The temperature of the butter is a pretty controversial topic among cookie-bakers: too cold and it won't cream properly with the sugar, and too warm and the cookies will flatten out too much in the oven. Ideally, the butter should be just below room temperature, and slightly firm but not hard. But because of a special little trick you'll use in a minute just make sure the butter isn't too hard to beat properly.

Beat the butter for about a minute on medium speed until it's smooth.

Add the sugars to the bowl.

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat on medium speed until they're well combined (about 45 seconds), scraping down the sides of the bowl now and then to ensure everything is incorporated.

Add the flour, salt, and baking soda to a separate bowl and whisk them together to ensure the baking soda and salt are evenly distributed through the flour. Dump the flour mixture into the butter mixture.

Mix on low speed, just until the dry ingredients are incorporated completely.

Remove the bowl from the stand mixer and dump in 2 cups of your favourite chocolate chips. Traditional chocolate chip cookies are made with semi-sweet chocolate chips, but feel free to experiment with dark unsweetened chocolate or even milk chocolate if you're so inclined.

Mix the chocolate chips into the cookie dough by hand using a rubber spatula. This will prevent the stand mixer from breaking up the chocolate pieces into the dough. A nice, gentle mix is best at this stage.

Try to resist the urge to grab a spoon and start shoving cookie dough in your mouth, and begin rolling the dough into balls about 1.5 tablespoons at a time.

Once 60 minutes have passed, remove the baking sheet from the fridge and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. While the oven is heating up, line another baking sheet with parchment and arrange the cookies about 12 to a pan so there's adequate space in between them. They spread out a fair bit during baking.

Bake each pan for about 10-11 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies brown ever-so-slightly. It's a good idea to watch them after about 8 minutes of baking.

Let the cookies cool on the pan for several minutes until they firm up enough to transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy them with a glass of milk while they're still warm and the chocolate is still nice and soft.