This may be my favorite recipe. Outside of myEveryday Whole Wheat Bread, it’s the one I use most often. And I have to tell you from the get-go that these arenotyour ordinary, everyday chocolate chip cookies. I mean, they ARE—I make them all the time, keep them in the freezer, and we make our way through them on a daily basis—but, also, they aren’t.

They’re BETTER. These puppies are chock full of three kinds of chocolate—THREE KINDS, people. They are made with a mix of all purpose and whole wheat flour, ground flax meal, and ground walnuts to give them a fabulous flavor, whole grain, and nutritional boost. (You know I am ALL about that nutritional boost.)

If, even for a moment, you’re thinkingAhhh…I don’t think any of my people will like whole wheat cookies, I’m just gonna have to stop you right there because even though these little gems have the good stuff in them and are laden with nutritional value, no one would ever accuse you of trying to trick them into eating some health-food mockery of a cookie. There is nothing healthy tasting about these—they are sweet, buttery, chocolatey cookie nirvana. Which, really, is the best trick of all.

但是,对我来说,将这些转化为oh-my-god-I-can-die-happy-now cookies are the dried cranberries. That touch of tart amidst the sweet? Complete and utter PERFECTION. Once I started putting cranberries into these cookies, I never looked back. Much to the dismay of my 15yo, who says every time I make them, “Did you put cranberries in themagain?” Yes, kid. Ialwaysput cranberries in them. EVERY time. You live here, you know that. It’s the best part.

Not that it deters him, mind you. He’d still eat his weight in cookies if I let him.

I had thought this recipe was pretty perfect and had been happily baking it for years, and then about 4 years ago I stumbled across a post on Serious Eats called “The Science of the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies.” And while the article goes into all this way-cool chemistry about which ingredients yield specific results (allowing you to tailor your own recipe to your desired outcome), the resulting recipe is waaaaaay too much work in my opinion.

However, the article did inspire me to make one major change: to let the cookie dough rest in the fridge for a day or two before baking.

Okay, Iknowwhat you’re thinking—what insanity is this? who has that kind of will power?—but hear me out. These cookies are GOOD baked straight away, but they are GREAT if you wait a day. If you scoop all the dough into a container and let it sit in the fridge at least overnight, all sorts of science-y things start happening with enzymes and proteins, and you can read all about that over atSerious Eats, but the short of it is this: letting your cookie dough rest improves the flavor of your cookies like you wouldn’t believe. They gain this amazing toffee flavor that is OHMYGODINCREDIBLE.

I tested it out because I was skeptical at first. Does it really make THAT much of a difference? (Spoiler: It does.) So I baked a tray of cookies out of the batter right away, let them cool, then put them in the freezer. A day or two later, I baked the rest of the cookies. I put those in the freezer, too, because I wanted the cookies to be tasted under the same conditions. Tasting a freshly baked one vs. a cookie from the freezer isn’t exactly starting out on equal footing. So the next day, I took out one of each kind of cookie, let them thaw, then tasted them.

The difference was absolute. While the fresh dough had apremonition, a mere whisper, of toffee to it, that hint metamorphosed into a full-bodied, glorious, buttery toffee flavor in the rested dough. We’re talking the difference between the pretty caterpillar and the gorgeous butterfly, the I’m-happy-to-share-this-with-you and the I-will-stab-you-with-a-fork-if-you-touch-mine. Color me SOLD.

It takes planning (admittedly not one of my strengths), but it is SO totally worth making the dough ahead of time and refrigerating it. This resting of the dough isn’t just for chocolate chip cookies, of course. You can use this tip for any kind of cookie you’re making. You know, if you can stand to wait.

The other secret to baking these up to perfection is to underbake them. Yep, you read that right. You want them to be slightly gooey on the inside when you pull them out of the oven so they’ll maintain a bit of chewiness once they’re completely cooled. If you bake them thoroughly, they’ll be hard when cooled. Not that they won’t still be delicious, of course. Nothing wrong with crunchy cookies, and if that’s your jam, go for it. But I prefer my cookies to be a little soft and chewy.

These cookies, these buttery, crispy-chewy cookies are a little bit of heaven with the toffee flavor amidst all that chocolate and the sweet-tart of the cranberries. They are everything that’s right with this world, you guys. Seriously.

Even better, they can easily be made gluten free by using a one-to-one gluten free baking flour. AND they can be made vegan, too, by swapping out the butter and eggs for their vegan counterparts.

Can it get any better than this? I’m thinking probably no. And, hey, if this looks good, you should totally check out Bec’sButtermilk Chocolate Chip Crumb Cupcakes, herGargantuan Cinnamon Roll(it’s the size of a CAKE, people!), and these dangerousDecadently Delicious Beer Brownies.