of chocolate flavor and dimension, I use ½ cup mini chocolate chips and 1 cup of chocolate chunks.
- Measure the flour and brown sugar in grams using a digital scale for the most accurate consistency in batches.
- Do not switch the soda for powder. Even though “soda spreads and powder puffs”, this recipe relies on baking soda because it reacts to the acidic molasses in the brown sugar to produce carbon dioxide bubbles.
- These cookies can be frozen for up to 1 month. Heat in the microwave for 10 seconds to warm up.
- You can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to one month.
