However, if I am going to consume the calories, I want the experience to be worth it, and that means the texture needs to be just right. The pastry should be buttery and flaky, and the cookies must be chewy and moist. (This is why I usually find storebought cookies less than tempting, and also perhaps why I've become ever-so-slightly obsessed with baking my own once I found out how easy it was.)
If, like me, you are a fan of a chewy cookie, this is a great recipe, based on Alton Brown's infamous "The Chewy". A couple tips--using bread flour, which has more protein, in place of all-purpose flour makes for more gluten (what makes good bread chewy) in the finished product. Chilling the dough before baking keeps the cookie from spreading too much in the oven, allowing the exterior to set before the interior has lost too much moisture. Finally, an overbaked cookie will never be chewy and moist, so underbaked is best. The center of the cookie should not be completely set--try to pull the cookies when you can just pick up the edge of a cookie, and it bends, not breaks; then let them finish up outside the oven on the hot cookie sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling. If the cookie looks baked all the way through, it is already too late (sob!)
With these tips, your cookies should still be chewy goodness three days after you've baked them.
Ingredients
2¼ cups bread flour
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup sugar
1¼ cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I recommend Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet chips)
Hardware
Ice cream scooper (Alton Brown recommends "a #20 disher, to be exact", but if you don't have one, try a 1/8 cup measure or 2 tablespoons)
Parchment paper
Baking sheets
Mixer (stand or hand)
wire cooling rack
Directions
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottom medium saucepan over low heat. Sift together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
3. Pour the melted butter in the mixer's work bowl. Add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the butter and sugars on medium speed. Add the egg, yolk, 2 tablespoons milk and vanilla extract and mix until well combined. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
4. Chill the dough, then scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 14 minutes, checking the cookies after 5 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges (but not yet set in the middle). Rotate the baking sheet for even browning. Cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove cookies to a wire cooling rack. Store in an airtight container.
