Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever! (Seriously!)

There is one food I have been making for years and years, literally, and that's chocolate chip cookies. It started in ninth grade home ec when my teacher Mrs. I had us make homemade chocolate chip cookies. I adore chocolate chip cookies and they are on of my favorite guilty pleasures- No matter how dreary the day chocolate chip cookies just seem to make everything better. For years and years I had always used the recipe off of the back of the Toll House bag. It was decent enough and I always got great reviews when I made the cookies for others. Then in a moment of sheer culinary delight I found Michelle, the Brown Eyed Bakers, chocolate chip cookie recipe on her site.

I am super picky about my chocolate chip cookies, I like them chewy but thick and heavy and a little crusty on the edges. Before this recipe my favorite chocolate chip cookie was the Triple Chocolate Chunk Cookie at Starbucks, I'd rate my consumption level in the hundreds, though I always felt a little disdain towards the milk chocolate chips in there- they just didn't belong. After making Michelle's recipe I can say with 100% certainty that I will not be buying my cookies at Starbucks I will be making them myself. I have a dozen of these cookies at home that I'm getting ready to send out and I'm making another batch tonight. Yes, these are that good.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
(Source: Baking Illustrated, page 434 via www.thebrowneyedbaker.com)

Makes about 18 large cookies.

These cookies are absolutely fabulous. Michelle advises that you weigh your ingredients which I do as I got a kitchen scale for Christmas, but even if you don't have a scale don't let that scare you away. Measured or weighed these cookies are fabulous.

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (10 5/8 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed (7 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets or spray them with nonstick cooking spray. (The rack positioning is weird I know- but trust me here and do it).

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface. Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a spatula.

Enjoy!

-Jessica

A Cookie Break Between Packing, Exams and New Moon T-Shirts

Life has been crazy. Not that my life isn't always crazy- because it is. It just feels like things have been extra crazy lately. Taking exams early, packing for Vegas, skipping class to pack, making Twilight T-shirts. Ya Know. Crazy.

But no matter how crazy my life gets there will always be a few constants and baking is one of those. I was sick all week- the dreary I need to pee but the effort required to walk the 10 feet to the bathroom is to much so i'll hold in kind of sickness. Although there was some Gilmore Girls incorporated in which is why I don't mind getting sick, weird- i know. But by Thursday I saw the light at the end of tunnel and I actually left my house for the first time in like 3 days- which with the craziness my life involves is amazing that i didn't go anywhere. Truly, it was.

So by Thursday there was class, more sleeping and of course Gilmore Girls. Oh and orders not to go to class- The Vegetarian maintained that I needed to save my strength for New Moon. Valid point, besides that's what friends are for- get better cuz I'm dragging your ass to see this movie. :) Love it. But a miraculous thing occurred- I got my energy back and after throwing myself a fiesta for dinner I decided to bake.

Lets be honest and say at that point I wasn't up for much but I did manage to whip up a batch of No-Bake Cookie. And let me say these cookies were delic! They reminded me of the ones my Aunt Karen used to make. I would go down to visit her with my grandma and me and my sister would have burping contest with my cousins and she would make us cookies and play video games with us when the boys weren't there. Having typed that- Wow. What a woman to put up with all that- I sounded like tom-boy terror. haha. I was.

But Aunt Karen's cookies were always the best. I never did get the recipe, at that point i was to preoccupied playing with the boys but these cookies are incredible. Much thanks to the Brown Eyed Baker for posting these! These come together super quick and are very easy. But lack of work does not result in lack of taste. If you have 10-15 minutes to spare and a choclate craving these are the cookies for you! I halves the recipe when I made it and it yielded a dozen large cookies but this recipe doubles or even triples easily.

No-Bake Cookies

adapted from www.thebrowneyedbaker.com

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

1 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats

Add the butter, sugar, milk and cocoa powder to a 4-quart saucepan and bring to a roling boil for 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and add the peanut butter and vanilla, stiring until smooth. Then stir in the oats. Form into cookie shapes on a cookie sheet and let set. Then enjoy!