Nothing, and I mean nothing, drives home a feeling of comfort, satisfaction, and childhood quite like the chocolate chip cookie. The smell of butter and brown sugar intertwining with chocolate made for a satisfying taste after a long day at school, slowing down the waning golden hours of a weekday afternoon. As much as we want to reminisce over the memories of cookies from days gone by, we have to realize that those cookies tasted better through the lenses of rose-tinted glasses. More often than not, cookies were overbaked into oblivion, clipping whatever baby teeth you had left, and tasted more like a dry cracker than a sweet treat. Enter the Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie.

The Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie is the cookie to replace other chocolate chip cookie recipes. With a slightly caramelized crispy outside and a gooey soft inside, these cookies harbor the best of both worlds. The ample chocolate alongside the structural and textural support of the walnuts makes for a bite that’s both satisfying and addictive.

Looking at the cast of characters, everything may seem unsuspecting. But there are a few slight changes in the cookie-making game. First, the cornstarch both binds and helps neutralize some of the gluten to make a softer crumb. The cold butter allows you to have more structured cookies that don’t require chill time in the freezer.

After sifting your dry ingredients together, go ahead and cream your butter and sugar together until well combined. Next, you beat in the eggs and vanilla.

Once the dry ingredients are well incorporated, add in the chocolate chips and walnuts. If you don’t want to add walnuts, you can substitute the walnuts with 1 1/4 cups of extra chocolate chips.

Now, scoop the dough out onto the prepared sheets. Here I went with the smaller ice cream scoop sizing, but you can easily make the larger portions, just use a dry 1/4 measuring cup to portion out the cookies.

These don’t need a lot of baking time, remember that while the cookies are resting they’re still baking on the hot baking sheet in a process called carryover cooking.

The centers will still look a little raw, but it’ll firm up and give you the desired texture.

The texture is spot on. It’s bulky in the best possible way, giving you a sense of substance and body, that you won’t get with those small, crisp counterparts.

With these cookies, you’re not searching for mix-ins. Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies have plenty of melty chocolate and nutty earth walnuts to counter the sweet butter cookie base.

You can even make these cookies ahead, freeze the dough, and bake them off when the need (not craving) strikes. Because trust me, you’ll need these!