Sweet treat of the week: Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Doesn't everyone love chocolate chip cookies?  I know I do!  I like the thick and chewy kid--not the hard kind.  And never the packaged kind.  I'm picky like that!  This recipe includes a few technical details, but baking is science and if you keep this in mind and follow the specific instructions, you're sure to be pleased with the results.

Here is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe-courtesy of America's Test Kitchen.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
1 c brown sugar, packed
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (I prefer Ghiradelli 60% dark chocolate chips)

Directions:

Adjust oven racks to upper & lower -middle positions and heat oven to 325. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.  (Or if you have Silpat, this is the perfect time to use it).

Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside.

With electric mixer, or by hand, mix butter & sugars until thoroughly combined.

Beat in egg, yolk and vanilla until combined.

Add dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in chips.

Roll 1 1/2 T dough into ball. Holding dough ball in fingertips of both hands, pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, place formed dough onto cookie sheet, leaving ample room between each ball.  (This ensures that you'll have a bumpy, textured top, not the rounded tops where you can't see the chocolate chip goodness hiding below...)

Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft & puffy (about 13-14 minutes in my oven).

Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

Makes about 30 cookies.  I normally make 18 cookies when I make the dough (two cookie sheets with 9 cookies each) and freeze enough dough for another dozen cookies to bake another day.  Here's how:

Portion dough just as you would before baking and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Instead of baking, just pop those suckers in the freezer for as little as 2 hours or as long as overnight. 

Once frozen, move the dough balls into a Ziploc bag, seal, and mark with baking instructions.  (Baking instructions remain the same for the frozen dough but you'll want to add 2-3 extra minutes of baking time.) 

The frozen dough will last up to 2 months in the freezer, but I can guarantee it won't stay in there that long!

My husband chops up the frozen cookie dough balls and adds it to vanilla ice cream for a homemade version on cookie-dough ice cream.  Because the dough is frozen, there's no risk of food-borne illness due to raw egg.  Personally, I don't understand the popularity of cookie-dough ice cream--it doesn't appeal to me--but plain ol' chocolate chip cookies?  Oh yeah, I "get" it!