Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is a tutorial on how to bake the basic chocolate chip cookie. These cookies come among some of the most requested things for me to bake, not only by my family but often anyone who has tried them. The thing that I don't get is cookies are really easy to make, and also really easy to screw up. If you miss a step or don't mix them long enough you will have a totally different cookie than you would if you mixed it too much or just enough. Mixing the cookies is a big part of cookie perfection, so is baking time for that matter. I feel like cookies are all to easily overbaked and then they turn into little rocks with chocolate in them. That is not good eats for anyone. Also bear in mind that the chocolate you use is going to change the flavor of the cookie tremendously so if you want to up the yum factor a bit try switching up brands and levels of sweetness. I like to use Ghiradelli  and Guittard when I bake cookies. So I hope my few cookie baking tips help you out because when chocolate chip cookies are done right nothing can beat them. NOTHING!

First step is assembling your ingredients. I find it best to have them all laid out so you know you have everything and you don't forget the all important salt or baking soda.

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup AP flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt (I use kosher)
1 cup UNSALTED butter at room temp (very very important)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (not imitation if you are going to make cookies make them taste good)
1 pkg (12 on) chocolate chips ( I substitute 1/3 cup each of semi sweet, milk, and dark chocolate chips)
1 cup walnuts *optional but they do make the cookies better in my opinion.

Next step is all about preparation. You need to preheat your oven to 375' having a hot oven waiting for you is crucial for a crunchy bottomed cookie with a soft tender middle.  Then you need to prepare your cookie sheets you can either use a silpat or cut parchment to the size of your sheet and just place it in no need for extra grease or butter. If you properly prepare your cookie sheet you will have cookies that come off without breaking almost every time.

Then comes the mixing. If you don't have a stand mixer save yourself some heartache and use a hand mixer don't try and cream butter and sugar by hand unless you want to be there all day.

Cream the butter and sugar together until the color changes to a light yellow almost off white color. This means that the butter and sugar are fully incorporated and they won't be grainy to the touch. Once this happens you can add your eggs one at a time lightly beating until incorporated then add in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl sift together the flour, soda, and salt and whisk lightly to make sure they are well combined.  Then add in the flour mix to the creamed butter mix one serving spoonful at a time making sure to scrap down the sides of the pan and get it all mixed in. After it is all mixed in the mixture should still be light in color and texture. Then you can add in your chips and walnuts and mix by hand using a rubber spatula as to not break up the delicate morsels of chocolate with the high powered machinery.

Then using a small ice cream scoop portion out 1 dozen on each cookie sheet (this recipe makes aprox. 4-5 dozen cookies.) If you are only making a few then put the remaining dough on plastic wrap and roll into a roll and you can refrigerate or freeze for as long as you need them but they won't last long. You can just slice them as you need them.

Once they are all doled out and in there final resting place put them in the hot oven for 8-10 minutes turning once to assure even cooking. Then take out of the oven let them rest for at least 5 minutes (they usually only make it to about 3 minutes) before eating or transferring to a cooling rack or plate.

I hope this helps the cookie baking dilemmas and I hope you make and eat these cookies because they truly are the best.

Enjoy!
Krystle