I love chocolate chip cookies. There is something ethereal about eating these warm, gooey, cookies. And everyone knows they are especially good with a glass of cold milk. I remember the first time I tried making these cookies. When they came out of the oven, I couldn’t believe just how much they rose! I thought, Wow, these are so much better than how mom makes them. However, when I took a bite, they tasted like anything but mom’s delicious ones. They tasted more like really bad mini-pancakes. I looked back at the recipe, and minutes later realized my mistake–I used baking powder instead of baking soda. No wonder they rose so much.
I have made many dozens of chocolate chip cookies and continue to look for the “perfect” one, but in the meantime, this one is one of my favorite.
My Big, Fat, Chocolate Chip Cookie
Tyler Florence
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 (8-ounce) block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper, or spray with cooking spray. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside. (Sifting allows you to get all the clumps out of the dry ingredients.)
Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks using the spatula.
To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan (or you can make them smaller for 6-9 cookies per cookie sheet). Press down the tops of the dough slightly and bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy ones.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
