I made Disney’s giant chocolate-chip Num Num Cookies, and they’re so good I’ll be baking them again

I made Disney’s giant chocolate-chip Num Num Cookies, and they’re so good I’ll be baking them again

12/22/2020

Tarah Chieffi

  • Disney recently released recipes for 10 of its most popular cookies for National Cookie Day on December 4.
  • One of the recipes was for Disney's Jack-Jack Num Num Cookies, based on the cookies Baby Jack-Jack loved in the movie "Incredibles 2."
  • I've had the cookies at Disneyland and Disney World before, and I made them at home to see how they match up to the real thing.
  • The cookies are so large that they look more like cupcakes, but most of the ingredients are the same ones you'd use in any chocolate-chip cookie recipe.
  • Everything tastes better at Disney, but, until my next trip, I'll be making these again and again.
  • Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

As someone who grew up in Florida and now makes a living writing about theme parks, I spend quite a bit of time at Disney World. Before every trip, I spend an excessive amount of time planning which treats I want to try. One of my favorites is Disney's spin on a classic chocolate chip cookie: the Num Num Cookie. 

If you've ever seen Disney/Pixar's "Incredibles 2", you might remember the giant chocolate-chip cookies that were used to pacify baby Jack-Jack and his unpredictable super powers. Along with the premiere of "Incredibles 2", the cookies made their debut at Disneyland's Pixar Pier in 2018 and showed up at Disney World's Hollywood Studios in 2019.

The cookies are unlike any others I've ever tried. The huge, cupcake-like cookies are packed with chocolate chunks and served up warm and fresh. To celebrate National Cookie Day (my new favorite holiday) on December 4, Disney released 10 cookie recipes from its parks, including the recipe for Jack-Jack's Num Num Cookies. I tested the recipe to see how it compares to the iconic treat from the Disney parks.

Before I got started, I rounded up my cooking supplies and ingredients.

I was pleasantly surprised to find most of the ingredients needed for this recipe were already in my pantry. Even though I always have a healthy stock of chocolate chips on hand, I did pick up the mini chocolate chips and chocolate chunks the recipe called for so I could make it exactly as written.

Finding the shallow baking cups the cookies needed to bake in proved a bit more difficult, but Amazon pulled through. You could probably also find these in a store like Hobby Lobby or a baking supply store. The recipe calls for 4-inch baking cups, but I could only find 3.5-inch, which turned out not to be a problem. If anything, it made my cookies look even more monstrous and overflowing, which is never a bad thing in my book. The more cookie, the better!

First, I chopped up my butter so I could start mixing my batter.

After preheating the oven and laying out my baking cups on a pan, I cubed one cup (two sticks) of cold butter. I scooped it into my stand mixer along with one cup each of brown sugar and white sugar.

I mixed the butter and sugars until they were smooth and creamy.

The instructions call for a stand mixer, but you could easily use a hand mixer or even your hands if you don't have one. The batter is pretty thick, so if you do use your hands, you'll need to use a little elbow grease, but it's definitely doable. 

It took about two minutes for the sugar and butter to fully come together. I mixed it on low speed until the batter was smooth and creamy.

The batter was starting to look really yummy after I mixed in the eggs and vanilla.

Next, I mixed in two eggs and two teaspoons of vanilla extract. It took less than a minute before they were fully incorporated. 

At this point, I was feeling pretty confident. I've definitely had my fair share of baking failures, but the batter looked like every other cookie batter I've made so I felt like I was on the right track.

Along with the flour, the recipe called for cornstarch, salt, and baking powder.

One ingredient I was a bit surprised to see was cornstarch. I most often use cornstarch to thicken sauces or make fried chicken, but I'd never used it to make cookies before. I did a little research and it turns out cornstarch is used to make baked goods softer and more tender.

The recipe recommended whisking together the two and three-quarter cups of flour, three tablespoons of cornstarch, one teaspoon of baking powder, and one-half teaspoon of salt before mixing with the wet ingredients.

I couldn't believe how many chocolate chips went into these cookies.

Whenever I see these cookies at Disney World, I can't get over how tempting they look. The mix of huge chocolate chunks and mini chocolate chips make them look so gooey and delicious.

I mixed one cup of mini chocolate chips and a half-cup of chocolate chunks into the batter and it was finally time to transfer the dough into the baking cups and get it into the oven.

In my experience, each baking cup held a half-cup of batter.

Once I'd stirred the chocolate into the batter, I scooped it into the baking cups. I used a half-cup scoop to fill each baking cup and then gently pressed it down by hand to even it out. I had enough batter to make nine cookies in total.

I held back the last half-cup of chocolate chunks to press into the top of the cookies so there would be lots of soft, melty chocolate on top after they baked. Then they went into the oven at 350°F for 22 minutes. I checked them at 20 minutes, but I didn't yet see that golden-brown crust around the edges, so I let them go a bit longer.

Then it was time to let them cool, but not all the way.

I let the cookies cool on the pan for about five minutes before moving them to a wire rack. I learned the hard way that it's better to move them using a spatula rather than picking them up and moving them by hand. They were still pretty soft and I almost broke the one I tried to pick up. The spatula made it much easier to safely move everything from one surface to another.

They were the best chocolate-chip cookies I had ever tasted.

At Disney, these cookies are served warm, so don't let them sit for too long! I let them cool about 10 minutes before serving them up. They were crispy and golden on the outside and soft and chewy on the inside. Every bite was packed with chocolate and I've spent every day since I made them trying to stop my kids from eating them before they've even had breakfast.

If chocolate-chip cookies aren't your thing, Disney released nine other cookie recipes for National Cookie Day. There are also tons of Disney at-home recipes you can try when you need a little bit of Disney magic at home.

My next trip to Disney is never too far away, but until I can visit again, I'll be making these cookies and daydreaming about one of my favorite places in the world.

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