There are countless recipes for chocolate chip cookies – everyone seems to have their favorite, and of course there is the great debate over chewy or crispy. I have always loved chocolate chip cookies, and truth be told, I have never EVER met anyone who did not like them. They come in all shapes and sizes and textures as well. I remember driving around in the summer as a child and eating Famous Amos cookies from the brown bags they came in. There was something delectable about that crunch from such a small cookie. The very first time I had a Mrs. Field’s chocolate chip cookie was in La Jolla, CA and I was about 14 years old – friends of my parents let me have one, and to this day it stands out as being one of the best cookies I have ever had (or maybe it just tasted better because I had a major crush on their son…) To this day I have never had a Mrs. Fields that tastes as good as the ones I had back in La Jolla.
I have made many versions of this American classic, and the ones that remain chewy are preferable. In recent weeks I have turned back to baking as the weather in our new home, Abu Dhabi, has started to cool enough for me to even want to contenplate turning the oven on. I found a recipe in Cooks Illustrated for chewy chocolate chip cookies, and provided me with a full-on reason as to WHY they reminded chewy (the melted butter and extra egg yolk). I could not resist. Of course like almost every other recipe, I put in my edits. For example, I used three different kinds of chocolate from chocolate bars (which I chopped up) instead of chips. I like the uneven melting and the subtle flavor differences. I am also very heavy handed with the vanilla, and tend to cut back a bit on the sugar. I also doubled the recipe, which turned the whole thing into a bit of a math project due to the metric conversions over here. However, they are amazing, and it is hard to not eat the all of the dough from the bowl.
Enjoy!
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
4 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
24 tbsp salted butter melted and cooled
2 cup packed brown sugar (light)
2 large egg plus 2 egg yolks
3 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups chopped chocolate (for best flavor, mix up the variety with milk, semi-sweet, and dark)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 325 F and line baking sheets (2) with parchment paper or cooking spray.
- Mix the butter and sugar together in a bowl and then beat in the eggs and vanilla until well combined. Add the dry ingredients until all incorporated. Finally, add in the chips.
- Use either a measuring cup or a cookie scoop and measure out about 1/4 cup for each cookie and shape into a ball. Pull the ball apart with your hands, and rotate the hands 90 degrees so the jagged ends are facing up – then press together. Place the dough on the cookie sheet jaggedside up about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for about 11-13 minutes until about golden brown.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on a cooling rack. Makes about 16 large cookies.
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