Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Surviving Halloween has never been a problem for my diet. For some reason, I find candy in any form, including chocolate, eminently resistable. However, if you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know my weakness--baked goods. Pies, pastries, cookies, they all make me weak in the knees  (and in the backbone).

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.

Brown Sugar Cookies

These are also known as the Coma Cookies...diabetics need not apply! The recipe comes from the March 2007 issue of Cook's Illustrated, and it's always been a big hit for gifts, bake sales, and just a little dessert now and again. It's also another great pantry standby because all the ingredients are things I commonly keep on hand--plus, they're really easy and fun to make!

The brown sugar combines with the browned butter for a rich, caramel-like flavor. I tend to go for a chewier cookie, so I add an extra few tablespoons of melted (not browned, since some moisture is lost in browning) butter.

Ingredients:

• 14 tbs unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)(I add the remainder of the second stick of butter for a chewier cookie)
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (about 1 3/4 ounces)
• 2 cups packed dark brown sugar (14 ounces)
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (about 10 1/2 ounces)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp table salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 tbs vanilla extract

Hardware

• stainless steel saucepan or skillet
• 2 cookie sheets
• parchment paper (although aluminum foil does in a pinch)
• heatproof bowl
• medium to large mixing bowl
• spatula
• shallow dish or pie pan

Instructions

1. Heat 10 tablespoons butter in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes. Continue to cook, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl. Stir remaining 4 (6 for chewy cookies) tablespoons butter into hot butter to melt; set aside for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large (18 by 12-inch) baking sheets with parchment paper. In shallow baking dish or pie plate, mix granulated sugar and 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, rubbing between fingers, until well combined; set aside. Whisk flour, baking soda, and baking powder together in medium bowl; set aside.
3. Add remaining 1 3/4 cups brown sugar and salt to bowl with cooled butter; mix until no sugar lumps remain, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula; add egg, yolk, and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, about 30 seconds. Scrape down bowl. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined, about 1 minute. Give dough final stir with rubber spatula to ensure that no flour pockets remain and ingredients are evenly distributed.
4. Divide dough into 24 portions, each about 2 tablespoons, rolling between hands into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Working in batches, toss balls in reserved sugar mixture to coat and set on prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart, 12 dough balls per sheet. (Smaller baking sheets can be used, but it will take 3 batches.)
5. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned and still puffy and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone; see photo below), 12 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking. Do not overbake.
6. Cool cookies on baking sheet 5 minutes; using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.