Some how I have managed to bake consistently for a few years now and never make a chocolate chip cookie. I have baked plenty of cookies, from Raisin Bran to Oatmeal, Pumpkin to Pistachio, and even some god awful banana cookies; but for some reason I've always ignored chocolate chip. Maybe because they are too common or cliched (and not made of peanut butter :) ). Because of this sad fact one of the goals of my vacation was to finally fill this huge gap in my cookie repertoire.

I was at the local Chapters (for any Americans think Barnes & Noble), flipping through Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours and was drawn to her “My Best Chocolate Chip Cookie” recipe. And before you berate me for not owning one of the quintessential baking books, I do intend to buy it (no one has come to revoke my Baker's License yet, so I'm safe for now). After reading through the recipe I decided that this was exactly what I was looking for. There was nothing complicated about it, no fancy ingredients, no fancy procedures, nice and simple, and with something like a chocolate chip cookie I believe that simple has to equal better.

I halved the recipe, but for once didn't touch the sugar. It was already proportionately less then most cookie recipes so I decided to leave it alone. However, I did increase the amount of chocolate chips by a quarter cup**** because I was getting rid of the nuts (blasphemy I know, but I wanted pure chocolate chip cookie bliss). You might notice that the amount of salt requested by the recipe is higher than normal, but trust me, you don't want to touch it, gimme another paragraph and I'll tell you why :).

When the cookies came out of the oven, they were quite thin, thin enough to see through, but they were nice and crispy around the edges and just soft enough at the centre. This was exactly what I wanted; I never make crispy cookies. Now about that salt. One of the nicest things about these cookies, especially after I increased the amount of chocolate chips, is that the taste of the salt is quite pronounced for a cookie, and the salty-sweet flavour that results is just awesome. These are definitely cookies for people who love salty-sweet (as I do), and if you're a peanut butter person, I'm guessing that this is you as well:) (Anyone want a Peanut Butter Cup?). The cookies were great right out of the oven, and just as good once they had cooled completely, and the next day. The only problem I had was trying to stop myself from eating them all at once.

~ Adam

Salty Sweet Chocolate Chip Cookies

Adapted from BAKING: From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

Recipe will yield 2 dozen (exactly) cookies with my medium cookie scoop. This number would likely double with rounded teaspoons or a small cookie scoop.

1 cup all purpose flour (130g)

½ tsp salt

¼ + 1/8 tsp baking soda (yes, I try to be that exact, it likely doesn't matter much)

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature (1 stick, 113g)

½ cup granulated sugar (100g)

1/3 cup + 2 tsp Golden Yellow Sugar (83g) ***

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips (256g)**** -- Originally listed as 3/4 cup and 256g

Preheat oven to 375F and prepare two (or more) cookie sheets with parchment paper

In a small bowl whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.

In the medium bowl of a mixer add butter and beat on medium speed until smooth and fluffy. Add sugars and continue to beat on medium until well blended (approx 2 minutes). Add vanilla and mix until incorporated. Add egg and beat until fully incorporated (approx 1 minute – if you are using the original recipe, add eggs one at a time mixing 1 minute after each egg).

Reduce mixer speed to low and add 1/3 of the dry ingredients until just incorporated, scraping down bowl as necessary. Repeat process twice more for remaining dry ingredients.

Remove bowl from mixer and add chocolate chips. With a spoon fold chocolate chips into dough.

(Compared to most cookie recipes the batter is quite thin, this is normal)

Using rounded tablespoons, spoon dough onto baking sheets (on this occasion I used my Medium Cookie Scoop) leaving approximately 2 inches between cookies (these cookies spread a lot, so this is quite important).

Bake cookies on centre rack for 10 – 12 minutes (mine took 10) rotating at the half way point (this is important to remember since these cookies are so thin), or until the cookies are brown at the edges. Cookies may appear under done in centre (not unlike Peanut Butter) but this is okay.  Allow to rest on cookie sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer to rack to cool.

Try not to transform in to Cookie Monster.

**If you would prefer a softer, thicker cookie, refrigerate dough before placing in oven. You can either put the entire bowl in the fridge or do what I like to do and spoon the dough on the cookie sheet and put that in the fridge for 10 minutes.

***Originally listed as 1/3 cup ~ Adam 28-10-10

****A bit confused? Click here to find out why ~ Adam 13-12-10