Timing is everything in life and lately my timing has sucked. Well maybe less my timing then the unseasonably warm winter and early spring here in New England. I really wanted to share a lot of baking as it's my true love. Heck I even took a baking course just to fill the blanks in a lot of areas. Unfortunately we're coming to a time of the year where a lot of people start ignoring their ovens in favor of grills. BUT I live in the city and have no grill so I use my oven constantly and as much as my place gets roasting hot it's worth it to turn out sweet and savory treats friends and family will rave about. So with that I present chocolate chip cookies
OK, so I'm not going to give you the whole "Toll House" history. That said, this recipe, like most, is very similar to the one on the back of Nestles morsels bag. It' more exactly Alton Brown's recipe The Thin. The biggest difference is the sugar to brown sugar ratio. As the name would imply these are thin and crispy once they've cooled (and melty, chewy goodness out of the oven). This is how I like my chocolate chip cookies. This is my "go to" bring dessert item and they are so easy to make you will give up cut and bake pre-fab dough forever
I don't wanna re-cover too much ground from the sugar cookie blog so I'll just re-cap. We are again using the creaming method so prep your ingredients. Butter- unsalted, room temperature. Egg & milk, room temperature. I can't stress these steps enough. It makes all the difference in the world and doing this ahead of time makes the whole process come together much quicker. Once again for the sake of simplicity I'll be using my stand mixer (you did go get one, right??) but a hand mixer or wooden spoon (ughhhhh) still works
Ingredients
Wetworks-
2 sticks (8 oz, 1 cup, etc etc) unsalted butter room temperature, slightly softened
1 Cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar packed (push it all the way tightly into the 1/2 cup measure)
1 large egg, room temperature
2 oz whole milk, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract (get the good stuff. It goes a long way. I use the stuff from Penzey's Spices)
Drygoods-
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels
Hardware-
Stand mixer (or hand mixer... spoon and a large bowl)
2 baking sheets (I use aluminum 1/2 sheets)
Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
small disher or scoop (I'm not sure how they size these. The one I use hold about 2 tbsp)
Step 1- Pre-heat oven to 375. Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. I'm not a sifter I just whisk them together. Combine the egg, milk and vanilla in another bowl.
Step 2- Put butter in the mixing bowl and beat with paddle attachment at low speed just until butter is softened. Add the sugars and increase speed slightly until the butter lightens in color. At this point drop the speed and add the rest of the wet ingredients. Increase the speed until well combined (probably a minute).
Step 3- Add your flour mixture a little at a time with mixer at low speed. I use an oversize spoon and add a spoonful at a time and mix until it's completely worked in. Stop every now and then to scrape down the sides of the bowl. When all the floor is incorporated I turn mixer to medium for 30 seconds to a minute. Dump in the chips and mix on low briefly to combine
Step 4- Using your scoop distribute 6 scoops per baking sheet spaced evenly apart. Don't over crowd them. Put the sheets in the oven and bake for 13-15 minutes. Halfway thru rotate the pans and move the bottom sheet to the top shelf and vice versa
Step 5- Let them cool briefly on the pan before removing to a cooling rack.
Step 6- Repeat 12 at a time until you're done. Depending on how precise you are this should yield 2 1/2-3 dozen cookies
This one is wicked simple and wicked good. The dough can be frozen for future use in a bowl (let it thaw before using) or in a log and sliced like the super market stuff. I'm telling you if you try these and go back to refrigerated logs then I'll...I'll...well just don't, OK??
