Your Search For the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ends Here.
I am a chocolate chip cookie aficionado. Of the homemade kind. They represent HOME to me, no matter where I am in the word.
For years I would jump around from recipe to recipe --- the back of the Nestle chocolate chip bag; the back of the Ghiradelli chocolate chip bag; I'd google "Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe" - much like you did, I'm sure, when you stumbled across this post.
And THEN, like magic, I discovered a recipe a few years ago which, after a few minor tweaks, changed my cookie making days forever. I've had it memorized for many moons. Rarely a week goes by that I don't whip these bad-boys together. I can go from empty mixing bowl to warm, gooey cookie in about 20 minutes.
Finally, a recipe deserving of my loyalty.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
(easily halved for smaller batch)
- 1c. butter
- 1 1/2 c. brown sugar
- 1/4 c. turbinado sugar**
- 1 T. vanilla (yes, big T.)
- 2 eggs
- 1 t. baking soda
- 1 t. baking powder
- 2 t. coarse kosher salt
- 2 c. whole wheat flour*
- 1/2 c. almond meal*
- 2-ish c. of chocolate chips
- (optional add-ins - a cup of oatmeal, splash of wheat germ, flax, or bran.)
Cream butter with sugars at high-ish speed for a minute or two. Add vanilla and eggs and beat together. Toss in salt, baking soda, baking power and mix. Add in flour and almond meal (if using) and mix until combined. Mix in chocolate chips.
Bake at 375 for 13 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
I like to let mine cool on the sheets for a minute or two before transferring to a cooling rack. I think it makes them a bit chewier.
Mmmm so yummy
*(a word or two about dry ingredients: what matters most is that you have a total of 2 1/2 cups of "flour". It can be white, whole wheat, whatever you want.
When I discovered almond meal at Trader Joe's and read on the package "use as a replacement for flour in most recipes," I figured I'd give it a go. Both the almond meal and the turbinado sugar** are OPTIONAL - you can easily replace either with flour and white sugar, respectively.
As my large number of taste testers can attest to, though, there is something about that combo of whole wheat flour, almond meal, and turbinado which gives these cookies THE most amazing texture.
The REAL magic ingredient -- the one you most definitely cannot omit if you want the recipe hunt to stop here -- is the coarse kosher salt.
Why?
Magic
1) it's measured out at TWICE what you normally see in cookie recipes (1 t. is the norm) and 2) because of its large crystal size, it stays intact during baking. When you bite into the cookie, you get these little, delicate pops of saltiness with each bite that completely change the the whole cookie eating experience.