Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am jumping on the chocolate chip cookie bandwagon several months late. I, too, have been on the quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, and I have found it. Yet the perfect cookie never goes out of style; it is timeless and is wholly without bandwagon.
Now, in the cookie battle, I choose to plant myself squarely in the "chewy" camp--I like a cookie that is buttery, soft, and rich. I also don't like too many chocolate chips, just enough to dot the cookies with little morsels of goodness. This recipe, which some claim appeared in Cooks Illustrated and which others say has been a family favorite for years, definitely fits the bill. It is soft and gooey, even hours, nay, days out of the oven. The extra egg yolk, it is said, contributes to richness and chewiness without making the texture gummy (sometimes an unintended side effect of egg whites), and the melted, rather than softened and creamed, butter helps the cookies stay chewy for a while (yes, melting the butter is essential!).
I used Ghirardelli milk chocolate chips because I really like a nice sweet chocolate and thought that the milk chocolate chips would add to the overall richness of the cookie. And believe it or not, this brand is only zero to ten cents more expensive than Toll House morsels. Trust me, it's worth it; these cookies were absolutely delicious. Now, I'll warn you--the recipe makes a big cookie, but you cannot skimp. I'm as health conscious as anyone, but the consumption of chocolate chip cookies is not the time for calorie counting. Enjoy a nice big, fat, chewy cookie. If you must, have half, but please, please do not reduce the size of the cookie in the recipe. It makes a difference, y'know!
You won't believe the number of recipes I tried before I stumbled upon this one. But behold! Buttery goodness! And then, the recipe.
Adapted from Allrecipes.
Makes 18 cookies.
280 grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup light or dark brown sugar
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1-2 cups chocolate chips
** Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. **
1. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt.
2. In large bowl, combine sugars. Add butter and stir with wooden spoon for a few seconds until well blended.
3. Stir in egg, egg yolk, and vanilla. Be sure that all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Add dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
5. Gently stir in chocolate chips.
6. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 20 minutes.
7. Drop dough by 1/4 cupfuls onto a greased baking sheet (9 cookies on the sheet, about half the dough).
8. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes, until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges--don't even let them set in the middle.
9. Cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes to allow cookies to firm up.
10. Place cookies on wire rack to cool, and repeat with remaining dough.
11. Store any leftovers (say what?) in an airtight container with a slice of bread to preserve chewiness.
8 comments:
wow this looks like my dream chocolate chip cookie! i'm part of the oily/chewy camp myself. =)
you stir all the ingredients? no mixer?
That is correct! No mixer required; just stir until everything is well blended. How easy is that? :-)
Your recipe calls for either 1 cup or 2 cups of chocolate chips???? I am like you and do not like an excess of chips - which amount did you use? Thanks!
tatoosue - I used about a cup for these cookies. Usually, though, I do not measure add-ins in recipes; I just stir them in until I think there are enough. The reason that I wrote the ingredients that way (1-2 cups) is that there are people who absolutely love their cookies chock-full of stuff, but it's all up to personal preference. Hope this helps!
Thanks so much. I plan to make the recipe with the lesser amount of chips. Have a great week!
the consumption of chocolate chip cookies is not the time for calorie counting. - best sentence ever. :D
I'm definitely a chewy cookie kind of gal, too, so I'm going to bookmark this one.
I've also been on the search for the perfect cookie. I like how pale and buttery these look. Delicious!
All this talk of the perfect cookies on the foodie blog network has made me itch to try some new recipes. I picked this first... and now I don't need to try any more. You truly have found an amazing and quite perfect cookie. Soft and chewy with a little background crunch (might've baked 'em too long). Gonna go find me a glass of milk to finish the cookie I just started. :)
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