Tuesday, December 6, 2011

OMG These Are Soooo Good Chocolate Chip Cookies


I have been mainly focussing my recipes on healthier food lately.  But I have to be honest and say that my husband and I do not eat uber healthy all of the time.  I wish I could say that, but we really just don't have the will power.  So we have instituted something called "Cheat Day".  This glorious day is what keeps our healthy eating habits alive.  One day a week we go a little crazy and then it is back on the bandwagon by Monday, in theory.  In actual practice, sometimes cheat day spills over into Monday.  This week has been a double-cheat week and with good reason:

OMG These Are Soooo Good Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sunday night at 11:30 pm my husband turns to me and says "I want some cookies!".  He knows that cheat day is about to end and he wants to squeeze in one last cheat.  Cookies sounded good to me so I obliged.  After a little bit of research, I came across what is in my apparently not so humble opinion, the world's best chocolate chip cookie recipe thanks to America's Test Kitchen.  I made it again last night for my friends and the response from them was "Oh My Gah.....! These are so good!".  So with two stamps of approval (we made them two nights in a row) I decided to post this not so healthy, but good for the soul recipe.  The ingredients are the same as any old recipe, but the ratios and execution make all the difference.



Ingredients:
2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
12 T. unsalted butter (melted and cooled slightly)
1 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 t. vanilla
1 c. semisweet chocolate chips



Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and place the oven racks in upper-middle and lower middle positions and line two cookie sheets with parchment.  Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, mix butter and sugars on med-low speed until well blended. Turn the mixer down to low and add in the eggs and vanilla until they are roughly combined and then turn the mixer up to medium until well combined.  Turn the mixer to low again and add in the dry ingredients.  Once the dry ingredients are incorporated, add the chocolate chips until they are well dispersed in the dough (about 10-15 seconds).

Now these cookies are big!  I describe them as "Brian Size" appropriately named for my friend Brian who esteems quantity just as important as quality in his food.  So keep this in mind for the next step.

Click to enlarge ;)
Take a 1/4 c. of dough and roll it into a ball.  Then pull the ball into two equal pieces to create two balls with one side of rough surface.  Bring the balls back together, rough sides facing up to make one big cookie again.  Make sure that you do not compromise the structural integrity of the rough parts when you bring the dough back together.  The purpose of this step is to create a nice crumbly surface on the cookie, do not skip this step, it is so worth it.  These cookies put Mrs. Fields AND Pepperidge Farms to absolute shame.

Place dough balls on cookie sheets and give them plenty of space, at least 2 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until the cookies are lightly browned and the edges are a little crispy (about 15 minutes for gas ovens and 18 minutes for my jenky electric oven).  Switch and rotate the baking sheets half way through.

Now when these beauties come out of the oven, you will be tempted to eat them right away because they are soooo pretty.  You will also be tempted to put them on a cooling rack.  Don't do either of those things.  Take the cookie sheets out, place them on a heat-safe surface and leave them alone for as long as you can stand it  or 10-15 mins.

Good luck!  and feel free to post comments or questions if you have them.  For all my Church friends, I am bringing these to the Relief Society activity tonight so you can try before you buy :)

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1 comment:

  1. Added an image to the post that shows how to form the cookies. Hope it's helpful :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting on my blog, I love to hear words of encouragement, experiences with using my recipes, and ways they could be improved. Keep em' coming!