It had been way too long since I’d made chocolate chip cookies, and I still have a few must-try recipes lingering in my head. Another one can now be checked off my mental list!
Beth showcased this cookie a few months ago, and since then, I’ve seen various other bloggers vouch for it as being quite a favorite. Ok, then, it sounded to me like I needed to jump on board and get to making this! So, last week I woke up around 6:00am and gave it a whirl before our short-lived heat wave showed its face.
I upped the amount of chips (we like chocolate a bit much over here), omitted the nuts and made the cookies a bit smaller than stated, so I ended up with around 25 instead of 16. Since mine were smaller, they only needed to bake for about 10 1/2 minutes
Right away, I knew it was going to be good. My whole apartment was basking in a most excellent aroma of fresh chocolate chip cookieness. I have never had it smell that strong before- it’s gotta be the extra strength from the browned butter and a bit more vanilla than usual. Warm out of the oven, they were AMAZING. Please make sure the take the cookies out of the oven right when you notice them starting to brown and still with a puffiness in the center. They overcook very quickly. Also, these cookies are at their best the day-of. The next day, they were still quite delicious, but they did seem to harden up quicker than your typical choco chip cookie.
Give ’em a try…and let me know how they work for you! And, since Beth introduced this, I’m changing the name here for her Have that baby, too, Beth!
Beth’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, adapted from Pretty By The Bay, who adapted it from Cooks Illustrated
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
14 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 3/4 sticks)
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 3/4 cups chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line two large baking sheets with silicone baking mats. Whisk together the flour and baking soda in a medium bowl.
Put 10 tbsp of the butter in a medium skillet set over medium high heat. Allow the butter to melt for 2 minutes and begin to swirl it around the pan, allowing it to brown. Keep the butter moving so it doesn’t burn. Browning should take about 3 minutes and you’ll know it’s done when it smells nutty and it has a dark golden brown color. Remove the pan from the heat and use a heatsafe spatula to transfer the butter to a large, heatsafe mixing bowl. Add the remaining 4 tbsp of cold butter to the melted butter, and stir gently until it is melted.
Add the white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and salt to the butter and whisk the ingredients together. Add the egg and egg yolk and whisk again until mixture is smooth, 30 seconds. Allow the batter to rest for 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds more. Do this two more times; the end result should be thick and shiny.
Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined, about 1 minute. Gently stir in chocolate chips. The batter will be soft.
Form each cookie with about 2 tablespoons of dough. Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets and bake one tray at a time, 10 to 12 minutes, on the middle rack of your oven. Rotate baking sheet after 5 minutes and check the cookies at 10; you want them to be golden brown and set around the edges, but puffy in the middle.
Allow to cool on the pan for 1 to 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.