At the recent trip to the BlueStar range factory in Pennsylvania, the Accidental Locavore had the best chocolate chip cookies ever! It could have been the result of a superior oven, but hopefully they can be duplicated even in my less-than-stellar one. This makes about 24 4″ cookies. Important: the butter and eggs need to be at room temperature.
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup salted butter (at room temperature)
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2+ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)
Preheat the oven to 375°. In a small bowl, add the flour and baking soda and stir until well combined. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the butter and both sugars. Beat on medium until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs, vanilla and salt. Beat until well-mixed, about a minute. Add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.
On baking sheets, lined with parchment paper, drop tablespoon-sized balls of dough, about 2″ apart.
Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the middle, about 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet 1-2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Serve and enjoy!
My verdict: My first batch of chocolate chip cookies was good but certainly not the best ever. I felt that they tasted a little too much of sugar and that may have been because my butter wasn’t soft enough. My cookies were also a little overcooked, making them generally crispy, rather than having the contrast. I think the key here is to use really good butter (Plugra) and to have that and the eggs at room temperature. Good vanilla and chocolate chips are important. Surprisingly, the recipe I got from Ann at BlueStar is for salted butter. The second batch, with (salted) butter and eggs at room temp was much better, almost as good as the original! Now, it probably is just a matter of not having as good of an oven-sigh…
There are worse things than chocolate chip cookies to take care of that 🙂
That’s what happens when I’m left on my own too long 😉
Baking? I never thought I’d see the day…. second baking article, too! Looks yummy 🙂