The World's Greatest

I first saw this recipe on the blog Good Things Catered with the claim that these were the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I'll be honest, I was skeptical. A chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate chip cookie. I made about 3 dozen of these and took 2 dozen to work and my coworkers loved them, they were gone way before lunch. Some of them did say they were the best chocolate chip cookie they had ever had. The dozen left at my house didn't last 24 hours. These definitely beat Toll House.

Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
From America's Test Kitchen



2 1/8 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
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

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside.

2. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips.

I didn't follow this next step. I just used my good old PC cookie scoop. Although I did use parchment paper and refrigerate my dough for a bit. For an illustration of step 3 click here

3. Form scant 1/4 cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough’s uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. (Dough can be refrigerated up to 2 days or frozen up to 1 month—shaped or not.)


4. Bake, reversing cookie sheets’ positions halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). (Frozen dough requires an extra 1 to 2 minutes baking time.) Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Serve or store in airtight container.

I found the trick to these cookies was taking them out of the oven before they looked like they were done. They stayed moist on the inside but slightly cruchy on the outside.