Mo Cookies

These are big-batch chocolate chip cookies built for a crowd. The recipe scales straight up from a typical 24-cookie batch to 60, using a full pound of butter, six cups of flour, and two cups each of chocolate chips and nuts. If you’re feeding a school bake sale, a holiday cookie swap, or a family of teenagers, this is the recipe.

The dough is stiffer than most chocolate chip recipes call for. Once you’re past four cups of flour, the stand mixer struggles. The instructions are right: switch to hands at that point. Knead the last cups in gently, just until the flour disappears. Overworking the dough develops gluten and produces tougher cookies.

Because there’s no creamy ratio of brown to white sugar (this leans heavier brown), expect deeper caramel notes and slightly chewier interiors than the standard Toll House crumb. The 2:1.5 brown-to-white ratio is what produces that chewy, almost-fudgy center.

Leave plenty of space on the baking sheet. These cookies spread aggressively because of the high butter-to-flour ratio. Three inches between dough mounds is the minimum. Crowding the pan produces conjoined cookies you’ll have to break apart.

Pull them at the 10-minute mark even if the centers look soft. They firm dramatically as they cool. Cookies that look set in the oven are dry and crumbly by dinnertime.

Pro Tips

• Use room-temperature eggs. Cold eggs seize the butter into chunks and produce uneven dough.
• Toast the nuts lightly in a dry pan before adding for deeper flavor. Pecans or walnuts are classic, but cashews and macadamias work too.
• Chill the formed dough balls 30 minutes before baking for thicker, less-spread cookies.
• Store cooled cookies in an airtight container with a bread slice to keep them soft for days.

Variations

• Mix milk chocolate and dark chocolate chips for varied chocolate intensity.
• Add a teaspoon of cinnamon and a half teaspoon of cardamom for a spiced version.
• Swap one cup of flour for rolled oats for a chunkier, oatmeal-cookie-leaning version.