Honeycomb Shaped Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

My wife and I have been working on a chocolate-chip cookie recipe for a while now. We were trying to make soft & thick chocolate chip cookies, and apparently those are not common - most people make them crunchy and thin. We've been doing a lot for research, trying different recipes, and reading online (serious eats helped a ton). After many iterations, we found a recipe we're happy with. But I decided I don't want to stop there - I wanted to make cookies that stand out. So, I decided to make honeycomb-shaped cookies. I added chocolate discs to the bottom to add a little extra chocolate.

In this instructable I'll show you how to make the perfect chocolate chip cookies. Making honeycomb shaped cookies is much more work compared with ordinary chocolate chip cookies, so if you feel like keeping it simple, you can still use our chocolate-chip cookie recipe and get perfect results. However, making honeycomb shaped cookies adds that 'wow' effect! If you decide to follow along and make honeycomb shaped cookies, I'll show you how to make personalized cookie molds and give some extra tips on how to succeed the first time you do it.

I made a 1-minute long video to give you can overview of the process - I hope it helps!

If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear all of them!

Supplies

For the perfect chocolate-chip cookies (for 12 larger cookies):

Butter (120g / 4.2 oz)
Brown sugar (110g / 3.9 oz)
White sugar (20g)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Baking soda (1/2 tsp)
Baking powder (1/2 tsp)
Eggs (1 1/2 M sized eggs ~ 70g / 2.5 oz)
All-purpose white flour (200g / 7 oz)
Oatmeal (5 tbsp)
Your favorite chocolates (dark, white... as long as it melts and you like it, it'll work - about 120g / 4.2 oz)

You will also need:

A clean syringe.

To make a mold:

Food-safe silicone mold-making kit. I used 'Amazing mold putty'.

Step 1: Optional - Making a Silicone Mold

I wanted a high-quality mold, so I decided to use the accuracy of a 3D printer to make one. If you don't have a printer of your own, don't worry!! You can make cookies without a mold, or if you don't have a 3D printer but you do want to make the cookie mold like I did, you could find a maker nearby to print it it for you just a few bucks*

To make the mold:

Print the attached stl file.
Prepare the silicone. I used 'Amazing Mold Putty' I found on amazon. It works great - just mix white and yellow in a 1:1 ratio. You have about 3 minutes of working time, be quick and plan ahead.
Cover the printed cookie with silicone putty. Make sure it fills the honeycomb holes too. Make the mold pretty thin, the silicone doesn't tear easily, and stiff molds are annoying (trust me!).
Wait for the silicone to finalize before demolding. The putty I used takes about 30 minutes to harden.
Slowly remove the mold from the printer cookie. I had no problem with tears or anything, but be careful and take your time.

*if you use this link to order the printed part, I may get a small commission (which supports my future projects!)

Honeycomb Cookie Mold (Positive).stl
Download View in 3D

Step 2: Mix Sugar, Butter and Eggs

In a large bowl, mix the butter with the brown and white sugar until very well mixed (first image).
Add the eggs and keep mixing until well mixed (third image).

Step 3: Now Add the Rest!

Gradually the salt, baking soda, baking powder, oatmeal and flour (everything that's left besides the chocolate).
Keep mixing until everything seems well blended together. If you want, you can use your hands for this part.

Step 4: Let the Dough Rest

The logic behind letting the dough rest is so that the ingredients inside the dough have time to react. Most importantly for us, the oatmeal and flour need to absorbed a lot of moisture from the wet ingredients. This step is super important, since we want the cookies to be thick and preserve their shape during baking. This is pretty unusual for chocolate-chip cookies. Following this logic, we need to let the dough rest for a while. You might see people suggesting you put the dough in the fridge over night, but since diffusion and chemical reactions are faster in high temperatures, it doesn't make sense to me. So, I covered the dough with cling film and left it at room temperature (it was 20C / 70F) for about 6 hours. This worked perfectly!

Step 5: Make Honeycomb-Shaped Cookies!

We're ready to make cookies! This step is split into 2 versions - for those who do have a copy of the mold I used, and for those who decided to skip that part.

Cool the dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes. It'll make things easier.

If you do have the silicone mold

Take some dough and roll it into a ball.
Flour the ball of dough and the silicone mold. This will allow you to remove the cookies from the cookie mold and also make them keep their shape while baking.
Press the dough onto the mold. Make sure you press all over so that the mold is filled evenly.
Flip the mold and remove the dough. It should come out easily, and you'll get better with time. If a cookie turns out really messed-up, just roll it back into a ball.
Repeat until you're done!
Leave the cookies in the freezer for about 20-30minutes before baking.
Pre-heat the oven to 190C / 375F.

Tip - if you cookie dough warms up, it may become sticky and not as fun to work with. Just refrigerate it for a bit and continue.

If you don't have the silicone mold

Take some dough and make a ball out of it.
Flour it.
Flatten it into a thick disc (1cm ~ 1/3"). If you have cookie rings you can use whatever shape you like.
Press a pencil into the cookies to make the honeycomb. Make the holes pretty deep, because the will get shallower during baking. The pencil should be covered with a nylon bag for sanitary reasons.
Repeat until you're done making cookies!
Leave the cookies in the freezer for about 20-30minutes before baking.
Pre-heat the oven to 190C / 375F.

Step 6: Bake (careful Not to Over-bake)

After the dough has chilled in the freezer, and the oven is hot (190C / 375F), bake the cookies for about 12-14 minutes. They should have the slightest brown edges, but they should be much lighter than ordinary cookies. Trust me, they're baked! You rather have under-baked cookies than over-baked ones! The photos I attached should give you an idea of what the cookies should look like after baking.

Carefully place the cookies on a baking net or something similar so that the vapor has a way out from the bottom. Watch out, warm cookies can crumble!

Let the cookies chill for at least 15 minutes. You can put them in a the freezer for a bit until they cool.

Step 7: Fill the Hexagons With Chocolate

I used 3 types of chocolate. You can use fewer kinds if you want, or more if you prefer.

Melt the first type of chocolate. The simplest way is to put some chocolate in a small bowl and microwave it for a bursts of 10-15 seconds. Mix the chocolate between bursts until it all melts. No matter what - don't let water in! it'll ruin the chocolate.
Once the chocolate is warm, fill a syringe with chocolate and begin filling the hexagons.
After you're done filling hexagons with the first type of chocolate, melt the second type and fill more hexagons. Continue until all hexagons are filled.
Let the chocolate cool!

Tip - you can fill some of the hexagons with peanut butter as well. Also, you can make different ratios of chocolates for different people! Some may like more white chocolate, while others would like a dark chocolate & peanut-butter cookie. If you're making these with kids, they can make their own preferred ratios.

Step 8: Add Chocolate Discs

I added chocolate discs to the bottom part of the cookies. I think this is a great addition, as the cookies are not filled with chocolate. If you don't like a lot of chocolate in your chocolate-chip cookies, you can skip this part, but it's highly recommended.

Before starting this part, make sure the chocolate on the top side has completely cooled down and solidified.