The Real Deal About Making Hershey's Cookies
I've been making these cookies for years and I keep seeing people obsess over getting them exactly right. Here's how you actually do it, without the nonsense most recipes add. You need 1 cup butter (softened, not melted), 1 cup brown sugar packed, half a cup white sugar, 2 eggs, 2 teaspoons vanilla, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, half a teaspoon salt, and one 12-ounce bag of Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips. Some people argue about the chip brand but honestly it doesn't matter much unless you're trying to replicate the exact Hershey's experience, in which case use their chips. Cream the butter and sugars together for about 3 minutes on medium speed. This isn't just a suggestion. Under-mixing here leaves pockets of dry flour that bake into gritty spots you'll find in every other cookie. Over-mixing after adding the flour is what makes your cookies tough instead of chewy. Stop mixing the moment the flour disappears. That's it.
Here's something most recipe sites won't tell you about this particular recipe: the chocolate chips matter more than the flour ratio. Hershey's chips have a slightly higher cocoa butter content than some store brands. When they melt in the oven they create these little pools of chocolate between the chunks. If you substitute generic chips, your cookies will spread differently and taste flat by comparison. I learned this the hard way during a batch where I used grocery store generic chips and the cookies came out dense and waxy. Swapped back to Hershey's on the second attempt and the texture changed completely. Mix in the eggs and vanilla, then gradually add the dry ingredients. Fold in the chips last. Scoop onto an ungreased baking sheet. Space them at least two inches apart because they spread a good deal. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 9 to 11 minutes. They should look slightly underdone in the center when you pull them out. They continue cooking on the hot pan for another minute or two after removal. A common problem I run into is inconsistent oven temperatures. My last oven reads about 25 degrees too hot according to a thermometer. I baked these at 375 and the bottoms burned while the centers stayed raw. The fix was dropping the temperature to 350 and checking at 9 minutes instead of waiting until 11. Every home oven varies. Get a cheap oven thermometer and calibrate from there.
For storage, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature. They stay good for about 4 days. If you want them softer longer, throw a piece of bread in the container with them. The cookies absorb moisture from the bread and stay softer. It sounds ridiculous but it works. The bread goes stale and the cookies stay fresh. The main limitation of this recipe is that it produces about 4 dozen cookies and most people don't need that many. If you're baking for a small household or just yourself, consider halving the batch. The chemistry works the same either way as long as you maintain the ratios. Don't try to halve it and then adjust other ingredients individually. Just reduce everything by half and follow the same method.
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