"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookies

One episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats show featured different recipes for chocolate chip cookies depending on how you like your cookies: thin, chewy, or puffy.  I've never actually seen the episode, but I saw the recipe for The Chewy on a few food blogs and was intrigued.

This is hands down my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I'll never go back to using the recipe on the back of the chip bag again.  If you like your cookies thin and crispy or puffy you should check out Alton Brown's other recipes here but if you like thick gooey chewy cookies then make these.  Now.  They stay chewy, and the generous amount of kosher salt gives them a perfect salty/sweet contrast.


"The Chewy" Chocolate Chip Cookies
From Alton Brown's Good Eats

2 sticks butter
2 1/4 cups bread flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tbsp milk
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


1. Melt butter either in microwave or over the stove.  Cool for a few minutes.

2. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda in a mixing bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, combine melted butter, sugar, and brown sugar, mix with paddle attachment on low until combined.  Add egg and yolk, milk and vanilla.

4. Slowly add flour mixture then chocolate chips.  The batter will be fairly liquidy because of the melted butter.

5.  Chill the dough for about an hour.  This step is key, the dough needs to be cold so that when the cookies are in the oven they don't melt and spread out too fast.  If they do, they won't be thick and chewy, they'll be flat and crispy.

6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

7.  Scoop dough with ice cream scoop out onto parchment paper lined cookie sheets.  And yes, you do want to use a cookie scoop size ball of batter here.  These are big cookies, part of what makes them super chewy and thick.

8. Bake for 14-16 minutes until golden brown on the edges and enjoy with a big glass of milk.

Double Chocolate Cookies

I got a stack of cookbooks for Christmas that I'm slowly working my way through.  One of them was Flour by Joanne Chang.  She owns Flour bakery in Boston, which I've actually never been to, but I'm loving the book so far.  Brioche and sticky buns and cookies and donuts.  Everything is drool-worthy.

My husband had a work lunch from Flour bakery recently and had a chocolate cookie that was amaaazing (he snuck one home for me because he knew I wanted to try something from there after getting the book).  They're super chewy in the middle.  I suggested making them for one of his friends for her birthday.  I didn't really read the instructions before I started making them and they are pretty time consuming and I was cursing them a little while I was making them but I think they were worth it.  They're almost like a flourless chocolate cookie, there's only 1/2 cup flour in the whole batch of cookie batter.  Because there's so much chocolate in here, the quality of the chocolate is really important.  Don't just substitute store brand semisweet chips here.


Double-Chocolate Cookies
From Flour

4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely shaved
9 ounces (5 ounces and 4 ounces, separated) bittersweet chocolate, chopped or chips
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unbleached flour
4 eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp instant espresso powder or instant coffee
3/4 cup walnuts (optional, I left these out)


1. Combine 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, and butter in bowl of double boiler (or a metal bowl on top of a pan of boiling water).  Stir until melted and smooth, remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.  Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

2. Beat together sugar and eggs in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment for about 5 minutes until a light pale yellow.  Slowly add cooled chocolate mix on low speed until just barely combined.

3. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, espresso powder, shaved chocolate, the remaining 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, and walnuts.

Side note here, you can shave the chocolate with the fine part of a grater or with a microplaner.  It's kind of a pain in the ass step, it makes quite the mess (you try to wipe up bits of shaved chocolate and it just melts and smears everywhere).  I might try the recipe next time without this step or by just adding additional unsweetened chocolate to the melted mixture.

4. Fold the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula until evenly mixed.

5. Refrigerate the dough overnight or at least a few hours.  When ready to bake, set oven to 350 degrees.

6. Drop dough in 1/4 cup balls onto baking sheet.  The dough will be REALLY sticky.  It gummed up my cookie scoop and got alllll over my hands when I tried just using my fingers.  The best strategy I found was to use 2 spoons, one to scoop out the dough and one to push the dough off the other spoon onto the cookie sheet.  Don't worry about the dough being in perfect ball shapes.

7. Bake for about 15 minutes, until you see some crinkles on the tops of the cookies and the middle looks soft but not liquidy.  Cool on the cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, these will fall apart if you try to take them off too soon, you have to let the chocolate set.

Eat them warm with a BIG glass of milk!

Snickerdoodles

This is my mom's recipe for snickerdoodles. Most people think that snickerdoodles are just regular sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon and sugar. And for the most part, they are. But the cream of tartar is the key ingredient. It gives the cookies a bit of a sour bite that's unique. Don't bother with any snickerdoodle recipe that has little or no cream of tartar, it's just not the same.

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Sift dry ingredients and set aside in a bowl.

3. Combine shortening and sugar in mixer bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs and mix to combine.

4. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet.

5. Refrigerate the dough for about 15 minutes to stiffen it up.

6. Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Roll balls of cookie dough approximately 1 inch in diameter, then roll in the cinnamon and sugar.

7. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.