The Tool Martha Stewart Swears By For Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

When it comes to tips that will make you a better baker, Martha Stewart dishes them out like they are cookies. In fact, the cookbook author and entrepreneur reveals that the one way you can upgrade your chocolate chip cookies is by using a favorite kitchen tool: a release ice cream scoop.  Sure, a spoon can be easy and convenient to drop that dough onto the baking sheet, but when you use an ice cream scoop, you get the same size ball of cookie dough every time. The end result is perfectly shaped and portioned cookies that can be replicated on repeat.

But beyond the beautiful aesthetics of a perfectly shaped cookie, using a release ice cream scoop will create a cookie that has a better consistency. This means you can say goodbye to undercooked or burnt chocolate chip cookies because all of your cookies are going to bake at about the same rate. If you like your cookies chewy or soft, a uniform size is going to allow you to achieve your desired bite across the baking sheet.

What size quick release ice cream scoop should you use? It kind of depends on how big you want your cookies to be. You will notice that there is a number on your scoop that represents how many scoops you can scoop out of a quart of ice cream. The larger the number, the smaller the scoop. Martha Stewart notes in a Facebook post that for a 4-inch cookie, she uses a 2-ounce ice cream scoop which is a #20 scoop.  If that is too large, you could use a #40 for a medium-sized cookie, or if you are looking to make two-bite chocolate chip cookies, you probably want to use a #70 scoop.

Stewart shares on her website that if you don't want your chocolate cookies to spread too much, you will want to chill the dough; however, if you are using your release ice cream scoop to create equally portioned balls of cookie dough, then you want to do this before you chill the dough. Because the dough is more malleable before it gets cold, this pre-cooking step will make it easier to shape your cookies. Simply form the cookie dough with the scoop and place each scoop on the baking sheet. Then place the baking sheets in the fridge to chill for a few hours, and you will love how Instagram-picture-perfect they turn out once baked.