Like Strawberry Wine...

How is it possible?  In 4 years of writing this blog I have never posted a recipe for a plain old chocolate chip cookie - ever.  They’ve always had peanut butter or pretzels or oatmeal or something else taking away from that tried and true pure Chocolate. Chip. Cookie.

Obviously that had to change, and stat.  And I decided to go big…Baking GALS Round 33 gets these Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies.  And lucky them.  Forget those old school Nestle Tollhouse, or god forbid…Chips Ahoy (yikes!).   This should forever be your go-to recipe.  These particular cookies are huge,  I mean seriously honkin’ but you can always make them whatever size you like.  From the brown sugar to the extra yolk and the melted butter, these are some of the richest, most flavorful I’ve ever had.  The recipe calls for semi-sweet chips.  I felt like a big cookie called for a bigger piece of chocolate, so I went with chunks and I think it worked well.  Let’s get down to business so you can go hit the kitchen…like now.

Don't worry - I ate this one.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups, plus 2 tablespoons All-Purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
12 Tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar (I used ½ of each)
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1-1 ½ cups semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS:

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325º.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

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

3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, 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 ¼ 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. (I skipped that part and used a ¼ cup cookie scoop)  Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 ½ inches apart.

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden brown 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 for about 10 min.  Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a wide metal spatula.

Recipe adapted from Baking Illustrated