The Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie

"The Chocolate Chip"

This is my blue-chip recipe; the one that filtered through the weeks on end of trying to figure out the nuances of great texture and taste for the sake of hungry cadets.  It turns out cookies that hold their shape nicely and stay soft in the center with a crispy exterior.  



All of the Basic Ingredients

The Pure Smooth & Chewy Version

2 cups of real Butter (VERY FIRM)

1 ½ cups granulated sugar

1 ½ cups light brown sugar

2 Large eggs (add the white from a third if you don’t have L or XL eggs)

4 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

12 oz Chocolate chips

If smooth and dreamy is what you consider ideal in a chocolate chip cookie, then stick to the above and you’ll be pleased.  I happen to like a little bit more texture, so over the objections of my children, I often make one of the adjustments below.

For Extra Texture:

Add 1 cup of very finely chopped walnuts – these provide a nice little bit of crunch without overwhelming the chewiness.  AND, as I tell my children, nuts are good for you!  So are cookies, but in a different kind of way.



Finely Chopped Walnuts.



Or

Back off by about ¼ cup on the flour and add ½ cup of quick oats.  Don’t overdo.  You don’t want to turn this into an oatmeal cookie, but a handful will give the texture some greater complexity if the basic recipe is too smooth for you taste.

A Note about the Chips:  Less is more!   The cookie should be the star.  Chocolate is a powerful accessory and needs to be used with decorum.  You’ll notice that my master recipe is twice the size of the little boutique batches you see from real recipe sources, but the amount of chocolate is not doubled with the rest of the recipe.   This allows you to enjoy the actual cookie with the appropriate accent of chocolate. 

Directions

Before you start, take a look at the post from March 5^th on Cookie Dough methodology for step-by-step instructions with photos.  If you want really good results, the process is critical. 

• Mix the very firm butter and the sugar – it should turn into a stiff but very tasty lump.
• Add the eggs and mix again – now it’s creamy.
• Pile in the four, soda and salt.  Then mix again until a stiff dough forms and pulls itself away from the sides of the mixer bowl. 
• Add the chocolate chips, and nuts if you please, and mix until they’re evenly distributed.



No spatula was used in the shooting of this photo!



• Eat some dough!  My mother feints at the thought of this, and I know the eggs haven’t cooked themselves since step two, but what’s life without a little risk?
• Form what’s left into golf ball sized lumps.  Don’t mash and smash – just spoon up enough dough for the cookie and get it shaped into a rough ball.  Smashing messes things up…in cookies and in life.

So, maybe they're a little bigger than golf balls.



I love the rounded cookies, In gold battalions drilled...(Free cookie recipes if you can name the misquoted poet!)



• Bake at 365 on a baking stone for 13-15 minutes.  (I know the temperature is odd but trust me.  Maybe one of these days I’ll sacrifice a few cookies at the end of a batch to show you the difference 10 degrees makes.)
• Place on a cooling rack for the time it takes the next dozen to bake.
• Enjoy and Share!  You’ll end up with about 3 dozen large cookies so generosity is a necessity.

Thanks to my neigbors Karen, Sue, Tricia, Kate and thier families for helping to eat the batch in the pictures! :-)