Chocolate Chip Cookies 2019

Well, everyone, I think I've finally found it.  A good, basic chocolate chip cookie recipe (with my own adjustments, of course).  The original recipe itself is actually a little bit ridiculous but the proportions of ingredients is good.  I like this one because it's a half-batch recipe, since I'm never looking to make 48 cookies. Well, mostly never.  It's easy, has just a few ingredients, and I think I've mastered the small tricks that really make the difference.  Here's the original recipe which I have stolen and renamed to make my own with my bolded adjustments:


)en's Perfected Half-Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes about 18 normal-sized cookies)

7 T salted butter, softened.
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1 1/4 c. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
just about 1/2 tsp. salt (+ crushed sea salt for sprinkling later)
1 c. mixed varieties of choc. chips/pieces
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1. Bring that almost stick of butter to room temp, good and soft.  Pull out the egg as well, while you're at it.

Pinch of Yum's recipe is super finicky about the butter. She acknowledges this but still, I refuse. "Turn on oven + watch butter like hawk + turn OFF oven and let it sit for 30 min??" NO. That is madness. I've made this recipe at least 5 times recently and letting it soften the normal way works just fine for me. Also: Seven tablespoons? really? Fine.

2. Mix flour + baking soda + salt in a small bowl.

I do not require the extra flour, like Pinch of Yum says. So I just omitted that. What I do instead is scoop out the flour instead of, say, spooning the flour into the measuring device.  Maybe I get my extra flour there.  I know spooning it is supposedly more accurate but it's just so tedious so I'm glad I've found a shortcut there.

Also, why do people not add enough salt to their recipes? Why? I would argue that salt is just as important to chocolate chip cookies as the chocolate chips. I use not quite 1/2 tsp but I'm still debating on whether I should just fill that 1/2 tsp all the way up. Jury's still out.

3. Put butter + sugar + vanilla into a large bowl and, with a hand mixer, cream for at least FIVE minutes, using a spatch to scrape down periodically.  The extended creaming is important, I've learned. 

Pinch of Yum uses mostly white sugar but that sounded super gross to me so I replaced it with dark brown and it's great.

4. Add the egg and mix until well combined. 

5. Incrementially add the bowl of dry stuff to the wet and mix with mixer until combined.

6. Mix in the chips with a wooden spoon.

My favorite is using Trader Joe's semi-sweet baking pieces vs. chips.  But I ran out so I had to use a combo of a 72% baking bar + semi-sweet chips.  That baking bar was fairly bitter and i didn't want to scare off Julian too much but the combo made it pretty great, and there's just something about the way pieces are incorporated and how they melt in the dough that makes the cookies so good.  They're like ribbony layers. So chocolate chips are kind of out for me these days.

7. Using a cookie scoop, scoop out however many cookies you want to bake onto an ungreased tray.
Pinch of Yum says this makes 10 large cookies but I prefer smaller cookies so, comme tu veux.

Crush some sea salt into your hand and sprinkle over the cookies.  That salty kick will be just the ticket.  Bake at 350 for 9-10 min. 
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Now. I apologize for no "print recipe" option but I don't know how to do that.  But aside from my chattiness, this recipe really is super simple and easy.  I love how few ingredients i need and how basic it all is. I also love the shape and rise and I didn't even need to refrigerate the dough first.{celebration emoji}   Here is a pic of the cookies I made last night.  Sean's chocolate pieces he crushed resulted in some very fine bits which made for some fun chocolate-speckled cookies. Also, look at the diff between those pieces and chips.

                                                                      

Also a picture of a post-cookie Julian who is growing up, yet still can't eat a cookie without getting it all over himself, a fact I find terribly adorable and cling to with all my might.  We were almost out the door and he was like, "ok, I'm ready to go!" and I caught a glimpse of him and had to laugh. "whoa, hang on!"   Here's the face he gave me as I took his pic, exasperated not at the picture-taking, but at his own immature cookie-eating. {heart}{heart eyes} {heart, heart}