When you find a good recipe, you just know it’s good, there’s no need to keep looking for a better one. This is one of those. I have found no need to try any other chocolate chip cookies recipes since finding this one many years ago from Cook’s Illustrated.
OK, that’s not quite true. While I no longer make these chocolate chip cookies quite as often as I used to, which has been beneficial for my waistline, I have tried many variations of this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe. But I keep coming back to the original and discarding my alterations.
For awhile, I made these cookies with only whole wheat flour. And then I tried only half whole wheat flour to appease my kids. And why not try oat bran and ground flax seeds at some point? And in yet another variation, I tried some of the most popular sugar substitutes, just to see how “healthy” I could make these cookies. Obviously, that was before I realized how unhealthy artificial sweeteners were and before I had established My 5 Rules.
But in the end, it was the chocolate chip cookies with the real sugar and all purpose flour that really made my family and guests happy. And since I cook to make others happy, as well as to promote health, that’s what I’m sticking with. But now we save these chocolate chip cookies for special occasions or cheat day instead of a normal weekday evening.
Yeah, I know, this is probably the wrong recipe to even act like there was a lot of fore thought put into the ingredients and how these chocolate chip cookies might affect my health. I know there are a lot of people out there who won’t touch any recipe that has flour in it, much less white flour, but flour doesn’t bother me too much. I don’t make these cookies very often, and I certainly don’t eat the whole batch when I do, so it works out fine with my theory of moderation.
The sugar here kinda freaks me out, it’s a virtual boat load, 1 1/2 cups! But you know what makes me feel better? That the average American consumes a little over one cup of sugar a day, so as long as I eat only one or two cookies a day, I’m way better than average!
OK, there’s no getting around it, there’s too much sugar and flour in this recipe to make any claims of being remotely healthy, but they are really tasty cookies.
At least there are a few redeeming ingredients in these cookies. There’s a bunch of butter, which I firmly believe is much better for you than most doctors and medical institutions would have you believe, plus the eggs, which are always as fresh and local as possible.
If I’m being fair, I have to admit these cookies are about the worst item I make for my family, not as bad as my cinnamon buns or lemon curd cheesecake, but I’ll take just a sliver of solace in knowing that even these horrible for you cookies are still far and away less damaging than store bought cookies or even the high end gourmet cookies made with hydrogenated garbage that you may still be able to find at some local bakeries.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter melted but not still hot
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 large egg plus 1 additional egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpats.
- In a standing mixer, combine both sugars plus the butter until nice and smooth.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again until smooth.
- Slowly add all of the dry ingredients so you don’t end up with flour all over your counter.
- Stir in chocolate chips either by hand or using stand mixer for just a minute.
- If you dough seems to dry and thick, add your milk and remix the batter to thin it out just a bit.
- Use either a small scoop, or two spoons, and place batter on parchment paper or Silpat on cookie sheets.
- Bake for about 20 minutes, depending upon how soft and chewy or crispy you prefer your chocolate chip cookies.
Nutrition
And now for the bad news… the nutritional panel below is for each cookie! Not a serving of two or three cookies, but each and every one. Sorry. One last note, if you prefer soft chocolate chip cookies, these are divine! Just take them out a little bit earlier than you think you should, when they still look a little wet, but barely, and then let them cool a little, and you will have awesome soft cookies!
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