Chocolate Chip/Chocolate Chunk Cookies
The perfect chocolate chip cookie is a very personal thing and this can be debated for days. Some like thin and crispy cookies, while others prefer chewy cookies. Pictured here are my husband's favorite cookie. They're thin and snap when you bite into them. You would be surprised to hear what makes a cookie chewy and what makes thin crispy. Is it magic? No it's the temperature of the butter and the consistency of the batter.
Valentine's Day was yesterday and I'm sure there's a lot of candy hanging around the house tempting you. I like to chop it finely and freeze it, and take out what I need to make cookies.
"The chocolate chip cookie was invented by the American chef Ruth Graves Wakefield and chef Sue Brides in 1938. She invented the recipe during the period when she owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts. In this era, the Toll House Inn was a popular restaurant that featured home cooking." (source: Wikipedia) It is rumored that during WW2, the soldiers wrote home and asked for these famous Toll House Cookies to be shipped to them. Seems like everyone enjoys a chocolate chip cookie!
Let's get baking, you'll need:
2 cups sifted flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup melted butter
2/3 c sugar
1/2 c packed dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 c chocolate chips (more or less if you like) or chopped chocolate
This recipe if for thin and crispy cookies. Sift dry ingredients together. Don't freak, when I say sift, I put a tight strainer (small holes in the strainer) over a bowl and shake the dry ingredients thru. This will aerate and make it easier for the wet ingredients to blend.
Add the sugars to the melted butter, yes, melted not softened. This will produce thin crispy cookies. If you want chewy cookies you need to leave allow the butter to be a little firmer and it will be more a challenge to incorporate your sugar. Add the vanilla once the sugar is blended. Your batter should be smooth and light in color.
It's ok to have small lumps of butter visible but not lumps of sugar. The butter bubbles will make crispy air holes in the cookies and add character. Beat the egg before you add it to the batter. This will ensure that it's added evenly and you don't get ribbons of egg throughout your cookies.
Slowly add the dry ingredients. The word slowly is from experience where I dumped it all in at once and then had flour all over the kitchen when I attempted to stir it. Once the batter comes together, you need to add your chocolate chips. Additions to the chocolate chips could be: nuts, peanut butter chips, small marshmallows, etc. Let your creativity guide you and make the cookies your own.
Drop the cookies by teaspoonful onto a greased (yes greased) cookie sheet. This will allow the cookies to spread thin and get very crispy. Bake for 8-10 minutes and remove from the oven. Allow the cookies to cool on the cookie sheet before you take them off. They will look under baked when they come out of the oven but will set-up when they're cooled.
The hardest part of the recipe is to wait until the cookies are cool enough to eat. I can't tell you the amount of times my family and myself have burned our mouths attempting to eat a hot cookie.
A colorful addition would be mini M&Ms - adorable for a kids party.
Hints:
1) Valentine's Day Chocolate is 50% off today and will be 90% off by Sunday. It's time to buy chocolate and freeze it! Easter Bunnies make great chocolate chunk cookies (same recipe just replace the chips for chunks) and the chocolate will stay fresh in your freezer up to six months in a zip top bag. That normally lasts me until Halloween, where I again buy extra chocolate and freeze it.
2) Make this batter and put it on plastic wrap. Shape into a log and wrap tightly by twisting the ends together. The cookie log will last in your refrigerate up to a week and you can "slice and bake" as many cookies as you need. Why buy pre-made dough when it's easy and you can do it yourself. This saves money and you know exactly what is in the cookies!
3) Last hint and my favorite of all - put powdered sugar in a bowl and add Kahlua Liqueur to make a glaze. After the cookies cool, drizzle them with this addicting and yummy Kahlua glaze. Shave dark chocolate over the top of the glaze. These are PERFECT with a cup of strong espresso.
No matter how the cookie crumbs, chocolate chip cookies still are America's favorite cookie.
Enjoy!