The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I desperately wanted an excuse to bake, so Gary's mere mention of a cookie craving last night sent me on a quest to find a new chocolate chip recipe.

I found slight variations of this recipe in many blogs and on allrecipes.com, but the Cook's Illustrated transcription on Zen Foodism seemed to have the best, and most detailed directions (recipe below).

Instead of chocolate chips, I made mine with Ghirardelli Classic White morsels, and chopped up pieces of milk chocolate Valentine's hearts from See's (what I had on hand--cheapness which I will try to pass as "creativity").





Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Cook’s Illustrated

2 and 1/8 cups (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons) bleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 to 2 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower- middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in desired amount of chips.

Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Each half will have a jagged surface where it was ripped from the other; rotate each half up so the jagged surface faced the ceiling and press the halves back into one ball so that the top surface remains jagged. (The nooks and crannies you have created will give the baked cookies an attractive and somewhat rough, uneven appearance.) Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about 9 balls per sheet.

Bake, reversing cookies sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

Makes about 18 3-inch cookies

-----------------------------------

NOTES:
- If you take a look at the pictures for these cookies on allrecipes, you'll notice the varying texture & shape outcomes. These cookies don't "melt" and spread out too much while in the oven, so you want to form your cookies into even, flatter discs (mine were roughly ½” thick, but I want to try making them even thinner next time) instead of balls. When creating your discs, try to leave a crumbly and cracked surface on the tops of the cookies to give them a nicely textured look when finished.

- Only bake for 15-17 minutes max. The edges of the cookies should just be ever so slightly darker than the center, if at all. The centers may still look a little bit soft, but will set up nicely after they cool.

- These cookies have the same texture and flavor as the ones I used to buy for 50 cents in my K-12th grade cafeterias. They have slightly crispy edges and a soft, chewy, buttery center (mmm...). This is truly one of the best cookie recipes I have ever tried.