If you love a soft, classic chocolate chip cookie, these are for you!

I am quite sure that the sentence “these cookies have too much vanilla and are GROSS” has never been uttered in the whole of human history. 

The limits of this theory were put to the test in this recipe, where the secret ingredient is instant vanilla pudding mix!

Yes! Pudding mix IN A COOKIE!!

I have had instant vanilla pudding mix in two baked goods prior to this recipe: in these pumpkin muffins, and in a rum cake which will likely never be featured on this blog unless I am making it for a party, because I do not trust myself to be home alone with an entire rum cake.

ANYWAY. Historically speaking, I’ve found the addition of instant pudding mix to baked goods doesn’t have much of an impact on the flavor, but makes said baked goods very pleasantly soft, and also acts as a kind of preservative so they stay fresh for longer. (This is good if you are a person with abounding self-control who eats a batch of cookies over, say, a week and not in 1.5 days.)

When I learned people use the vanilla pudding mix trick in their chocolate chip cookies, I had to jump on the bandwagon!

And it did not disappoint:  These are the softest homemade cookies I have ever had. 

They actually might be the ideal chocolate chip cookie. Their shape is perfect (they don’t flatten out, but also don’t get really puffy); their consistency is right at the midpoint between dense and fluffy; and their flavor is every bit as buttery and sweet as you would hope.

I did sample the cookie dough (a no-no, I am aware!), at which point I could distinctly taste the pudding mix, and was doubtful that the final product would be successful. But after baking, the pudding mix is completely undetectable!

I am a big fan of a secret ingredient. It makes it so fun when people ask what’s in you cookies, and you tell them vanilla pudding mix, and a lot of excitement and disbelief ensue!

Adapted from Allrecipes.