Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These cookies made their rounds on all the major food blogs a while ago, but I’ve posted them here anyway because they’re that good. I have a goal of finding the best recipes for certain foods and this, in my opinion, is the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are chewy, so if you like your cookies crispy you may not be a big fan, but for me they’re just the way I like a cookie.

There’s an unusual method for making these cookies “thick” as it says in the title of the recipe, and at first I found most of the instructions for how you’re meant to make the ball of dough a little confusing. Essentially, you take a ball of dough, separate it into two balls, and then stack the two balls on top of each other and press them back into one ball. It seems counterproductive, but it works. In addition, you can use either light or dark brown sugar with this recipe. I’ve tried the recipe with both and I slightly prefer the light brown sugar, but the dark brown sugar still makes great cookies.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yields: about 18 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm

1 cup brown sugar, packed

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1- 1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.     Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2.     In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.

3.     Add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, and butter in another bowl. Mix together either by hand or with an electric mixture until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

4.     Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla to the sugar mixture. Beat until the ingredients are combined.

5.     Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture. Mix until just combined.

6.     Add the chocolate chips. Mix until well distributed.

7.     Take a scant ¼ cup of dough and roll it into a ball. Break the ball into two equal halves. Rotate the half in your right hand so that the jagged side where the dough was separated from the other half points upward. Rotate the half in your right hand so that the jagged edge of that piece of dough points downward. Press the jagged edges together making the two halves into a single ball. If the dough looks uneven don’t smooth it out. Repeat for the remaining dough.

8.     Bake for 12 – 14 minutes, until the cookies are a light golden brown and the edges have hardened but the center is still soft.

9.     Let the cookies cool on the sheets. If you try to remove them too soon they may fall apart.

10. Once the cookies have cooled on the sheet you can then transfer them to a cooling rack.

Source:  Annie's Eats, from Baking Illustrated