Chocolate Chip Cookie Secrets Revealed

After many several failed Chocolate Chip Cookie attempts I can proudly say that “Victory is mine!”  Now, I am no expert at cooking but if I follow a recipe I expect awesome results.  Call me naïve, but I expected awesomeness and what I got was mediocre at best.  That was until I used the recipe on the back of a Toll House Chocolate Chip Bag and got some pointers from the internet, who would have thought…

The Ingredients:

2-1/4 cups all purpose flour (I am a King Arthur Fan)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks of SOFTENED butter, unsalted

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large brown eggs

1 package of Nestle Toll House Milk Chocolate Morsels (11.5 oz.)

The Process:

First and foremost soften the butter to room temperature.  I cut the butter into pats after removing from the fridge and put it into my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl.  I then covered the butter with both the regular sugar and brown sugar and let the mixture sit for 30 minutes.

I then took the mixing bowl and placed it in the Kitchen Aid mixer with the paddle attachment and “creamed” the sugar.  This just means beat the crap out of the sugar on speed 4-5 for a couple minutes.  As I am “creaming” the sugar I added the vanilla extract.

When the mixture is smooth, add one egg and whip it into the sugar mixture.  I was at speed 4-5 for a good couple minutes.  Once the first egg is whipped in scrape the sides of the bowl and add the second egg and whip for another couple minutes.

While the eggs are whipping, mix up the flour, baking soda, and salt in another bowl and mix with a spatula until they are well blended.  When you finish whipping the wet mixture, remove the bowl from your mixer and add about half the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and “fold”the mixture together with a spatula (by hand) working the mixture as little as possible.  Add the 2nd half of dry ingredients and fold into the batter until evenly distributed, remembering to work the batter as little as possible.

Cover the dough and place into the refrigerator for a couple hours, ideally overnight.  When you are ready to make cookies preheat the oven to 375F and place parchment paper on a cookie sheet.  I used an ice cream scoop to scoop and drop the cookies onto the parchment paper.   I was not successful using tablespoons…

Once dropped onto the pan you need to flatten out the rounded top a bit.  Billy and I just used our fingers and pushed down just enough to get an even thickness on the cookie dough.

Place directly into a 375F oven and bake for 11-13 minutes.  These are good sized cookies so you need to watch them.  They are done when the they are brown on the edges, and just cooked in the middle.  My oven has a tendency took cook unevenly so I rotated the pan 180 degrees half way through baking.  When done, remove from oven, and let rest on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes.  After they have rested you can transfer them to a cooling rack to firm up enough where you can eat them a couple minutes later.

This recipe makes 22-24 man-sized cookies, six at a time.

7 Lessons Learned from the Internet to Make Awesome Cookies:

Soften the butter to room temperature.

Whip the eggs one at a time, taking the time to whip them well.

Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just incorporated.

Refrigerate the batter for at least 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.

Use parchment paper as your anti-stick method.

Use an ice cream scoop to make consistent sized cookies.

Flatten your cookies to an even thickness after scooping.