Food

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Does your mom wear socks? Well knock em' off with these cookies.

I'm stepping up to the plate this year (oven, to be precise) to bake my way into my loving mother's good graces with some serious chocolate chip cookies. I'm going to overnight them from California to New York just in time for a sweet Mother's Day surprise. Hopefully you live closer to your mother than I do to mine, but however near or far, cookies are a great way to her heart. I'm going with arguably the #1 best cookie recipe from Cooks Illustrated. Give it a go and let me know if you agree...

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
These truly chewy chocolate chip cookies are delicious served warm from the oven or cooled. To ensure a chewy texture, leave the cookies on the cookie sheet to cool. You can substitute white, milk chocolate, or peanut butter chips for the semi- or bittersweet chips called for in the recipe. In addition to chips, you can flavor the dough with one cup of nuts, raisins, or shredded coconut.

INGREDIENTS
2 1/8 cups bleached all-purpose flour (about 10 1/2 ounces)
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), melted and cooled slightly
1 cup brown sugar (light or dark), 7 ounces
1/2 cup granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 - 2 cups chocolate chips or chunks (semi or bittersweet)

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

3. Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough's uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined 20-by-14-inch lipless cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month -- shaped or not.)

4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets' positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

(photo credit: gettyimages)

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From the Community…

Comments 1-4 of 4
  • blackbird106's Avatar
    Posted by blackbird106 Wed May 7, 2008 2:17pm PDT

    There is a chocolate chip cookie recipe on foodtv.com called My Big Fat Chocolate Chip Cookie. I took this recipe and substituted half of the white flour with whole wheat and used chopped chocolate istead of chips. Those were the best cookies EVER!

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  • funnymama08's Avatar
    Posted by funnymama08 Wed May 7, 2008 7:37pm PDT

    That looks scrumptous!! I will try it!

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  • patvenis@att.net's Avatar
    Posted by patvenis@att.net Thu May 8, 2008 6:03am PDT

    They sound wonderful, but I don't understand the pull in half, put back together part.....Help?????????????

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  • Joan's Avatar
    Posted by Joan Thu May 8, 2008 1:01pm PDT

    I so agree with many of you. Sounds so yummy but, fingertips, pull apart, jagged surfaces???? What? Been baking for over 40 years and this one has me puzzled. Making them Saturday, hope my way of forming the dough won't ruin this recipe!

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Comments 1-4 of 4

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